Rebellion Through Clothing
Throughout history, women have made significant political and social statements through their clothing and attire. From wearing dresses entirely composed of raw meat (Lady Gaga) to clothing made from recycled plastic to apparel with hidden anti-war messaging among the pleats of fabric, these women are subject to vocal criticism and/or praise from their community members and the media around them. Clothing as a form of expression and rebellion is notably seen throughout the novel Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton.
Margaret the First takes place in 17th century Europe, based on the life of Duchess Margaret Cavendish, a significant author/poet/playwright of the time. Margaret was expected, in this era, to be a complacent housewife and leave writing and philosophical studies to the men. Women’s rights were not abundant in this time period, and women who broke societal norms often saw themselves ostracized and outcast. Margaret found herself in this position as she started publishing more of her works and becoming more vocal about her ideology on the world. As more attention was drawn to her for the disruption of gender roles, Margaret started to embrace increasingly outlandish and unheard of fashion styles, ordering custom made dresses to suit her fancy, donning tall, extravagant hats, and wearing celestial-shaped patches on her face. Sometimes Margaret wore somewhat revealing clothing, showing more of her breast in public than was the acceptable norm at the time, and other times she dressed in typically male attire. One of her outfits was described as, “a gown embroidered with glass Venetian beads, red-heeled shoes, a cavalier’s hat, an eight-foot train, a man’s black juste-au-corps”(Dutton 148). Clearly, Margaret had an unmatched sense of unique style for the time. The townspeople of London received the clothing creativity with scorn and mockery, appalled a woman would bring such attention to herself.
However, despite the negative attention, any publicity is good publicity, and she was all anyone in London talked about. Through this period of infamy, Margaret’s writings reached a broader audience than ever expected of a female writer. Her ideas soon became debated among important intellectuals of the time, and she even received commendation from the King himself. Simply wearing unusual clothing placed her name and her writings into the hands of a variety of new people. Margaret was oft to say, “I had rather appear worse in singularity…than better in the mode”(140). She prided herself on her individuality and believed conformity was a plague among people.
You’ve made great points about the political nature of clothing throughout history. Margaret is deeply concerned with what she wears, relating how she presents herself to her internal dreams. For instance, she impulsively orders a gown even though her husband is in debt, saying “she was struck just after midnight by the vision of a gown–a dress for the North Pole!— the first she’d dreamt up in ages. And very early, in a kind of violent compulsion, too eager for her husband’s consent, she sent off an order for three bolts of bright blue silk…” (Dutton 103). Her fashion sense indicates Margaret’s powerful imagination. Like you point out, she not only sets herself apart from others by wearing things outside of the current fashion, but dressing directly against gender norms. Most notably, she wants to portray the power of the Amazons by dressing in a gown bearing her breasts at the theater. She becomes a “femme forte… a woman dressed in armor” (140). This confidence to go outside the norm mirrors her contradicting personality: she is confident and completely true to herself in her writings, but closed off and shy when talking to others. Like her writing, Margaret uses her gowns to express herself and make a statement without speaking directly. Through them, she became a local celebrity, “Mad Madge”. She always dreamed of being famous, but I think this novel ends up becoming a tragedy, as she is mocked in society while alive and is now forgotten in death.
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