They Even Dressed Cupid

They Even Dressed Cupid - Norman A. Rubin

There is a strong tendency in the use of clothes to attract and sustain
the interest of the opposite sex. Throughout the ages of fashion there
were two modes - one towards daring concealment and the other towards
open display, which is determined by the basic fashion of a set
period.
Fashion emphasizes the sexually interesting parts of the female body.
It may be partly or completly exposed or drawn tightly over it. Their
lines of ornamentation readily points to the sexual display, whether it
be subtle or otherwise. The fashions of today enters a new stage, which
seeks to arouse interest in a new erogenous zone, namely the
'peek-a-boo sight' which, reveals the 'buds of beauty' on daintily
covered 'twin orbs'. And in the show of well endowed buttocks in
prominent show through a strip of bikini, or the wearing of
tight-fitting clothes that displays the 'derriere' to the delight of
the male oglers.

"When dressed for the evening the girls nowadays, scarce an atom of
dress on them leave;
Nor blame them; for what is an evening dress, but a dress suited for
Eve."

For ye heathen voyeurs, the Early Christian Church had called the laced
openings to woman's bodices 'the gates of hell'. But the sinners
rejoiced in the fifteenth century as these lovely gates opened a trifle
wider, when the upper half of the breasts were exposed. During the
jolly period of King James I of England, they were thrown wide open,
when young unmarried women uncovered the whole of their 'Mounts of
Lilies'. (In that period of time young girls married at the age of
sixteen, and the bare rose nipples indicated virginity as well as
nubility.) Yet, for the older lasses of the time they dressed
themselves with tight fitting bodices that displayed their
'decolletage', as well as most of their 'bubbies' quite
prominently.

"Adam was the first man that is what we believe, One morning he was
filleted and introduced to Eve;
He had no one to tell him, but he soon found the way, And that's the
reason why we are looking today."

When men are dragged along to a ballet by their demanding spouses, they
enjoy the dancing of delightful ballerinas. But they come into a shock
at the sight of male dancers in tight-fitting costumes with the
prominent display of the bulge of their genitals. Off course, the women
are quite pleased with the sight.

But not Chaucer, in his 'Parson's Tale', (c-1400), the author
complained more about men's clothing that of the women's dress. At that
time men's clothing were scandalous scanty, to short to cover their
shameful members. Chaucer's criticism fell on a remarkable article of
masculine attire, the 'codpiece'. It was actually a flap in front of
the men's hose, forming a pouch. For fashion some of the daring had
them padded to suggest a permanent erection. Sometimes the 'bon
vivants' had them coloured differently, often made of silk and even
decorated with ribbons even gold and jewels (where the term 'family
jewels' is derived.)

"And now we come to the time when the 'Mrs. Grundys' persuaded
designers to put Cupid in skirt, caused women to bathe in garments that
took twelve yards of fabric..."

During the Victorian era, women engaged in tennis played in long tight
gowns that touched the ground. A riding habit for a woman conisted of a
top hat and a tight, long-waisted, fitted jacket with a bustle, coming
below the knees and worn over breeches and top-boots. When a woman's
bathing dress conisted of wide pataloons, and a thick, roomy,
long-sleeve blouse reaching to the throat.... and bicycle skirts were
weighted with lead to keep the drawers hidden.

"In roughly the same period French moralists were denouncing
against the modest dress of their country's young women, with
their 'abdominable' collars, gaping and ruffled and their
breast open to public view. 'Oh intolerable crime, O
pernicious scandal." - Girdle of Chasity, 1931

In 1852, gynecologists posed a very delicate question in advocating
that women wear drawers. Women, at this period had found these garments
immodest and unfeminine by women of fashion, who in consequence almost
never wore them. Southern belles were not impeded by undergarments
under their hoop skirts, until the day when Sherman marched through
Georgia, and pantelets became in fashion for necessity. Today we try to
figure out what a Scotchman wears under his kilt, but in those times
when a lady-of-fashion dressed in crinolines lifted her dress, she felt
a soothing updraft. It was only in the 1860's that lacey draws were
accepted, provided they were ankle length and quite decorative.

"Sir William Harman wrote in 1864, that 'women alighting into
omnibuses, servant girls cleaning door-steps, and virgins at windy
sea-side watering places, all show their 'ahem, ahem' _______ on
occasion."

Since 1900, when ladies went shushing down the slopes in ankle length
skirts, and a corset and full-length stockings were 'de riguer' with a
bathing dress, the costumes for women active in sports and for swimming
have steadily become more hygienic, less restrictive, and more daring
in revelation.

Wimbledon has long been the setting for daring innovations in tennis
costumes. An American, Gorgeous Gussie Moran, in a daring public show
played the game by wearing unusually scanty lace drawers under her
short dress. In 1962, a fellow American tennis player stitched a
Confederate flag to her undergarment; another woman scandalized many
spectators by wearing shocking-pink drawers under a flapping 'twist
dress'. Henceforth the Wimbledon directors decreed, it would be a
condition for entry that participating players (mainly women) wear
white. And, what I see today on the Sports Television, women players
certainly wear white on their brief (and sometimes slit) tennis
outfits).

"Set your hoop, shew your stockings, and legs to your knees, And leave
mean as little as may be to guess."

Today, there is little left to the imagination. Cupid is naked again
and so are the women that are slowly following the way of the Valentine
god of love. Fashion of the near future, will emphasize the tantalizing
display of large creamy smooth breasts with tender rosebuds. According
to the 'Fashion Television Broadcast' of France, the demand of
beautiful women is for thin revealing lacey (preferably black) fabrics
on top of their luscious bodies.
And, no longer in that sphere, the delectable 'flesh cushions' would be
covered with tight-fitting clothing to reveal their ample contours.
Beautiful women demand that their rather flimsy undergarments under a
loose skirt should be of one that flashes a glimpse or two of the
female attributes.
Still, in the good old summertime, clothing is a rarity amoungst
charming ladies. The bikinis of today are simply thin strips of cloth
that barely cover their forbidden (except to the man of her choice)
'Garden of Delight'. And in many fashionable beaches, topless is the
word (and in rare delight, nudity can be seen and enjoyed).
As to the well-built gentlemen, their fashion requirements are almost
similar to the women-folk, namely to show their manly jewels, be it in
a tightfitting cloth or in a stringed bathing costume.