WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.700 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We are shifting 00:00:02.700 --> 00:00:04.780 gears today. Usually we're looking at things 00:00:04.780 --> 00:00:09.019 like tech trends or, you know, complex geopolitical 00:00:09.019 --> 00:00:11.279 shifts. But today we're doing some historical 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:14.179 excavation. A bit of an archaeological dig into 00:00:14.179 --> 00:00:16.320 a name. Exactly. We're looking at a name that 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:18.579 is completely embedded in the English language. 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:21.239 You know the word. You probably have a very specific 00:00:21.239 --> 00:00:23.660 image in your head when I say it. It's one of 00:00:23.660 --> 00:00:26.660 those rare instances where a person's last name 00:00:26.660 --> 00:00:30.300 just becomes a common noun. You know, like sandwich 00:00:30.300 --> 00:00:36.060 or shrapnel or boycott. Perfect examples. We're 00:00:36.060 --> 00:00:38.679 talking about Amelia Bloomer. And the word, of 00:00:38.679 --> 00:00:41.060 course, is bloomers. Which immediately conjures 00:00:41.060 --> 00:00:44.420 images of like baggy underwear or those really 00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:47.039 billowy pants from the Victorian era. It's funny 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:48.820 because even today, if you say someone is wearing 00:00:48.820 --> 00:00:50.859 bloomers, everyone knows exactly what you mean. 00:00:50.939 --> 00:00:54.990 It's iconic. Right. the Bloomer costume. It is 00:00:54.990 --> 00:00:59.429 arguably one of the most famous and most ridiculed 00:00:59.429 --> 00:01:01.450 fashion statements in all of American history. 00:01:01.609 --> 00:01:03.729 But here's the thing, and this is really why 00:01:03.729 --> 00:01:06.010 we are doing this deep dive. If you think Amelia 00:01:06.010 --> 00:01:08.829 Bloomer is just the funny pants lady, you are 00:01:08.829 --> 00:01:11.510 missing the actual story. Oh, completely. In 00:01:11.510 --> 00:01:13.750 fact, you're missing the story of how women's 00:01:13.750 --> 00:01:16.430 media was basically invented. That is the absolute 00:01:16.430 --> 00:01:20.290 core of it. The pants are actually a bit of a 00:01:20.290 --> 00:01:22.719 red herring. They are the hook, the flashy object 00:01:22.719 --> 00:01:25.200 that catches your eye. But the real substance 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:28.280 is that Amelia Bloomer was a media mogul before 00:01:28.280 --> 00:01:31.079 that term even existed. A media mogul. I like. 00:01:31.099 --> 00:01:33.400 She was a pioneer of the free press and a woman 00:01:33.400 --> 00:01:35.819 who figured out how to amplify a voice when society 00:01:35.819 --> 00:01:38.079 was trying very, very hard to silence it. And 00:01:38.079 --> 00:01:40.260 there is a twist coming up right at the top of 00:01:40.260 --> 00:01:42.079 the hour regarding those pants, isn't there? 00:01:42.140 --> 00:01:44.799 Oh, yeah, there is a pretty significant historical 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:47.840 correction. I love a good correction. So let's 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:49.849 look at the roadmap. Our mission today is to 00:01:49.849 --> 00:01:52.870 move past the caricature. We've got a stack of 00:01:52.870 --> 00:01:55.109 biographical records. We've got archives from 00:01:55.109 --> 00:01:58.090 the New York Tribune and some really deep historical 00:01:58.090 --> 00:02:00.890 analyses of the suffrage movement. So we're really 00:02:00.890 --> 00:02:02.569 going to try and unpack this. Yeah, we are going 00:02:02.569 --> 00:02:05.349 to map out how a woman from Homer, New York, 00:02:05.370 --> 00:02:08.009 became a household name, why that fame might 00:02:08.009 --> 00:02:12.430 be a little misplaced, and the complex, sometimes 00:02:12.430 --> 00:02:15.129 controversial legacy she left behind. It's a 00:02:15.129 --> 00:02:18.069 journey from accidental fashion icon to a very... 00:02:18.090 --> 00:02:20.050 deliberate political operator. Yeah. And we'll 00:02:20.050 --> 00:02:22.349 also touch on why, you know, later in life, she 00:02:22.349 --> 00:02:23.949 walked away from the very thing that made her 00:02:23.949 --> 00:02:26.270 famous. OK, let's start with that accident. The 00:02:26.270 --> 00:02:29.009 myth is that Amelia Bloomer invented bloomers, 00:02:29.009 --> 00:02:31.289 that she woke up one day, looked at her heavy 00:02:31.289 --> 00:02:33.650 Victorian dress and said, nope, I'm cutting this 00:02:33.650 --> 00:02:36.409 off and putting on trousers. True or false? False. 00:02:36.990 --> 00:02:39.569 Completely and utterly false. Amelia Bloomer 00:02:39.569 --> 00:02:42.050 did not invent the bloomer costume. She wasn't 00:02:42.050 --> 00:02:44.020 even the first person to wear it in public. OK, 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:46.520 let's unpack this because that is the one thing 00:02:46.520 --> 00:02:48.840 she is famous for. I mean, if you look her up, 00:02:48.879 --> 00:02:51.080 the first thing that comes to mind is she's the 00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:53.180 lady who invented the pants. I know it's why. 00:02:53.300 --> 00:02:55.860 So if she didn't invent them, who are we stealing 00:02:55.860 --> 00:02:59.280 the credit from? Who is the actual designer here? 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:01.800 The credit really belongs to a woman named Elizabeth 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:05.400 Smith Miller. She's often referred to in the 00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:08.020 records as Libby Miller. This dates back to early 00:03:08.020 --> 00:03:12.349 1851. 1851. OK, let's contextualize the fashion 00:03:12.349 --> 00:03:14.509 landscape for a second, because to understand 00:03:14.509 --> 00:03:18.050 why pants were so revolutionary, we have to understand 00:03:18.050 --> 00:03:21.310 what the baseline was. What was the standard 00:03:21.310 --> 00:03:23.849 operating procedure for a woman getting dressed 00:03:23.849 --> 00:03:26.810 in 1851? It was an absolute ordeal. I mean, we're 00:03:26.810 --> 00:03:28.409 talking about the height of the Victorian era. 00:03:28.509 --> 00:03:31.270 The silhouette was all about volume and just 00:03:31.270 --> 00:03:33.990 restriction. A woman would be wearing a corset. 00:03:34.219 --> 00:03:36.300 which was often laced tightly enough to restrict 00:03:36.300 --> 00:03:39.479 breathing and, well, displace internal organs. 00:03:39.719 --> 00:03:41.879 The fainting couch existed for a reason. Exactly. 