@@nutterbutter865then you wouldn't have been the intended audience. Saying something is gross simply because you aren't interested in it is pretty childish.
I danced the Can Can in high school but never really thought about why the dance was so scandalous. The second you held up the pair of split drawers so much clicked into place. 😂😂😂
@@ASentientPlantRUclips will probably delete the link so I’ll quickly summarize. The CanCan became popular in Victorian France (and spread elsewhere) during a time where women were expected to be extremely covered up, so much so that the showing of an ankle was considered highly scandalous - as was a woman showing that she was out of breath. So, the dance was a way of calling out and challenging strict Victorian societal rules. Not only were the women dancing showing their ankles gratuitously (lol) and dancing until they sweated and were breathless, the dresses also showed up their split drawer underwear. Sure, it’s underwear and that in itself was particularly scandalous, however, as the video shows they’re called “split drawer” underwear for a reason. The dancers were out of breath, showing skin, and flashing their open underwear to the audience members - it was extremely scandalous for the time! Here’s the link to a very good summary of the dance’s history and rise to popularity: theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-cancan-frances-famously-raunchy-dance/
@@kyahearly8224I may just be mixing up time periods, but weren’t ankles not considered scandalous during the Victorian Era? Especially considering lower class women typically couldn’t wear floor length dresses, as they are very impractical for labor. I thought the whole ankle thing was an over exaggeration of the time periods idea of modesty?
@@blobfish7109 I think “scandalous” might be the wrong term, but it was certainly considered indecent for women to show their ankles (or elbows apparently) during the 19th century. Strangely, they were considered highly sexualized parts of the body, more so than the breast was! This was typically seen and believed in western European countries, so it definitely wasn’t everywhere, and is why not every country and culture believed the ankle to be indecent. It was perpetuated during the Victorian Era as a display of low status (long dresses that needed to be pulled up and out of the mud was typical of poorer folks who couldn’t afford tailored or fitted dresses), but during the end of this time, it was being hard-countered both in fashion and by society. So the result was this weird combination where many people still saw the showing of the ankles as indecent and sexual, but many others had moved on and no longer saw them as so. It’s basically yes AND no; those who still followed particularly struck Victorian ideals saw the ankles as scandalous, but those who either occupied places where those western ideas weren’t as strong - or it weren’t a strict follower to begin with - would not see the ankle as scandalous. It depends on where in history you focus on and the region, and we typically see generalizations wherein EVERYONE believed the ankle to be scandalous, but this doesn’t apply to everyone. I expect someone more versed in history would know the true answer behind it all, because I’m still not too sure myself!
@@Loralanthalas i think the girls doing the dance had an idea of what they were flashing so idk why youre acting like they had no idea and were being ogled without their knowledge
@@ethernetgirl2001really depends on the circumstances of why theyre dancing. If it's because theyre poor and forced to sell their body and reveal themselves to strangers? Thats bad. If its because they just wanted to be a dancer that showed a bit more than just skin, then its not bad
My parents always said that the aim of the dance was to dance and wave the skirt in such a way that the viewers could not see anything and could even question if the dancers were really naked under there. Until the last moment of the dance when they turned around and exposed the naked cheeks 😄
That was my thought watching it growing up. Cause they are swinging their legs to the side to cover like when a burlesque dancer is holding a fan or something in front of their naked body and you don't see much.
Me growing up thinking the can-can was scandalous because ladies flashing their undies in a time we're just showing a little bit of leg was risque. Learning can can dancers weren't just flashing their panties 😮😅😂
I mean no one thinks about the difference between undergarments from barely a 100 years ago. (😂😂 btw back then in the 1920s the dresses weren’t to the floor so much, as years prior. I mean some were secret pants for women that worked. The only thing that would be really scandalously besides being Hollywood’s drama topic, was being a original sense of Flapper girl; which was a term for S** worker, that was reinvented when the ban of alcohol in America started, then secret clubs started popping up, along with girls dressing up as flapper girls.)
@@RealTeaChickankles weren't as scandalous as we seem to believe it today. Yes, skirts were long but they would flow up and ankles would show, it wasn't that big of a deal
These are still connected though. There are earlier forms that were unattached legs that were held up by being tied around the waist. Those were worn in pairs like you would stockings.
