Hatpin Panic and Petticoated Swashbucklers

April 2, 2018 6:08 PM

Hatpin Panic and Petticoated Swashbucklers (single-album Imgur link).
posted by WCityMike (18 comments total)

I knew quite a bit of this, what with my job and all - but I think Hatpin Panic and the Petticoated Swashbucklers is going to the top of my favourite name for a grrrl band with a bullet!
posted by peagood at 6:13 PM on April 2, 2018 [16 favorites]

Man I bet men being gropers went way down for the five minutes it was socially acceptable to stab them for it.
posted by corb at 6:46 PM on April 2, 2018 [14 favorites]

I could not love this more, thanks for posting WCityMike.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 6:47 PM on April 2, 2018

Hatpin Panic and Petticoated Swashbucklers

I saw them open for The Who back in the day...
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:02 PM on April 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

I still remember reading a guidebook for European tourists to NYC from like 1870 telling them very firmly that the unaccompanied women they’d see alone or in groups in hotels or salons are NOT prositutites and should not be treated as such even if it sounds insane that a nicely dressed woman would be riding the train alone.
posted by The Whelk at 7:26 PM on April 2, 2018 [5 favorites]

Further reading for those interested.
posted by rewil at 7:46 PM on April 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

This gave us the marvelously loaded term "pin money" - a secret stash of cash you carried around as a woman in case of emergency. Typically shit-head-guy emergencies.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:53 PM on April 2, 2018 [5 favorites]

Since Petticoated Swashbucklers has apparently already been claimed as a band name, I'm claiming Shit-Head Guy and the Emergencies.
posted by Naberius at 8:27 PM on April 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

I love everything about this. Thank you.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:18 AM on April 3, 2018

Pin money was the cash given to a woman by her husband for her to use on managing the household and clothing (hence pins). The term dates back to the mediaeval period. I've not come across it being used like that before Slap*Happy, do you have a source?
posted by Helga-woo at 1:27 AM on April 3, 2018 [9 favorites]

Needs more @threadbot.
posted by hwestiii at 3:05 AM on April 3, 2018

Heard about this on the Han and Matt Know It All podcast and was delighted!
posted by ellieBOA at 3:23 AM on April 3, 2018

At risk of being the no-fun format police... a photo album of a tweetstorm is just about the worst format I can think of for this information. For me it's an inconvenience, but for folks with limited vision it's a non-starter. There are plenty of articles on this topic; no reason to resort to screenshots of tweets.
posted by smammy at 7:54 AM on April 3, 2018 [3 favorites]

Helga Woo: Pin money was the cash given to a woman by her husband for her to use on managing the household and clothing (hence pins). The term dates back to the mediaeval period. I've not come across it being used like that before Slap*Happy, do you have a source?

The term I had always heard used for what slap*happy describes - an emergency stash of cash to be used for cab fare or otherwise to get out of a date that's gone pear-shaped - is "mad money."
posted by Naberius at 10:41 AM on April 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

Another thing I read about pin money, is that those gorgeous brocaded Elizabethan or Jacobean bodices had to be pinned to the linen (underwear) in sections. Thus without money for pins, you (female you) couldn't get dressed.
posted by glasseyes at 1:18 PM on April 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

Before the industrial revolution, pins were made individually by hand and therefore very expensive. Since they were also essential to the construction of the posher sort of clothing, as glasseyes says above, pin money could be a considerable amount.

As well as pinning clothing together, pins were used to construct and hold together elaborate late medieval headdresses, like this lady's.
posted by Fuchsoid at 5:06 PM on April 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

There are plenty of articles on this topic; no reason to resort to screenshots of tweets.

So just post the links, no need to sniff about it.

My own thread gripe is that it's not called ATTEMPT THE GRABBO, GET THE STABBO
posted by Sebmojo at 6:15 PM on April 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

Yes, there is a certain satisfaction in stabbing a gropy male with a hat pin (or a biology probe needle onna stick). When I was a tender maiden of 15, my assigned seat was in the last row of the language lab. Each seat was surrounded by wood partitions so no one could see that back row. The boy who sat next to me felt free to grab and squeeze my breast. I slapped him every day but he kept doing it. One day I took my "hat pin" and rammed it into his hand. The look on his face was precious. He NEVER touched me again. Recommended AAA+++, would stab again.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 12:08 AM on April 4, 2018 [3 favorites]