00:03:42.199 --> 00:03:44.199 It wasn't just drama. It was literally a lack 00:03:44.199 --> 00:03:47.180 of oxygen. Precisely. But it wasn't just the 00:03:47.180 --> 00:03:50.340 corset. It was the wheat. To get those wide skirts, 00:03:50.620 --> 00:03:53.500 you weren't using hoops yet. Those came a bit 00:03:53.500 --> 00:03:56.180 later. You were wearing layers and layers of 00:03:56.180 --> 00:03:58.520 heavy starched petticoats. How many layers are 00:03:58.520 --> 00:04:00.979 we talking about? We are talking about 10 to 00:04:00.979 --> 00:04:04.400 15 pounds of fabric just dragging from your waist. 00:04:04.830 --> 00:04:07.509 15 pounds. Imagine strapping a bowling ball to 00:04:07.509 --> 00:04:09.310 your waist and then trying to, I don't know, 00:04:09.349 --> 00:04:11.530 walk up the stairs. Or just go about your day. 00:04:11.729 --> 00:04:14.990 And this is in an era before paved sidewalks 00:04:14.990 --> 00:04:16.829 were common, you have to remember. So you're 00:04:16.829 --> 00:04:19.490 dragging 15 pounds of cotton and wool through 00:04:19.490 --> 00:04:24.660 mud and horse manure slush dust. Oh god. It sounds 00:04:24.660 --> 00:04:26.899 like a hygiene nightmare. It was unsanitary, 00:04:27.079 --> 00:04:29.339 it was heavy, and it was physically debilitating. 00:04:29.560 --> 00:04:31.720 If you were carrying a child or trying to walk 00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:34.420 up a flight of stairs, the dress was an active, 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:36.939 meaningful impediment to your movement. So you're 00:04:36.939 --> 00:04:39.300 basically a prisoner in your own clothes. You 00:04:39.300 --> 00:04:41.860 literally had one hand occupied at all times, 00:04:41.899 --> 00:04:43.579 just holding your skirt up so you wouldn't trip 00:04:43.579 --> 00:04:46.199 and die. So enter Libby Miller. She's a temperance 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:48.620 activist, she's practical, and she just decides 00:04:48.620 --> 00:04:50.319 she's had enough. What does she come up with? 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:52.879 She creates what she calls the rational costume. 00:04:53.769 --> 00:04:56.790 And that word rationale is doing a lot of heavy 00:04:56.790 --> 00:04:59.569 lifting there. It's a direct critique of the 00:04:59.569 --> 00:05:02.689 irrationality of standard fashion. She wanted 00:05:02.689 --> 00:05:05.550 clothes that made sense. Exactly. What did it 00:05:05.550 --> 00:05:06.949 look like? Because I think we have this sort 00:05:06.949 --> 00:05:09.550 of cartoonish idea of it. But what was the actual 00:05:09.550 --> 00:05:12.569 construction? Well, it consisted of loose trousers 00:05:12.569 --> 00:05:15.290 gathered at the ankle. At the time, these were 00:05:15.290 --> 00:05:18.110 often called Turkish trousers because they mimic 00:05:18.110 --> 00:05:20.050 the style of dress seen in the Middle East and 00:05:20.050 --> 00:05:23.490 Central Asia. So basically, very billowy pants, 00:05:23.750 --> 00:05:26.189 kind of like what we might call harem pants today. 00:05:26.490 --> 00:05:28.790 Effectively, yes. Very loose, but gathered right 00:05:28.790 --> 00:05:30.430 at the ankles so they wouldn't get caught on 00:05:30.430 --> 00:05:33.689 anything. And over these trousers, she wore a 00:05:33.689 --> 00:05:36.389 skirt, but a shortened one. It came down to about 00:05:36.389 --> 00:05:38.430 four inches below the knee. Okay, so you still 00:05:38.430 --> 00:05:40.230 have the modesty of the skirt. You weren't just 00:05:40.230 --> 00:05:41.970 walking around in leggings or something, but 00:05:41.970 --> 00:05:43.949 you have the freedom of your limbs underneath. 00:05:44.750 --> 00:05:47.230 Precisely. And she often topped it with a vest 00:05:47.230 --> 00:05:49.689 or a short jacket. It was just practical. You 00:05:49.689 --> 00:05:51.829 could move. You could garden. You could walk 00:05:51.829 --> 00:05:53.970 briskly without fear of tripping. It was freedom. 00:05:54.209 --> 00:05:57.410 So Libby Miller is rocking this look. How does 00:05:57.410 --> 00:06:01.069 it get from her closet to Amelia Bloomer's fame? 00:06:01.230 --> 00:06:03.550 It's a classic chain of influence, almost like 00:06:03.550 --> 00:06:06.610 a game of telephone. Libby Miller goes to Seneca 00:06:06.610 --> 00:06:09.750 Falls, New York, to visit her cousin. And her 00:06:09.750 --> 00:06:11.689 cousin just happens to be Elizabeth Cady Stanton. 00:06:11.889 --> 00:06:15.100 Wow. Which is a name that should ring a massive 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:17.300 bell for anyone listening. Stanton is like the 00:06:17.300 --> 00:06:19.319 philosopher king of the American women's rights 00:06:19.319 --> 00:06:21.060 movement. She is the intellectual heavyweight. 00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:24.800 Yeah. The primary writer and thinker. So Miller 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:27.980 shows up in the pants. Stanton, who had just 00:06:27.980 --> 00:06:30.319 spent years raising a house full of small children 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:33.259 and fighting with these heavy dresses, sees the 00:06:33.259 --> 00:06:35.139 outfit and immediately says, this is brilliant. 00:06:35.399 --> 00:06:37.540 I can just imagine her relief. She called it 00:06:37.540 --> 00:06:40.339 sensible and becoming. She saw the genius of 00:06:40.339 --> 00:06:42.300 it right away. So Stanton starts wearing them 00:06:42.300 --> 00:06:44.420 too? Stanton adopts the look immediately. She 00:06:44.420 --> 00:06:47.180 cuts her dresses. And then Stanton, wearing the 00:06:47.180 --> 00:06:48.860 outfit, goes to visit her friend and neighbor, 00:06:49.019 --> 00:06:52.120 Amelia Bloomer. And this is the flashpoint. This 00:06:52.120 --> 00:06:55.699 is the moment. This is it. Amelia Bloomer sees 00:06:55.699 --> 00:06:58.560 the outfit. She is also a practical woman. She's 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:01.660 active. She's working. She loves the idea. She 00:07:01.660 --> 00:07:04.199 adopts the costume. But here is the key question. 00:07:04.670 --> 00:07:07.370 If Miller invented it and Stanton, who was, let's 00:07:07.370 --> 00:07:09.509 be honest, much more famous than Bloomer at the 00:07:09.509 --> 00:07:12.550 time, wore it, why do we call them Bloomers and 00:07:12.550 --> 00:07:15.649 not Millers or Stantons? Because Amelia Bloomer 00:07:15.649 --> 00:07:18.389 had something the other two didn't. Let me guess. 00:07:18.670 --> 00:07:21.829 She had a printing press. Ah, she controlled 00:07:21.829 --> 00:07:24.750 the distribution. Exactly. Amelia Bloomer was 00:07:24.750 --> 00:07:26.790 the editor and proprietor of a newspaper called 00:07:26.790 --> 00:07:29.310 The Lily. When she started wearing the outfit, 00:07:29.410 --> 00:07:30.829 she didn't just wear it to the grocery store. 