The Hawaiian Star, ‘Divided Skirts’

The Hawaiian Star, ‘Divided Skirts’

Hawai’i
women
clothing
riding,
Indigenous women
customs
feminine
masculine

This small section of the newspaper talks about tourist’s reactions to seeing Hawaiian women ride astride on horses rather than how European women typically rode side-saddle. Seeing this was particularly shocking for Western women as it had been more favourable for centuries for women to dangerously sit on the side of the horse to come across as more lady-like or to protect their valuable hymens if they were virgins. Though white women watched indigenous ladies ride on their horses properly and comfortably in awe, they do believe that these women were riding ‘man fashion’. This perhaps made Hawaiian women come across as masculine which would not be the first time that foreigners had undermined these women by describing them as manly in history. Nevertheless, it seems from this article that riding astride is picking up in popularity during that moment in time. (This image was provided by University of Hawai’i).

Hawaiian Star Newspaper Association (1893-1912), Honolulu [Oahu], Hawai’i.

Library of Congress, Chronicling America

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015415/1893-06-15/ed-1/seq-6/

15 June 1893

Emma Azid

Library of Congress, Chronicling America.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

English

Textual - printed newspaper

19th century Hawaii