Bloomerism
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Bloomer + -ism, after women's-rights advocate Amelia Jenks Bloomer (1818–1894).
Noun
[edit]Bloomerism (uncountable)
- (historical, sometimes derogatory) Support for equal rights for women; an early form of feminism, especially in relation to dress.
- 1851 July–December, Thomas Snarlyle, “Bloomerism: A Latter-Day Fragment”, in Punch, volume XXI, page 217:
- A mad world this, my friends, a world in its lunes, petty and other; in lunes other than petty now for some time; in petty-lunes, pettilettes, or pantalettes, about these six weeks, ever since when this rampant androgynous Bloomerism first came over from Yankee land. A sort of shemale dress you call Bloomerism; a fashion of Sister Jonathan's.