@@rachelschwartz3731 I believe pin up girl refers to the fact that soldiers would pin a picture of a scantily clad woman onto their wall in their quarters. But I could be wrong!
@@josephandashlynmcfatridge4966No, you’re def correct. The term is bc GI’s would PIN 📍 the pictures of the girls up on the wall in barracks or inside their footlockers (at the foot of their bed) to look at. For those of us on here … ahem … of a certain age … ahem … our parents or grandparents were of the generation that coined the term “pin up girl” so I’m pretty confident in my historical accuracy on this one.
Also , can confirm safety- type pin DEF didn’t exist at this era. I remember my mother talking about what a big deal it was when safety pins 🧷 came onto the market for use w diapers. It felt revolutionary at the time! (ALL diapers being cloth diapers that required pinning….so you can imagine the nightmare of using straight pins on cloth diapers on your baby esp when you were a new inexperienced mother who wasn’t very good at diapering and pinning yet…..which means your baby will be self-stabbing throughout the days and nights ☹️the horror🥺but then when you are also fearing polio,1/3 of kids dying in infancy from common flus etc 😭maybe pokey diapers aren’t the worst things in a new moms life😳. I remember asking my grandma about it; she said “oh, you didn’t get attached before a child was born like people do now. [my grandma had 2 stillbirths.] Really, most people learned not to get TOO attached until after 3-5 bc…well…it was very risky before then, honey. A lot of babies went to heaven early no matter what their parents did. It was just the times.” I loved the “soft” language she tried to use w me, her granddaughter. If anything, I assumed SHE would be the one traumatized (by her deceased children) but she was fiiiiine and was worried I couldn’t handle the topic bc now all babies basically live and even a miscarriage is a huuuuuge deal. Back then? Par for the course. Honestly, I cannot imagine going through labor, expecting a bubbly baby at the end, only to find out I had only a corpse. OR, to begin the trial of labor, knowing the whole time the only result was going to be a corpse. I’m not sure which is worse…. And my lovely Nonnie got both in her reproductive life. But no birth control back then! So you got what you got! A lady was lucky she wasn’t frickin ‘19 kids and counting’ if she & her hubby were into each other 🤭 [funny side story: Queen Victoria was SUPER horny for Prince Albert but HATED being pregnant. She bore 9 children over 17 years and was known to comment she wished there was a way to keep up the bedroom antics without all the baby-making. She was known to be…v into her husband and not that into her kids. But, that baby-making gave her the legacy of being the mother and grandmother to all the royalty of Europe: 9 children and 42 grandchildren ruling across Europe.]
Not sure if it was this time period exactly, but there was a harness like belt worn when my grandma was young to hold a sanitary pad in place. (She's about to be 94.)
The term "being on the rag" was due to literally using rags, or old clothes (cotton, linen and wool), before they had the period belt. They would wash and reuse them, which seems gross to us now, but it's definitely more eco-friendly. There were other things also used, but that's what I remember off the top of my head.
@@michelericca6728 Yes, you are correct…this is what my Mother told me she had to do, she was born in 1922. It’s difficult to imagine women had to deal with this, stuffing rags in their undies and having to wash them. We are so spoilt with tampons and pads of ever shape, size, absorbency etc.
@@michelericca6728 They make cloth pads today that people wash and reuse. I don't really get why someone would think that seems gross, but I use menstrual cups and discs which people also think are gross for some reason so idk
@@goyonman9655 Same reason older generations think showing your shoulder/belly is scandalous, social construct. In many centuries women where covered almost entirely so showing knees was "too sexual" Even today, depending on your religion, you are expected to cover certain parts of your body
@@E_FoxSnowspiritsplit drawers go all the way back to the 14th century. But you are correct that they were not common until crinoline skirts in the 19th century.
And to think that "The Swing" was referenced in a Disney movie 😂 Specifically, Frozen. Anna pretended she was the one sitting on the swing during "For the First Time in Forever."
Oh I knew this. My great grandparents were French and there was this photo of a relative with these dancers. Very scandalous 😂 I was told at a very young age why too
Almost no one covered their ankles. Covering your ankles meant you had a floor-length skirt. Which means it would drag over the floor and get dirty and you'd have to wash it daily. So that was pretty much only a thing for rich people at parties.
