{"id":65058,"date":"2015-02-03T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T14:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=65058"},"modified":"2015-02-03T16:53:36","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T21:53:36","slug":"the-leotard-from-trapeze-to-disco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2015\/02\/03\/the-leotard-from-trapeze-to-disco\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Only Women, Wrestlers, and Weight Lifters Wear Leotards."},"content":{"rendered":"

I am so grateful to reader Emma Farais for recommending that I look into the history of the leotard. It was invented by — well, who else — Jules\u00a0L\u00e9otard.<\/p>\n

Born in 1842, Jules grew up to be\u00a0an acrobat. He is credited with inventing trapeze and\u00a0performed with French circuses. He invented and then\u00a0began performing in leotards and he was a big hit. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The original leotard was an all-in-one knitted suit. It allowed freedom of movement, was relatively aerodynamic and there was no danger of a flapping garment becoming entangled with the ropes.\u00a0Even more importantly, it showed off his physique to its best advantage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He was a huge<\/em> hit with the ladies. Alas, he died at age 28. Or 32, depending on the source.<\/p>\n

But the leotard lived on. Leotards were\u00a0adapted for women, but the form and function were similar. Think vintage muscle men\u00a0and women<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jules\u00a0L\u00e9otard, circa 1850 (left); Circus Strong Man and Women, circa 1890 (right):<\/em>\"4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Male dancers, athletes, and thespians wore leotards well into the ’70s<\/a>. Eventually, though, disco happened. Disco fashion emphasized leotard fashion for women, as this roller disco shot<\/a> from the Empire Rollerdome reveals:<\/p>\n

\"2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Oh, to be a roller disco queen in ’70s Brooklyn. Sigh.)<\/p>\n

Men eventually abandoned leotards as they became\u00a0increasingly popular with women. We saw the same pattern, of course, with high heels<\/a> and cheerleading<\/a>: male flight from feminizing fashions and activities.\u00a0The more women wore leotards, the less men wore them. Eventually, companies stopped making leotards for men altogether.<\/p>\n

To the disappointment\u00a0of all the (het) ladies, I’m sure.<\/p>\n

Today, a Google Image search<\/a> for leotard returns all ladies. Mostly girls, in fact. Not a guy in the bunch:<\/p>\n

\"4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I can only think of two arenas in which leotards for men still hold sway: wrestling<\/a> and professional weight lifting<\/a>. And, now I guess we know why.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am so grateful to reader Emma Farais for recommending that I look into the history of the leotard. It was invented by — well, who else — Jules\u00a0L\u00e9otard. Born in 1842, Jules grew up to be\u00a0an acrobat. He is credited with inventing trapeze and\u00a0performed with French circuses. He invented and then\u00a0began performing in leotards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":65796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[225,16039,55,2102,2098,8092,253,283,108],"class_list":["post-65058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-clothesfashion","tag-dance","tag-gender","tag-gender-history","tag-gender-prejudicediscrimination","tag-gender-sports","tag-history","tag-prejudicediscrimination","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2015\/02\/1-3-Copy.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65058"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65799,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65058\/revisions\/65799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}