THE GIRL OF TO-DAY.

Otaki Mail, 14 June 1922, Page 4

THE GIRL OF TO-DAY.

i A woman professor of Vassal’ Coi- ! lege who has i men studying tiw health of girls for more than a third of a century, linds that it is better than, it has ever been (says the Portland Oregonian). The giiJ of to-day is sturdier, she says, and belter able to do" a day s work and to withstand disease than her mother h as. This may' be due in part to greater freedom from drudgery, to the general movement for education in hygiene, 10 wider opportunity for reI creation, and particularly to indulgence lin outdoor sports, but the professor thinks that the chief reason is reform iin dress. The speaker mentions the short skirt. Ten years ago this would have been viewed with horror; live years ago it excited a kk’d of prurient curiosity in the miinjs of a .-ip., but it is a sign ol our sanity d;.: U.is stage is quickly passed. Non it is reasonably certain that the old-fashioned garment, which not only swept tin- streets, but hampered the movements of the j wearer, will never return. The Paris i fashion-makers have said that it will, but we doubt it. The new freedom means too much to those who have tasted it. The dean of women of North-western 1 University and a woman leader of the j Illinois Vigilantes ’ Association join the ( professor in pronouncing judgment on the modern girl, and in finding her the better for the change which has taken place. “The young woman of to-day,” said the Vigilantes’ leader, “is morally trustworthy and sound at heart.’ - It is no sign ox decay that she has cast aside a restriction upon free movements, any more than it was a token of degeneracy when m large numbers than ever before in our history, she took to wearing sensible shoes. It rs now remembered that the vogue of the open-throated dress teas hailed with gloomv “scieutiiie ' ’ predictions that it would in vite respiratory diseases and end eventually in the extermination of the sex. No such thing happened, of course, because fundamentally there was no more reason why p. low-neck garment should react unfavorably on a healthy girl than on a sailor. Plenty of fresh air never hurt anyone, and freedom of muscular movement is as desirable for a girl as for a boy. It is now seen that the outcry against the short skirt was largely the product of surprise, or rather of opposition to any inroad on our traditions. The war. which gave a new reputability to knickerbockers and overalls on women, i did not establish them as a fashion tvi reasons which were mostly aesthetic, j but it did give emphasis to hygiene, ( comfort, and convenience, and the shorter skirt was the final compromise, j The latter is still with us. because it ' appeals to common *ense. fa:? F, a- i has been suggested, one or the favourable signs Of the times. Popular acceptance is already so complete that we can think of nothing that would look more “old-fashioned” than a woman walking down the street wearing a dress that swept the side-walks as she went along.