The idea that a culture was so repressed that the sight of an ankle would cause a riot was actually slander used by both American and British Victorians against each other, but for some reason it only stuck to the British ones, when we've always been a horny species. Fun fact: nipple piercings were popular in Victorian England!
This makes me think about my friend who was going to sew a set of bloomers for herself. She cut the pattern out and prepared to cut the fabric out, but noticed something looked weird. She looked at the directions and realized that the pattern was for split drawers. XD
The famous “can-can” song itself is part of the Orpheus in the Underworld overture by Offenbach and honestly the best part of the song. I got to play it in Orchestra when i was a kid and it is such a fun little piece to play to
I always figured it was scandalous because of the bloomers and stuff, but I didn’t know THOSE kind of bloomers existed..! I did learn something new today.
From what I've read though it seems like at the moulin rouge at least they forbid their dancers from wearing underwear that would be revealing like that so they probably had specialized undergarments for the dancers
I think that might even be too scandalous for modern day strip clubs, correct me if I’m wrong. I knew they wore split drawers but I never put 2 and 2 together. Girl, you should’ve seen my face when I did.
They made me dance the cancan with my girl classmates when we were 11.... Had to perform infront of all the school and families so seeing this dance as 'scandalous' erm... Makes it a little weird..! 😟
@@oedipussy haha im talking about the roots of it, where it came from and what it was made for makes it a little disturbing, especially since in the ending of the dance we have to flip up our skirts to show the buttock's underwear
@@CrackMeth ... that's kind of disturbing, actually. To make a literal child dance that, not just because of the history, but because the underwear had to be exposed? And deliberately, too? How was anyone okay with that???
What is wrong with adults? "Let's take one of the most scandalous dances in history and make little girls do it in front of us!" Sometimes, I wonder why our species hasn't been wiped out.
Me watching in the beginning: Why is that scandalous? Ugh, I bet it's just another typical old-timey sexist, ultra-modest attitude, upset because they're showing their ankles and... oh. OH! Oh boy. Ok, I was wrong on this one. Wowza.
Showing ankles really wasn’t that big of a deal 😅 Women’s skirts actually only hit the floor in a few specific decades, but for pretty much the rest of time, ankles were definitely exposed, especially on working women’s garments. It saves the skirt from dragging on the ground and needing to be washed more frequently. Women actually leaned into this, and they had stockings that were decorated on the ankle (so they were meant to be shown) for centuries!
@@alexjames7144There are countless reasons why we wear clothes, and it’s not just for the sole purpose of covering our crotches. It’s part of thousands of years of culture, it protects our skin from the sun, and also humans are just disgusting horny things, so.. Breastfeeding and wearing less clothes *should* be normalized, but going beyond that and saying naked should be normal is a bit much.
@@myparentsaredivorced4573 I never said that everyone should be naked all the time, that's not what I meant by saying that being naked should be normal. I think that to say the natural state of our body should be considered abnormal is bizarre in most contexts. There is nothing inherently weird about being naked, just the social taboo we've added onto it
I’m betting it probably prevented it, basically they were really long boxer shorts, and the seam between the legs was open. I’ve been meaning to make myself a pair cause I bet they are comfy
@@sarahbeth124I'm sorry you don't have thick enough thighs if you think split drawers can prevent chafing... You need to have a cloth separating your thighs right from the end of the youknowwhat to the knees or a little above that lol
@@tanie3543oh I know , I’ve got thighs that have burned holes in jeans. You’re talking to an expert. Currently, I love me some lady boxers to prevent chafing under dresses.
@@tanie3543keep in mind, these split drawers were tied up at the waist so the cloth went right up to where the leg meets the pelvis. Most of that gap actually reaches up to the belly button .
The best non-clothing chub rub preventative I've found is elf's Putty Primer Potion. It's a really thick silicone makeup primer that's as effective on faces as it is on thighs. A $10 (US) pot will last for ages.
My mother, I am now 60 and she had me at the age of 42, used to say the women wore NO underwear. I'm also sure my mother, with her very conservative mother, would never have been allowed to go into a place where the Can-Can was being performed. Interesting to know.
@@humaneleaguelancPA My mother always guilt tripped me by saying I almost killed her, pre-eclampsia; however, that was not supported by my paternal grandmother (a nurse), my father, and my sister who was 12 years older than me and took over raising me when she was 16.