00:07:31.209 --> 00:07:33.550 She wrote about it. She put it in print. She 00:07:33.550 --> 00:07:35.569 published engravings of herself in the outfit. 00:07:35.629 --> 00:07:38.709 She wrote these long, passionate editorials defending 00:07:38.709 --> 00:07:42.029 the rational costume against its critics. She 00:07:42.029 --> 00:07:44.389 used her platform to advocate for it. It's the 00:07:44.389 --> 00:07:46.509 difference between having a great idea and having 00:07:46.509 --> 00:07:49.009 a marketing budget. Or, to use a modern analogy, 00:07:49.589 --> 00:07:52.230 Libby Miller invented the dance, but Amelia Bloomer 00:07:52.230 --> 00:07:54.110 was the influencer with 10 million followers 00:07:54.110 --> 00:07:57.129 who made it go viral on TikTok. That is a perfect 00:07:57.129 --> 00:08:00.189 comparison. It's the platform that dictates the 00:08:00.189 --> 00:08:03.930 legacy, not the invention. And it worked. The 00:08:03.930 --> 00:08:06.029 New York Tribune, which was the biggest paper 00:08:06.029 --> 00:08:08.470 in the country at the time, run by Horace Greeley, 00:08:08.569 --> 00:08:11.509 picked up the story. But they picked it up from 00:08:11.509 --> 00:08:14.730 Amelia's coverage in The Lily. So when the Tribune 00:08:14.730 --> 00:08:17.610 writes about it, they cite Amelia Bloomer as 00:08:17.610 --> 00:08:19.790 the source. Correct. They attribute it to her. 00:08:19.889 --> 00:08:22.189 They start calling it the Bloomer costume or, 00:08:22.329 --> 00:08:25.209 for short, just Bloomers. And the name stuck. 00:08:26.250 --> 00:08:28.629 Poor Libby Miller became a footnote because she 00:08:28.629 --> 00:08:30.750 didn't own the media outlet. It really just speaks 00:08:30.750 --> 00:08:33.230 to the power of platform. You can be the innovator, 00:08:33.289 --> 00:08:35.370 but the person who controls the narrative gets 00:08:35.370 --> 00:08:37.529 the naming rights. Always. But let's talk about 00:08:37.529 --> 00:08:39.789 the reaction. Because today, if a woman wears 00:08:39.789 --> 00:08:43.590 pants, nobody blinks. But in 1851, this wasn't 00:08:43.590 --> 00:08:46.169 just a fashion don't. It was a moral panic. It 00:08:46.169 --> 00:08:48.350 was treated as a fundamental threat to the fabric 00:08:48.350 --> 00:08:50.610 of society. You have to understand the Victorian 00:08:50.610 --> 00:08:52.629 concept of separate spheres. Okay, break that 00:08:52.629 --> 00:08:54.950 down for us. The idea was that men and women 00:08:54.950 --> 00:08:58.210 were naturally designed for different worlds. 00:08:58.509 --> 00:09:00.850 Men occupy the public sphere, business, politics, 00:09:00.990 --> 00:09:03.750 war. Women occupy the domestic sphere, home, 00:09:03.850 --> 00:09:06.490 children, morality. And clothing was the most 00:09:06.490 --> 00:09:09.559 important visual marker of that separation. So 00:09:09.559 --> 00:09:12.779 clothes make the man, or in this case, the woman. 00:09:12.980 --> 00:09:15.460 Exactly. Men wore bifurcated garments pants. 00:09:15.799 --> 00:09:18.000 Bifurcated garments. I like that. Two legs. Two 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:21.120 legs. Women wore skirts. And by wearing pants, 00:09:21.399 --> 00:09:23.639 even underneath a skirt, these women were seen 00:09:23.639 --> 00:09:27.279 as usurping male authority. They were wearing 00:09:27.279 --> 00:09:29.279 the pants in the family. Quite literally, it 00:09:29.279 --> 00:09:31.580 was a visual claim to equality. And the backlash 00:09:31.580 --> 00:09:34.940 was severe? The ridicule was ceaseless. The source 00:09:34.940 --> 00:09:36.759 material we have is just full of accounts of 00:09:36.759 --> 00:09:38.679 intense harassment women faced for wearing them. 00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:41.379 The notes mentioned street harassment specifically. 00:09:41.779 --> 00:09:43.679 What did that look like? It was intense. People 00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:45.940 would follow them down the street, jeering, shouting 00:09:45.940 --> 00:09:48.899 insults. Little boys would throw rocks or snowballs 00:09:48.899 --> 00:09:51.620 at them. Rocks for wearing pants. Absolutely. 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:55.080 And in the press, it was even worse. There were 00:09:55.080 --> 00:09:57.940 these vicious cartoons in the newspapers depicting 00:09:57.940 --> 00:10:00.299 women and bloomers smoking scars and abandoning 00:10:00.299 --> 00:10:02.679 their babies, implying that if you wear pants, 00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:04.559 you stop being a woman, you stop being a mother. 00:10:04.679 --> 00:10:06.899 It's the classic slippery slope argument. First, 00:10:06.940 --> 00:10:09.610 it's the pants. Next, it's total... Social anarchy. 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:12.820 Ministers preached sermons against them from 00:10:12.820 --> 00:10:16.460 the pulpit, citing Deuteronomy, which forbids 00:10:16.460 --> 00:10:19.080 women from wearing that which pertaineth unto 00:10:19.080 --> 00:10:21.480 a man. It is absolutely incredible to think that 00:10:21.480 --> 00:10:23.580 a pair of baggy trousers can trigger a biblical 00:10:23.580 --> 00:10:26.500 condemnation. It just shows how fragile the gender 00:10:26.500 --> 00:10:28.679 hierarchy was felt to be. If the only thing keeping 00:10:28.679 --> 00:10:31.679 women in their place was a heavy skirt, that's 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:34.159 a pretty precarious system. So Amelia Bloomer 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:36.600 is in the eye of this storm. Her name is on the 00:10:36.600 --> 00:10:38.740 pants. She's defending them in the lily. She's 00:10:38.740 --> 00:10:41.179 taking all the heat. But then, and this is the 00:10:41.179 --> 00:10:43.100 part of the story that's usually left out, she 00:10:43.100 --> 00:10:47.120 quits. She stops wearing them. She does. By 1859, 00:10:47.419 --> 00:10:49.399 so about eight years after the craze started, 00:10:49.980 --> 00:10:52.340 Amelia Bloomer retires the costume and goes back 00:10:52.340 --> 00:10:56.100 to wearing long skirts. Why? I mean, that feels 00:10:56.100 --> 00:10:58.360 like a surrender. It feels like the bullies won. 00:10:58.940 --> 00:11:01.279 It really does on the surface. Yeah. But it was 00:11:01.279 --> 00:11:04.480 a strategic retreat. And her reasons, which she 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:07.679 documented, are fascinatingly pragmatic. She 00:11:07.679 --> 00:11:09.879 wasn't giving up on equality. She was changing 00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:12.299 tactics. Okay. So what was reason number one? 00:11:12.460 --> 00:11:14.779 The first reason was what we might call social 00:11:14.779 --> 00:11:18.360 lubrication. In 1854, she and her husband moved 00:11:18.360 --> 00:11:20.940 west to Council Bluffs, Iowa. So she's in a new 00:11:20.940 --> 00:11:23.320 town on the frontier. She's the new girl. Right. 