Tin pregnancies of 18th cen. London

William Gibson's blogged this wonderfully weird passage from Ivan Bloch's 1903 "Sexual Life in England," about the sadly defunct practice of London ladies going about with fake pregnancy bumps made of tin strapped to their middles. The fashion ended because practical jokers made the "tin pinafores" the butt of their jokes, and was successfully transplanted to Dublin!

Further, in the course of the eighteenth century, the peculiar fashion of false stomachs, 'pads' or 'paddies', was revived. These were used for a time at the end 'fifties, and were seen again in the 'nineties. Archenholtz says: 'This was the most senseless invention, against all decency and delicacy, and disfiguring the female body; it caused a deformity which is only seen in the female sex during pregnancy. These decorations were called pads, and the smaller ones paddies; they were usually made of tin, and were therefore called "tin pinafores". These artificial stomachs were in great favour, particularly with unmarried women, which caused the wits to say that a revolution had taken place amongst the signs of the Zodiac, and the Twins had come too near Virgo. But above all, these pads were the butt of jokers, who used them unmercifully, and their use soon had to be discontinued. Such a fashion was in too bad taste to last long. It was in existence in London in February 1793, but by the end of the spring it was over in England and went to Dublin, where it was welcomed by the women. During the migration which took place as a result of the French war, it was taken to Germany by refugee English women, but was not copied there.'

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• [mellowknees]

  maybe it was the medieval equivalent of a single woman wearing a wedding ring to keep men at bay? Like “Oh, she already has a man…I better keep trolling…”

• [zuzu]

  The same Ivan Bloch who wrote La Guerre Future (The Wars of the Future, or Is War Now Impossible)? …one of the first to recognize that modern warfare, because of industrialization, can only be fought as economic attrition and that decisive victories were no longer possible. (A lesson the USA should have learned from its War Between the States before participating in The Great War.)

• [zuzu]

  ah, no, the dating suggested Iwan Bloch, sexologist. (Sexual Life in England – Past and Present, Alfred Aldor, London, 1938) my mistake.

• [Lauren O]

  Oh archaic jokes about the zodiac that I don’t understand at all, where would I be without you?

  PS Pregnancy as a disfiguring deformity! Harsh!

• [Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator]

  I’m fascinated. Why did women wear them? What possible benefit did they have?

• [trikitixa]

  In Victorian England, unescorted women were harassed on the street because they were thought to be prostitutes – lower class women had no other choice besides domestic work – just like now, in certain places. These ‘pregnancies’ likely afforded un-chaperoned women a certain amount of safety and respect in public.

• [SednaBoo]

  Any pictures?

• [yurei]

  Maybe it presented the wearers as desirable birth mothers, along the lines of a then-modern “fertility goddess”. The statement that compares pregnancy to a from of disfigurement seems to contradict my theory, though.

• [Moon]

  Is William Gibson working on another Steampunk book?

  w00+!

• [Halloween Jack]

  I’m trying to figure out how they were used in practical jokes, although I can think of one or two of my own (“Oh, John! I have some bad news… oh, excuse me, would that be Mrs. John?”).

• [Fee]

  There have been fashions for pregnancy-style shapes at several earlier periods in history, and one theory that I have heard was that women emulated royalty, adopting the “fashion” of an enlarged stomach during times when the current royal was also pregnant.

  One guide at a French chateau I visited postulated that there were times when the French court adopted the fashion in order to conceal a real and illegitimate pregnancy on the part of a royal. If every woman looks pregnant, then those who are pregnant can better conceal it.