It was common to not wear underwear until crinoline (“hoop”) skirts were invented. And after crinoline went out of fashion, it was probably not common again until 1920s when skirts got shorter and underwear became more of a “onesie” (aka bloomers).
They also did that, yes. A chemise/shift was considered the basic undergarment, anything else was extra. Shifts were changed out just as often as we change our underpants.
@@humaneleaguelancPA my ggrandmother had my grandmother at 55. Despite the poor understating of math by an Atlantic "writer," surprise 45+ babies were normal until ww2 - Korean war, and 96% of those babies were indeed born normal with fewer maternal deaths than younger women. How women over 40 are the highest demographic of abortions die to that article that the writer completely messed up the statistic.
My ballet studio does the can can dance every 2 years, I finally got to participate in it this year and was so much fun, I even got to perform some tumbling as well, this was a fun fact to learn!
My youngest daughters dance troupe performed the Can Can EN POINTE' sans the crotchless underwear, short ruffled bloomer panties. It was THRILLING however I know it killed lots of knees and ankles and feet which showed up much later.
Oh wow!! I didn’t even think about the fact that that’s their underwear so they were literally showing everybody the goods with those crotchless ones!! Lmaooooo I love it!!
🤣 When I was in France, I was playing Barbies with my little host sister (like 6 y.o.) and made one do the Can Can, because to me, it's just silly and fun. But the horror on my host mom's face when she saw told me France didn't quite see it that way 😂😭 Now I know why! 🤣
No it's just a dance, yes it is weird if your half naked under it, but nowhere near as scandalous as the twerk x) . Nobody dans the french cancan half najed, it was an old weird thing. Plus if a child dance the french cancan it's more cute than weird, really, and some old people may not see it that way because they are stuck in the past, but some others will be really proud that others people dance it ^^
And before the 1850s, respectable women didn't wear drawers at all! They didn't need to because their skirts were so long and they wore lots of petticoats. The bell-like crinoline dresses of the Second Empire could be much more revealing because the whole point of them was to give volume without the weight of layers and layers of petticoats. So coming down stairs, in high winds, or sitting down carelessly tended to show much more leg, or even more! I did a lot of research into this because I wrote a book on the Cancan in the 1990s.
@@thesewloartist I thought I replied before but it's disappeared. I said you could try my website (somewhat out of date now) but I think they blocked my message because I put a link in. I should have said that in the 1890s the Moulin Rouge wouldn't allow its dancers on to the dance floor with open drawers and employed a man to make sure they were sewn up. His name was Father Modesty - Père la Pudeur!
Really enjoying seeing others reactions to this one 😅 I mean I knew the reason as she describes but I FORGOT I KNEW till this vid comes up. Thanks for that haha
I also believe the Waltz was similar in being a very scandalous dance around it's initial introduction? In that, they viewed it as sexual because you were so close to your partner, compared to other dances of the time.
@@humaneleaguelancPA Why would you joke about something like this? Children and s*x should be an automatic 🚫 for the brain, not something to be expressed even for a joke! Disgusting.
I still think that dance is scandalous ok. And I’m only 27 and a women… just had to add my age and gender because most women my age are Twerking for attention
because us poor sinners need obviously the opinion of a mysoginistic pick me that shoves her beliefs onto the throats of others saying she's superior than grown women that have all the right to twerk as much as they want
WOW! I sure understand why it was so naughty! Thanks for the history lesson! Gosh my grandma turned off the Ed Sullivan Show when Elvis Presley was on there! She was so upset about him she probably wouldn't even think the words!
The way my two separate and seemingly unconnected special interests just THUMPED into place like a science fiction space ship docking onto a landing platform
Our high school dance team danced this (as we celebrated as a town the 1862 discovery of gold) and while I knew it was scandalous (legs in the air and all) I did not know about split drawers then. 😂
Let's not forget, the cancan was also performed on a raised stage, which gave the audience a clear view under all the ruffles...
ah, yes, and I think the main Stage for it was the Moulin rouge ;)
That’s honestly so gross 🤢
@@nutterbutter865there’s these places called strip clubs they’re really gonna grind your gears. He’s probably there when he’s late getting home.
Under the Lifted skirts…
@@nutterbutter865then you wouldn't have been the intended audience. Saying something is gross simply because you aren't interested in it is pretty childish.