00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:25.399 And she wanted to integrate. She wanted to influence 00:11:25.399 --> 00:11:27.539 her neighbors on issues she cared about, like 00:11:27.539 --> 00:11:30.000 temperance and voting. But she found that as 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:32.320 long as she was the weird lady in the clown pants, 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:36.480 nobody would listen to her. The medium was undermining 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:39.139 the message. Perfectly put. The clothes were 00:11:39.139 --> 00:11:41.279 a barrier to communication. She felt socially 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:44.279 isolated. But there's also a technological shift 00:11:44.279 --> 00:11:46.480 that gave her an out, so to speak. It's a technology 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:48.500 shift. The invention of the crinoline. Okay, 00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:50.759 let's unpack the crinoline. Because when I think 00:11:50.759 --> 00:11:53.379 crinoline, I think of those giant southern belgon 00:11:53.379 --> 00:11:55.379 with the wind dresses that look like they take 00:11:55.379 --> 00:11:57.320 up a whole room. That does not seem more comfortable. 00:11:57.879 --> 00:12:01.120 Visually, they were huge. But structurally, they 00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:03.860 were a breakthrough. Before the crinoline, Remember, 00:12:04.019 --> 00:12:07.340 that volume was achieved by wearing six, seven, 00:12:07.379 --> 00:12:10.879 eight layers of heavy wool and cotton petticoats. 00:12:11.019 --> 00:12:13.980 It was hot, it was heavy, and it dragged on your 00:12:13.980 --> 00:12:16.799 hips. Right, the 15 tons of fabric. The crinoline 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:19.440 was a cage. It was a lightweight structure made 00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:21.899 of flexible steel or whalebone that you wore 00:12:21.899 --> 00:12:24.360 under the dress. So it's mostly air. It's mostly 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:27.419 air. And it suspended the fabric away from the 00:12:27.419 --> 00:12:30.139 legs. So suddenly, you could walk without the 00:12:30.139 --> 00:12:33.080 fabric tangling between your knees. It was lightweight. 00:12:33.539 --> 00:12:36.500 It solved the physical problem, the weight, and 00:12:36.500 --> 00:12:38.919 the restriction without violating the social 00:12:38.919 --> 00:12:42.139 norm of the long skirt. That is such a fascinating 00:12:42.139 --> 00:12:44.659 nuance. We look back at the crinoline as the 00:12:44.659 --> 00:12:48.000 symbol of female oppression, but for Amelia Bloomer, 00:12:48.059 --> 00:12:50.539 it was actually a liberation technology. It was 00:12:50.539 --> 00:12:52.759 a practical solution. It allowed her to conform 00:12:52.759 --> 00:12:55.220 socially while being comfortable physically. 00:12:55.659 --> 00:12:57.899 And finally, she explicitly said she felt there 00:12:57.899 --> 00:13:00.419 were more important things to focus on. She realized 00:13:00.419 --> 00:13:02.179 the clothes were a distraction from the real 00:13:02.179 --> 00:13:04.179 fight. Which was the fight for the vote. The 00:13:04.179 --> 00:13:07.419 vote, property rights, legal standing. She decided 00:13:07.419 --> 00:13:09.399 she was losing the war because she was fighting 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:11.460 the wrong battle. More important things. That 00:13:11.460 --> 00:13:14.080 is a great transition point. Because while the 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:16.340 world was obsessed with her wardrobe, she was 00:13:16.340 --> 00:13:19.000 building something much, much more significant. 00:13:19.669 --> 00:13:23.490 Let's pivot to the lily. Yes. This is the crown 00:13:23.490 --> 00:13:26.330 jewel of her legacy. And we have to really underscore 00:13:26.330 --> 00:13:29.809 this. Amelia Bloomer was the first woman to own, 00:13:29.950 --> 00:13:33.169 operate, and edit a newspaper for women in the 00:13:33.169 --> 00:13:35.529 United States. That is a massive claim. We are 00:13:35.529 --> 00:13:38.590 talking 1849. 1849. To put that in perspective, 00:13:38.870 --> 00:13:40.690 in many states, married women didn't even have 00:13:40.690 --> 00:13:42.590 the right to own property or keep their own wages. 00:13:42.730 --> 00:13:45.330 If a woman worked, her money legally belonged 00:13:45.330 --> 00:13:47.870 to her husband. And here she is owning a media 00:13:47.870 --> 00:13:50.330 company. Why a newspaper? Why not just get on 00:13:50.330 --> 00:13:52.370 a stage and give speeches? Because the podium 00:13:52.370 --> 00:13:54.909 was forbidden. It was considered unseemly or 00:13:54.909 --> 00:13:57.649 even promiscuous for a woman to speak to a mixed 00:13:57.649 --> 00:13:59.629 audience, meaning an audience with men in it. 00:13:59.870 --> 00:14:02.590 Promiscuous. Yes. The idea was that a woman displaying 00:14:02.590 --> 00:14:05.129 herself on stage for public consumption was akin 00:14:05.129 --> 00:14:08.269 to prostitution. Wow. That is a heavy, heavy 00:14:08.269 --> 00:14:11.740 stigma. Very heavy. But writing... Writing was 00:14:11.740 --> 00:14:13.940 seen as domestic. You did it at a desk in your 00:14:13.940 --> 00:14:16.340 home. It was quiet. It was viewed as a respectable 00:14:16.340 --> 00:14:19.039 backdoor into public discourse. You could write 00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:21.200 a letter and a man could read it aloud. And that 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:23.320 was acceptable. So she finds the loophole. She 00:14:23.320 --> 00:14:25.320 finds the loophole. So she launches the lily. 00:14:25.460 --> 00:14:28.899 But it didn't start as a, you know, a firebrand 00:14:28.899 --> 00:14:31.600 suffrage paper, did it? No, not at all. It started 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:34.120 as a temperance journal. Temperance being the 00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:36.340 anti -alcohol movement. Right. It was originally 00:14:36.340 --> 00:14:38.600 the official newsletter for the Seneca Falls 00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:41.279 Ladies Temperance Society. Yeah. And get this. 00:14:41.620 --> 00:14:44.320 The original plan was for it to be published 00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:47.700 by a committee of ladies. A committee of ladies. 00:14:47.820 --> 00:14:50.480 That just sounds so safe. So non -threatening. 00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:53.419 Very team cookies. Extremely safe. And, you know, 00:14:53.440 --> 00:14:56.220 predictably very ineffective. Committees are 00:14:56.220 --> 00:15:00.519 where bold ideas go to die. By 1850, a year in. 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:03.039 The other ladies had lost interest. The work 00:15:03.039 --> 00:15:05.259 was too hard, or maybe the criticism was too 00:15:05.259 --> 00:15:07.639 scary. They all dropped out. But Amelia stayed. 00:15:07.940 --> 00:15:11.340 Amelia stayed. And she took full ownership. She 00:15:11.340 --> 00:15:13.799 put her name, and only her name, on the masthead. 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:18.299 Amelia Bloomer, editor. And that was the moment 00:15:18.299 --> 00:15:21.000 the voice of the paper changed. How so? What 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:23.480 was the shift? Well, she started hanging out 00:15:23.480 --> 00:15:25.100 with deeper thinkers. She was already friends 00:15:25.100 --> 00:15:27.500 with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. But as Stanton started 00:15:27.500 --> 00:15:30.220 writing for the paper, Often under the pseudonym 00:15:30.220 --> 00:15:33.720 Sunflower, the content shifted dramatically. 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:36.740 From what to what? It went from, say, don't let 00:15:36.740 --> 00:15:39.080 your husband drink too much to why can't you 00:15:39.080 --> 00:15:41.039 divorce your husband if he's a violent drunk? 00:15:41.620 --> 00:15:43.980 Whoa. OK, that is a huge leap. That's moving 00:15:43.980 --> 00:15:47.440 from just moral persuasion to actual legal reform. 00:15:47.700 --> 00:15:49.879 And from there, it's a very short step to we 00:15:49.879 --> 00:15:51.840 can't change the divorce laws because we can't 00:15:51.840 --> 00:15:55.019 vote. And suddenly, boom. The Lily is a suffrage 00:15:55.019 --> 00:15:57.440 paper. It became the voice for radical women's 00:15:57.440 --> 00:15:59.820 rights. What kind of reach did she have? Because 00:15:59.820 --> 00:16:02.200 we tend to think of the 1800s as so disconnected. 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:03.759 It's not like she could tweet out an article. 00:16:04.019 --> 00:16:07.139 At its peak, The Lily had a circulation of over 00:16:07.139 --> 00:16:10.860 4 ,000. Now, in the age of Instagram and millions 00:16:10.860 --> 00:16:13.440 of followers, that sounds like nothing. But in 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:17.379 1853, for a niche reform paper run by a woman, 00:16:17.500 --> 00:16:20.980 that is viral scale. And newspapers back then 00:16:20.980 --> 00:16:23.440 had a pass along rate, right? One copy would 00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:25.200 be read by the whole family, then given to the 00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:27.559 neighbors, then maybe left at the general store. 00:16:27.820 --> 00:16:30.120 Exactly. So her actual readership was likely 00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:32.659 tens of thousands. She was reaching women on 00:16:32.659 --> 00:16:35.259 farms in the Midwest, women in cities in the 00:16:35.259 --> 00:16:37.820 East. She was creating a network of shared ideas. 00:16:38.120 --> 00:16:40.500 For the first time, she was giving isolated women 00:16:40.500 --> 00:16:43.220 a sense of community, a feeling that they weren't 00:16:43.220 --> 00:16:45.460 alone in their frustrations. She has this quote 00:16:45.460 --> 00:16:48.019 where she calls the paper a needed instrument 00:16:48.019 --> 00:16:50.659 to spread abroad. the truth of a new gospel to 00:16:50.659 --> 00:16:53.279 women. A new gospel. I love the phrasing. She 00:16:53.279 --> 00:16:55.820 saw it as a moral imperative, a mission. But 00:16:55.820 --> 00:16:58.019 she also admitted, I saw not the end from the 00:16:58.019 --> 00:16:59.899 beginning. That's such a relatable sentiment 00:16:59.899 --> 00:17:02.340 for any entrepreneur or activist. You start pulling 00:17:02.340 --> 00:17:04.220 on one little thread and pretty soon the whole 00:17:04.220 --> 00:17:06.700 tapestry unravels. It illustrates what you could 00:17:06.700 --> 00:17:09.880 call the activism spiral. You start with a symptom, 00:17:10.019 --> 00:17:13.099 in her case, alcoholism, and you end up diagnosing 00:17:13.099 --> 00:17:16.319 the systemic disease, a total lack of political 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:19.750 power for women. The lily documented that evolution 00:17:19.750 --> 00:17:22.690 in real time. It was like a diary of the movement 00:17:22.690 --> 00:17:25.470 waking up. So she has the platform. And because 00:17:25.470 --> 00:17:27.789 she has the platform, she becomes a magnet for 00:17:27.789 --> 00:17:31.329 people, a hub. Which brings us to her role as 00:17:31.329 --> 00:17:34.890 the great connector. There is a specific moment 00:17:34.890 --> 00:17:37.730 in history, a literal meeting on a street corner, 00:17:37.930 --> 00:17:40.990 that changed everything. This is one of my favorite 00:17:40.990 --> 00:17:43.109 what -ifs of history. Seriously, if this meeting 00:17:43.109 --> 00:17:45.750 doesn't happen, the 19th Amendment giving women 00:17:45.750 --> 00:17:47.849 the right to vote. might have been delayed by 00:17:47.849 --> 00:17:50.430 decades. Okay, set the scene for us. It's May 00:17:50.430 --> 00:17:53.930 of 1851, Seneca Falls, New York. You have two 00:17:53.930 --> 00:17:55.650 women who are at this point complete strangers. 00:17:56.049 --> 00:17:58.069 On one side, you have Elizabeth Cady Stanton. 00:17:58.230 --> 00:18:00.029 As we said, she's the writer, the philosopher, 00:18:00.150 --> 00:18:02.589 the radical thinker, but she's pretty much housebound 00:18:02.589 --> 00:18:04.910 with a bunch of kids. She's frustrated and brilliant, 00:18:05.029 --> 00:18:07.250 but she's stuck. She's the brains of the operation, 00:18:07.450 --> 00:18:09.789 but she's tethered to the house. On the other 00:18:09.789 --> 00:18:12.619 side, you have Susan B. Anthony. She is a Quaker, 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:15.940 a teacher, a brilliant organizer. She's the strategist. 00:18:15.940 --> 00:18:18.339 She's the boots on the ground. She has the mobility 00:18:18.339 --> 00:18:20.700 and the tactical mind to execute a national campaign. 00:18:20.839 --> 00:18:24.180 She's the muscle, the operator. But they don't 00:18:24.180 --> 00:18:26.779 know each other. They are the Lennon and McCartney 00:18:26.779 --> 00:18:28.720 of the women's rights movement, but they haven't 00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:30.960 met. They're operating in totally different spheres. 