I danced the Can Can in high school but never really thought about why the dance was so scandalous. The second you held up the pair of split drawers so much clicked into place. 😂😂😂
Did they also teach what the dance moves represented and why it was very political in nature?
Can you please explain or link to the political info about this dance?
@@ASentientPlantRUclips will probably delete the link so I’ll quickly summarize. The CanCan became popular in Victorian France (and spread elsewhere) during a time where women were expected to be extremely covered up, so much so that the showing of an ankle was considered highly scandalous - as was a woman showing that she was out of breath. So, the dance was a way of calling out and challenging strict Victorian societal rules. Not only were the women dancing showing their ankles gratuitously (lol) and dancing until they sweated and were breathless, the dresses also showed up their split drawer underwear. Sure, it’s underwear and that in itself was particularly scandalous, however, as the video shows they’re called “split drawer” underwear for a reason. The dancers were out of breath, showing skin, and flashing their open underwear to the audience members - it was extremely scandalous for the time!
Here’s the link to a very good summary of the dance’s history and rise to popularity: theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-cancan-frances-famously-raunchy-dance/
@@kyahearly8224I may just be mixing up time periods, but weren’t ankles not considered scandalous during the Victorian Era? Especially considering lower class women typically couldn’t wear floor length dresses, as they are very impractical for labor. I thought the whole ankle thing was an over exaggeration of the time periods idea of modesty?
@@blobfish7109 I think “scandalous” might be the wrong term, but it was certainly considered indecent for women to show their ankles (or elbows apparently) during the 19th century. Strangely, they were considered highly sexualized parts of the body, more so than the breast was! This was typically seen and believed in western European countries, so it definitely wasn’t everywhere, and is why not every country and culture believed the ankle to be indecent. It was perpetuated during the Victorian Era as a display of low status (long dresses that needed to be pulled up and out of the mud was typical of poorer folks who couldn’t afford tailored or fitted dresses), but during the end of this time, it was being hard-countered both in fashion and by society. So the result was this weird combination where many people still saw the showing of the ankles as indecent and sexual, but many others had moved on and no longer saw them as so. It’s basically yes AND no; those who still followed particularly struck Victorian ideals saw the ankles as scandalous, but those who either occupied places where those western ideas weren’t as strong - or it weren’t a strict follower to begin with - would not see the ankle as scandalous. It depends on where in history you focus on and the region, and we typically see generalizations wherein EVERYONE believed the ankle to be scandalous, but this doesn’t apply to everyone. I expect someone more versed in history would know the true answer behind it all, because I’m still not too sure myself!
The way I knew both of these facts separately but never put them together 🤦🏻
Same
Girl you are not alone.😊
Saaaaaame
Me too 😅
yo same dude 😭🤣
I always wondered what was so sexy about this dance lol. I genuinely thought it was because they were flexible 😂
That and the whole leg showing plus the titillation of peeking into the drawers of complete strangers… scandalous x3
Lol!😅😂
Right? I thought it was all the kegs and skin. But turns out they weren't looking at the girls legs. Freaking the past was the worst
@@Loralanthalas i think the girls doing the dance had an idea of what they were flashing so idk why youre acting like they had no idea and were being ogled without their knowledge
@@ethernetgirl2001really depends on the circumstances of why theyre dancing.
If it's because theyre poor and forced to sell their body and reveal themselves to strangers? Thats bad.
If its because they just wanted to be a dancer that showed a bit more than just skin, then its not bad
My parents always said that the aim of the dance was to dance and wave the skirt in such a way that the viewers could not see anything and could even question if the dancers were really naked under there. Until the last moment of the dance when they turned around and exposed the naked cheeks 😄
That right, I forgot about the finale!
That's skill
Well ya because they can can can XD
True!!!
That was my thought watching it growing up. Cause they are swinging their legs to the side to cover like when a burlesque dancer is holding a fan or something in front of their naked body and you don't see much.
Me growing up thinking the can-can was scandalous because ladies flashing their undies in a time we're just showing a little bit of leg was risque.
Learning can can dancers weren't just flashing their panties 😮😅😂
I mean no one thinks about the difference between undergarments from barely a 100 years ago.