00:18:31.480 --> 00:18:34.579 And who introduces them? Amelia Bloomer. So they 00:18:34.579 --> 00:18:36.619 are literally just walking down the street. How 00:18:36.619 --> 00:18:40.000 did it happen? Yes. Anthony was in town for an 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:43.390 anti -slavery lecture. Bloomer, who knew both 00:18:43.390 --> 00:18:45.490 of them separately, saw them on a street corner 00:18:45.490 --> 00:18:49.009 and just made the introduction. There is a statue 00:18:49.009 --> 00:18:52.589 of this exact moment in Seneca Falls today. It's 00:18:52.589 --> 00:18:55.690 called When Anthony Met Stanton. It depicts the 00:18:55.690 --> 00:18:57.869 three of them. And that spark from that introduction 00:18:57.869 --> 00:19:00.890 ignites the partnership that drove the women's 00:19:00.890 --> 00:19:04.230 movement for the next 50 years. 50 years. Stanton 00:19:04.230 --> 00:19:06.410 would write the speeches and Anthony, who was 00:19:06.410 --> 00:19:08.809 unmarried and childless, would travel the country 00:19:08.809 --> 00:19:10.619 delivering them. It was the perfect partnership. 00:19:10.859 --> 00:19:13.160 It's amazing because if you look at that statue 00:19:13.160 --> 00:19:15.920 or read the history books, Bloomer is often the 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:18.539 third wheel. Stanton and Anthony are the icons. 00:19:18.940 --> 00:19:21.599 Bloomer is. Well, she's the lady with the pants. 00:19:21.720 --> 00:19:24.559 It's so ironic, isn't it? But it speaks to her 00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:27.359 specific talent. She wasn't the greatest orator. 00:19:27.400 --> 00:19:30.430 That was Stanton. She wasn't the relentless campaigner 00:19:30.430 --> 00:19:33.450 that was Anthony. She was the node. She was the 00:19:33.450 --> 00:19:35.490 infrastructure. The connector. The connector. 00:19:35.609 --> 00:19:38.589 She used her newspaper to connect ideas, and 00:19:38.589 --> 00:19:40.789 she used her social circle to connect leaders. 00:19:41.029 --> 00:19:42.829 It really makes you think about the different 00:19:42.829 --> 00:19:46.769 roles in any movement or any company, really. 00:19:46.890 --> 00:19:49.150 You need the stars, but you also need the person 00:19:49.150 --> 00:19:51.549 who owns the venue. You need the person who makes 00:19:51.549 --> 00:19:54.430 the email intro. You need the person who publishes 00:19:54.430 --> 00:19:55.890 the newsletter that gets everyone on the same 00:19:55.890 --> 00:19:58.009 page. Without the infrastructure, the stars... 00:19:58.029 --> 00:20:01.029 have nowhere to shine. Bloomer built the stage 00:20:01.029 --> 00:20:03.069 that Stanton and Anthony stood on for the rest 00:20:03.069 --> 00:20:05.829 of their lives. Now, we have painted a pretty 00:20:05.829 --> 00:20:09.450 glowing picture so far. A pioneer, a mogul, a 00:20:09.450 --> 00:20:12.769 connector. But we need to complicate this. Because 00:20:12.769 --> 00:20:15.630 Amelia Bloomer, like almost everyone in the 19th 00:20:15.630 --> 00:20:18.630 century, was a complex figure with beliefs that 00:20:18.630 --> 00:20:20.829 don't always align with our modern standards 00:20:20.829 --> 00:20:24.569 of radical. No, she was a study in contradictions. 00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:28.720 We often project this modern girl boss feminism 00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:31.359 onto her, but she was a Victorian woman with 00:20:31.359 --> 00:20:34.460 some deep conservative streaks. Let's start with 00:20:34.460 --> 00:20:37.680 the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, the birthplace 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:40.140 of the movement. She was there, right, in the 00:20:40.140 --> 00:20:41.779 room where it happened. She was there. She sat 00:20:41.779 --> 00:20:44.059 in the audience. But when the Declaration of 00:20:44.059 --> 00:20:46.920 Sentiments was passed around, this was the core 00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:49.240 document modeled on the Declaration of Independence 00:20:49.240 --> 00:20:52.910 demanding equality in the vote. She did not sign 00:20:52.910 --> 00:20:54.869 it. Wait, wait. The woman who ran the suffrage 00:20:54.869 --> 00:20:57.089 newspaper didn't sign the suffrage declaration? 00:20:57.190 --> 00:21:00.049 That seems wildly out of character. Why? At the 00:21:00.049 --> 00:21:02.549 time, she felt it was too radical. Specifically, 00:21:02.730 --> 00:21:04.390 she was worried about her standing in the Episcopal 00:21:04.390 --> 00:21:06.849 Church. The declaration was seen as contrary 00:21:06.849 --> 00:21:09.309 to church teachings on the submission of women. 00:21:09.410 --> 00:21:11.450 She just wasn't ready to cross that line yet. 00:21:11.549 --> 00:21:14.190 She was a devout woman, and the conflict between 00:21:14.190 --> 00:21:17.369 her face and this new radicalism was very real 00:21:17.369 --> 00:21:20.029 for her. That is fascinating. It shows that radicalization 00:21:20.029 --> 00:21:23.140 is a process. She didn't start at 100%. She had 00:21:23.140 --> 00:21:25.539 to be convinced, even of her own movement. Exactly. 00:21:25.660 --> 00:21:28.819 She evolved. The convention inspired her to start 00:21:28.819 --> 00:21:31.079 the paper a year later, and the paper eventually 00:21:31.079 --> 00:21:33.839 radicalized her. But she always kept one foot 00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:36.759 in the world of respectability. She wanted change, 00:21:37.019 --> 00:21:39.140 but she wanted it to happen within the bounds 00:21:39.140 --> 00:21:41.880 of what she considered proper Christian behavior. 00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:44.680 But there is a darker side to this complexity, 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:47.220 one that has come up in recent years and has 00:21:47.220 --> 00:21:50.539 had real world consequences for her legacy. And 00:21:50.539 --> 00:21:53.440 that's about race. Yes. This is a very important 00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:56.500 modern reevaluation. For a long time, the American 00:21:56.500 --> 00:21:59.259 Library Association, the ALA, had a prestigious 00:21:59.259 --> 00:22:01.740 list of feminist books for young readers called 00:22:01.740 --> 00:22:04.319 the Amelia Bloomer List. It was a huge badge 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:06.720 of honor for authors. I've heard of that, but 00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:09.960 that changed recently in 2020. It did. The committee 00:22:09.960 --> 00:22:12.660 voted unanimously to change the name to Rise, 00:22:12.940 --> 00:22:15.680 a feminist book project. They stripped Amelia's 00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:18.440 name from the award. What was the specific charge 00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:21.279 against her? What did the researchers find that 00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:24.819 prompted such a big move? It centered on her 00:22:24.819 --> 00:22:28.119 silence regarding the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. 00:22:28.240 --> 00:22:30.279 Let's just clarify what that law was for our 00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:32.299 listeners. This wasn't just a law about slavery 00:22:32.299 --> 00:22:34.539 in the South. No, it was a federal law that required 00:22:34.539 --> 00:22:37.339 citizens in free states, like New York where 00:22:37.339 --> 00:22:40.140 she lived, to actively assist in the capture 00:22:40.140 --> 00:22:43.480 and return of escaped enslaved people. It effectively 00:22:43.480 --> 00:22:45.980 nationalized the machinery of slavery. So if 00:22:45.980 --> 00:22:47.720 you saw a person escaping to freedom in Canada, 00:22:47.859 --> 00:22:50.220 you were legally obligated to turn them in? You 00:22:50.220 --> 00:22:53.319 were. It was a moral abomination to abolitionists. 00:22:53.440 --> 00:22:55.740 It was the central crisis of the decade. And 00:22:55.740 --> 00:22:57.980 Amelia Boomer had a newspaper. She had a massive 00:22:57.980 --> 00:23:00.380 platform. And she didn't use it. The criticism 00:23:00.380 --> 00:23:02.779 is that while she was vociferous about the rights 00:23:02.779 --> 00:23:05.339 of white women, she refused to take a stand against 00:23:05.339 --> 00:23:07.859 the Fugitive Slave Law. She didn't advocate for 00:23:07.859 --> 00:23:10.779 the freedom of black women and men. when that 00:23:10.779 --> 00:23:13.500 issue was the defining moral crisis of the nation. 00:23:13.700 --> 00:23:16.319 This highlights that friction we see so often 00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:18.880 in first wave feminism. The movement was not 00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:21.420 a monolith. You had abolitionists who were also 00:23:21.420 --> 00:23:23.859 suffragists, but you also had suffragists who 00:23:23.859 --> 00:23:26.359 were willing to ignore racial justice to advance 00:23:26.359 --> 00:23:29.500 their own cause. Exactly. And the historians 00:23:29.500 --> 00:23:32.039 and librarians today are saying, we can acknowledge 00:23:32.039 --> 00:23:34.180 her contributions to media and dress reform. 00:23:34.599 --> 00:23:37.339 But we cannot hold her up as the ultimate symbol 00:23:37.339 --> 00:23:39.980 of feminist intersectionality because she just 00:23:39.980 --> 00:23:42.279 wasn't one. It complicates the hero narrative. 00:23:42.579 --> 00:23:45.799 It's about holding two truths at once. She built 00:23:45.799 --> 00:23:48.140 the megaphone, but she was very selective about 00:23:48.140 --> 00:23:50.500 who she used it for. That's the nuance of history. 00:23:50.660 --> 00:23:52.839 It's not about erasing her or canceling her, 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:55.180 but about accurately describing the boundaries 00:23:55.180 --> 00:23:57.920 of her activism. She was a pioneer, but she was 00:23:57.920 --> 00:24:00.220 a pioneer with blinders on. And seeing those 00:24:00.220 --> 00:24:01.859 blinders helps us understand the limitations 00:24:01.859 --> 00:24:05.009 of the movement she helped build. So moving on 00:24:05.009 --> 00:24:06.650 from that controversy, let's look at her later 00:24:06.650 --> 00:24:08.730 years. We mentioned she moved to Iowa. This is 00:24:08.730 --> 00:24:11.470 the 1850s. Iowa is the Wild West at this point. 00:24:11.589 --> 00:24:14.609 It really was. Council Bluffs was a major jumping 00:24:14.609 --> 00:24:17.009 off point for the Oregon Trail. It was a rough. 00:24:17.470 --> 00:24:20.630 dusty frontier town. For many Americans it was 00:24:20.630 --> 00:24:22.890 the edge of the known world. Did she just retire 00:24:22.890 --> 00:24:25.210 to a rocking chair? Put her feet up? Far from 00:24:25.210 --> 00:24:28.009 it. She sold the lily to a woman in Indiana mainly 00:24:28.009 --> 00:24:30.250 because the postal distribution from Iowa was 00:24:30.250 --> 00:24:33.009 too difficult. I mean getting paper and ink out 00:24:33.009 --> 00:24:35.940 to the frontier was a logistical nightmare. But 00:24:35.940 --> 00:24:38.059 she did not stop speaking. There's a great anecdote 00:24:38.059 --> 00:24:40.660 about a speech she gave in 1855. Oh, this is 00:24:40.660 --> 00:24:44.619 fantastic. It's July 4th, 1855. She crosses the 00:24:44.619 --> 00:24:47.519 Missouri River to Omaha, Nebraska. Now, you have 00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:49.579 to picture this. Omaha wasn't a city. It was 00:24:49.579 --> 00:24:52.259 barely a settlement. It's the 4th of July, so 00:24:52.259 --> 00:24:55.140 there's likely drinking, shooting, a very rowdy, 00:24:55.140 --> 00:24:57.539 male -dominated frontier crowd. This is not a 00:24:57.539 --> 00:24:59.940 polite literary parlor in New York. Not even 00:24:59.940 --> 00:25:02.750 close. And Amelia stands up. In front of this 00:25:02.750 --> 00:25:05.230 crowd. In front of this crowd and delivers a 00:25:05.230 --> 00:25:07.950 full -throated speech on women's rights and suffrage 00:25:07.950 --> 00:25:11.450 in the middle of the frontier. That takes a level 00:25:11.450 --> 00:25:13.529 of physical courage that I think we seriously 00:25:13.529 --> 00:25:16.890 underestimate. She is telling these rough frontiersmen 00:25:16.890 --> 00:25:19.990 that their wives and daughters deserve the vote. 00:25:20.210 --> 00:25:22.369 She was a true believer right to the end. She 00:25:22.369 --> 00:25:24.970 was. She went on to serve as the president of 00:25:24.970 --> 00:25:27.789 the Iowa Women's Suffrage Association well into 00:25:27.789 --> 00:25:32.019 the 1870s. She campaigned tirelessly. She helped 00:25:32.019 --> 00:25:34.500 shape the early laws of the state of Iowa regarding 00:25:34.500 --> 00:25:37.180 women's property rights. She never quit the cause. 00:25:37.480 --> 00:25:39.380 I also want to give a shout out to a supporting 00:25:39.380 --> 00:25:41.980 character we haven't mentioned much, Dexter Bloomer, 00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:44.359 her husband. A rare breed for the 19th century, 00:25:44.420 --> 00:25:46.000 that's for sure. Usually when you hear about 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:47.940 these radical women, the husbands are either 00:25:47.940 --> 00:25:50.900 absent, disapproving, or actively obstructing 00:25:50.900 --> 00:25:54.160 them. But Dexter seems different. He was incredibly 00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:56.240 supportive. He was a newspaper man himself, which 00:25:56.240 --> 00:25:58.400 is how she got into it. He actually encouraged 00:25:58.400 --> 00:26:00.380 her to write her first articles. He taught her 00:26:00.380 --> 00:26:02.420 the business. He showed her how to run the press. 