(😂😂 btw back then in the 1920s the dresses weren’t to the floor so much, as years prior. I mean some were secret pants for women that worked.
The only thing that would be really scandalously besides being Hollywood’s drama topic, was being a original sense of Flapper girl; which was a term for S** worker, that was reinvented when the ban of alcohol in America started, then secret clubs started popping up, along with girls dressing up as flapper girls.)
Whoo-ha’s!!
I definitely thought it was ankles and underwear 😳
so did I!
@@RealTeaChickankles weren't as scandalous as we seem to believe it today. Yes, skirts were long but they would flow up and ankles would show, it wasn't that big of a deal
This undergarment is why we now say a PAIR of underwear, panties, or boxers.
These are still connected though. There are earlier forms that were unattached legs that were held up by being tied around the waist. Those were worn in pairs like you would stockings.
Nah, we call those pairs because they're just for the legs.
IIRC, this is correct, and medieval “pants” had the legs separated with no crotch, hence the need for a codpiece which could be removed to pee.
Next you'll be telling me a pear used to be 2 apples.
@@DiscoFang 💖😊
Crotchless bloomers... who knew.
Someone also commented that they would pin the underwear shut, but the ladies would un-pin them for more tips, which makes a lot of sense if true 😂
Wonder if this is related to the term « pin up girl »
They didn’t have safety pins yet…just straight pins so…no.
@@rachelschwartz3731 I believe pin up girl refers to the fact that soldiers would pin a picture of a scantily clad woman onto their wall in their quarters. But I could be wrong!
@@josephandashlynmcfatridge4966No, you’re def correct. The term is bc GI’s would PIN 📍 the pictures of the girls up on the wall in barracks or inside their footlockers (at the foot of their bed) to look at.
For those of us on here … ahem … of a certain age … ahem … our parents or grandparents were of the generation that coined the term “pin up girl” so I’m pretty confident in my historical accuracy on this one.
Also , can confirm safety- type pin DEF didn’t exist at this era.
I remember my mother talking about what a big deal it was when safety pins 🧷 came onto the market for use w diapers. It felt revolutionary at the time! (ALL diapers being cloth diapers that required pinning….so you can imagine the nightmare of using straight pins on cloth diapers on your baby esp when you were a new inexperienced mother who wasn’t very good at diapering and pinning yet…..which means your baby will be self-stabbing throughout the days and nights ☹️the horror🥺but then when you are also fearing polio,1/3 of kids dying in infancy from common flus etc 😭maybe pokey diapers aren’t the worst things in a new moms life😳. I remember asking my grandma about it; she said “oh, you didn’t get attached before a child was born like people do now. [my grandma had 2 stillbirths.] Really, most people learned not to get TOO attached until after 3-5 bc…well…it was very risky before then, honey. A lot of babies went to heaven early no matter what their parents did. It was just the times.”
I loved the “soft” language she tried to use w me, her granddaughter. If anything, I assumed SHE would be the one traumatized (by her deceased children) but she was fiiiiine and was worried I couldn’t handle the topic bc now all babies basically live and even a miscarriage is a huuuuuge deal.
Back then? Par for the course.
Honestly, I cannot imagine going through labor, expecting a bubbly baby at the end, only to find out I had only a corpse.
OR, to begin the trial of labor, knowing the whole time the only result was going to be a corpse.
I’m not sure which is worse…. And my lovely Nonnie got both in her reproductive life.
But no birth control back then! So you got what you got!
A lady was lucky she wasn’t frickin ‘19 kids and counting’ if she & her hubby were into each other 🤭
[funny side story: Queen Victoria was SUPER horny for Prince Albert but HATED being pregnant. She bore 9 children over 17 years and was known to comment she wished there was a way to keep up the bedroom antics without all the baby-making. She was known to be…v into her husband and not that into her kids.
But, that baby-making gave her the legacy of being the mother and grandmother to all the royalty of Europe: 9 children and 42 grandchildren ruling across Europe.]
This makes me wonder how they dealt with periods during this era of fashion…
you should look up Abby Cox she did a video on that about 2 years ago
Not sure if it was this time period exactly, but there was a harness like belt worn when my grandma was young to hold a sanitary pad in place. (She's about to be 94.)
The term "being on the rag" was due to literally using rags, or old clothes (cotton, linen and wool), before they had the period belt. They would wash and reuse them, which seems gross to us now, but it's definitely more eco-friendly.