00:26:02.660 --> 00:26:04.700 He saw her as an equal partner. And the notes 00:26:04.700 --> 00:26:07.440 say he even made lifestyle changes for her cause. 00:26:07.700 --> 00:26:11.319 He did. To support her temperance work, her first 00:26:11.319 --> 00:26:14.440 big cause, he gave up drinking completely. That 00:26:14.440 --> 00:26:16.880 is real solidarity. Honey, if you're leading 00:26:16.880 --> 00:26:18.799 the national crusade against whiskey, I guess 00:26:18.799 --> 00:26:21.400 I'm putting down the tumbler. A supportive partner. 00:26:21.900 --> 00:26:25.480 was a strategic asset having a husband who didn't 00:26:25.480 --> 00:26:28.579 feel emasculated by her fame or her pants or 00:26:28.579 --> 00:26:31.319 her public speaking allowed her to do the work 00:26:31.319 --> 00:26:33.740 she did he was her partner in every sense of 00:26:33.740 --> 00:26:37.319 the word amelia bloomer died in 1894. she is 00:26:37.319 --> 00:26:40.319 buried in council bluffs but her legacy has taken 00:26:40.319 --> 00:26:42.859 some very strange turns since then we talked 00:26:42.859 --> 00:26:44.380 about the pants we talked about the cancelled 00:26:44.380 --> 00:26:47.240 book award but there is one honor she received 00:26:47.240 --> 00:26:50.430 that is truly surprising given her early reluctance 00:26:50.430 --> 00:26:53.730 to sign that declaration. The church. The Episcopal 00:26:53.730 --> 00:26:56.269 Church. The same one she was so afraid of offending 00:26:56.269 --> 00:26:58.890 back in 1848. Very saint. The Episcopal Church 00:26:58.890 --> 00:27:01.049 has a calendar of holy women and holy men. It's 00:27:01.049 --> 00:27:03.569 basically their list of saints and commemorations. 00:27:03.730 --> 00:27:05.630 Amelia Bloomer is on that list. She's a saint, 00:27:05.630 --> 00:27:08.569 like Saint Amelia. She is commemorated as a holy 00:27:08.569 --> 00:27:12.490 woman. Her feast day is July 20th. And get this. 00:27:12.869 --> 00:27:15.789 She is listed alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 00:27:15.930 --> 00:27:18.819 Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman. That is 00:27:18.819 --> 00:27:21.759 a fascinating full circle, from refusing to sign 00:27:21.759 --> 00:27:23.579 a political document because of religious fear 00:27:23.579 --> 00:27:26.619 to being canonized by that same religion for 00:27:26.619 --> 00:27:28.720 her political work. It shows that institutions 00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:32.519 change, too. The Church of 1995 recognized what 00:27:32.519 --> 00:27:35.380 the Church of 1848 could not. that her fight 00:27:35.380 --> 00:27:38.640 for women was a moral, spiritual work. It validates 00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:40.619 that initial instinct she had that this was a 00:27:40.619 --> 00:27:43.400 new gospel was actually recognized by the church 00:27:43.400 --> 00:27:45.380 in the end. So we've unpacked the pants, the 00:27:45.380 --> 00:27:47.940 paper, the politics, and the sainthood. We've 00:27:47.940 --> 00:27:50.480 seen the viral moments and the problematic silences. 00:27:50.539 --> 00:27:52.680 When we zoom out and look at Amelia Bloomer's 00:27:52.680 --> 00:27:54.940 life as a whole, what is the synthesis? What 00:27:54.940 --> 00:27:57.299 is the big takeaway? I think the synthesis is 00:27:57.299 --> 00:27:59.779 this. Amelia Bloomer proves the power of the 00:27:59.779 --> 00:28:02.359 platform. She didn't invent the reform ideas. 00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:04.759 She didn't design the pants. She didn't write 00:28:04.759 --> 00:28:07.140 the core philosophy of the movement, but she 00:28:07.140 --> 00:28:08.740 built the communication network. She was the 00:28:08.740 --> 00:28:12.299 amplifier. She was the amplifier. She illustrates 00:28:12.299 --> 00:28:15.000 that you don't have to be the original genius 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:17.579 to be the most important person in the room. 00:28:17.920 --> 00:28:20.559 You just have to be the one who connects the 00:28:20.559 --> 00:28:22.660 genius to the audience. That's a great way to 00:28:22.660 --> 00:28:25.480 put it. She gave women a voice when they weren't 00:28:25.480 --> 00:28:28.079 allowed on stage. She was the friend who introduces 00:28:28.079 --> 00:28:30.440 you to your best business partner. She was the 00:28:30.440 --> 00:28:32.299 one who said, I have a printing press and I'm 00:28:32.299 --> 00:28:36.180 going to use it. It really challenges the great 00:28:36.180 --> 00:28:38.599 man or great woman theory of history where we 00:28:38.599 --> 00:28:41.460 only look at the singular heroes. Amelia Bloomer 00:28:41.460 --> 00:28:43.359 was the infrastructure of the movement. Without 00:28:43.359 --> 00:28:45.799 the pipes, the water just doesn't flow. Exactly. 00:28:46.039 --> 00:28:48.599 And it is a tragedy of history that she is remembered 00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:51.720 for the one thing she walked away from, the pants, 00:28:51.900 --> 00:28:54.400 rather than the tools she built to change the 00:28:54.400 --> 00:28:57.420 world, the newspaper. The newspaper was her true 00:28:57.420 --> 00:29:00.210 life's work. The pants were just a chapter. That 00:29:00.210 --> 00:29:02.789 brings us to a provocative final thought for 00:29:02.789 --> 00:29:05.049 you, the listener. We live in an age that is 00:29:05.049 --> 00:29:07.670 absolutely obsessed with content creation and 00:29:07.670 --> 00:29:09.890 with influencers. We are all looking for the 00:29:09.890 --> 00:29:13.369 next viral idea. But Amelia Bloomer's story raises 00:29:13.369 --> 00:29:16.509 a really interesting question. Is the most powerful 00:29:16.509 --> 00:29:19.509 person the one who invents the idea or the person 00:29:19.509 --> 00:29:22.390 who builds the platform that spreads it? Amelia 00:29:22.390 --> 00:29:24.430 Bloomer is a household name because of a pair 00:29:24.430 --> 00:29:27.690 of pants she didn't invent, but her real power, 00:29:27.829 --> 00:29:29.869 the power that helped change the con - constitutional 00:29:29.869 --> 00:29:33.390 lay in the printing press she owned. So in your 00:29:33.390 --> 00:29:35.630 own life, in your own work, are you trying to 00:29:35.630 --> 00:29:38.269 invent the bloomers or are you building the lily? 00:29:38.309 --> 00:29:40.289 That is the question. Thanks for diving deep 00:29:40.289 --> 00:29:41.289 with us. We'll see you next time.