There were other things also used, but that's what I remember off the top of my head.
@@michelericca6728 Yes, you are correct…this is what my Mother told me she had to do, she was born in 1922. It’s difficult to imagine women had to deal with this, stuffing rags in their undies and having to wash them. We are so spoilt with tampons and pads of ever shape, size, absorbency etc.
@@michelericca6728 They make cloth pads today that people wash and reuse. I don't really get why someone would think that seems gross, but I use menstrual cups and discs which people also think are gross for some reason so idk
It wouldn’t surprise me that modern people would be equally shocked if they witnessed that.
OMG NOW I GET IT! I Thought it was because they showed legs!
How exactly is showing legs scandalous
@@goyonman9655 Same reason older generations think showing your shoulder/belly is scandalous, social construct. In many centuries women where covered almost entirely so showing knees was "too sexual"
Even today, depending on your religion, you are expected to cover certain parts of your body
Ya'll have not quiet grasp the whole statement being made here have Ya'll?!? 🤔🤨🙄😏
@@AinaraPardo0808
This is bullshit
"Older generations" did not view showing shoulder or belly as scandalous
You believe in false myths about the past
@@goyonman9655in mid 19th century? Really?
This also applies to the famous painting The Swing!
Well, it was a bit early for split drawers but still- no modern underwear
@@E_FoxSnowspiritsplit drawers go all the way back to the 14th century. But you are correct that they were not common until crinoline skirts in the 19th century.
Yep. I doubt she was wearing anything under her petticoats.
Ohh Fragonard! Yea totally! Also helps add to the scandal that it was the woman’s husband swinging her toward her lover.
And to think that "The Swing" was referenced in a Disney movie 😂 Specifically, Frozen. Anna pretended she was the one sitting on the swing during "For the First Time in Forever."
You know, I've known about the cancan dance and the split drawers for years but I've never made the connection before.
Why??
Aaah is this why modesty for ladies is often communicated by keeping their legs together all the time? It all makes so much sense now 😂
Wow yes totally makes so much more sense now!
But that's not it.
@@susanjeffries5108 They'd wear long skirts at the time so...
Oh I knew this. My great grandparents were French and there was this photo of a relative with these dancers. Very scandalous 😂 I was told at a very young age why too
😂 I literally can't-can't right now 😂
Underrated comment😂
I have a flu and laughed at your comment to which my snot just burst out 😂😂😂
😊
Apparently I've only seen the censored versions of this dance my whole life😂
For real?!
I had always thought it was scandalous because it showed "leg" in a time of only bad-girls showed their ankles.
Well!!!! This was enlightening!
Almost no one covered their ankles. Covering your ankles meant you had a floor-length skirt. Which means it would drag over the floor and get dirty and you'd have to wash it daily. So that was pretty much only a thing for rich people at parties.
The idea that a culture was so repressed that the sight of an ankle would cause a riot was actually slander used by both American and British Victorians against each other, but for some reason it only stuck to the British ones, when we've always been a horny species. Fun fact: nipple piercings were popular in Victorian England!
@@forgenorman3025 Not to mention the Victorian popularity of the... uh, "prince Albert".
Well TIL, holy moly, I thought it was all bloomers and legs
This makes me think about my friend who was going to sew a set of bloomers for herself. She cut the pattern out and prepared to cut the fabric out, but noticed something looked weird. She looked at the directions and realized that the pattern was for split drawers. XD
The famous “can-can” song itself is part of the Orpheus in the Underworld overture by Offenbach and honestly the best part of the song. I got to play it in Orchestra when i was a kid and it is such a fun little piece to play to
The Underworld-- ohhh I see what they did there 😊😅
@@mentak2593 from the womb and to return to womb
Objectively incorrect! The introduction to the overture/Infernal Galop which everyone cuts out is obviously the best part.
I always figured it was scandalous because of the bloomers and stuff, but I didn’t know THOSE kind of bloomers existed..! I did learn something new today.
From what I've read though it seems like at the moulin rouge at least they forbid their dancers from wearing underwear that would be revealing like that so they probably had specialized undergarments for the dancers
Gives "Flash Dance" a whole new meaning. ;)
My aunt unknowingly took me to the Moulin Rouge when I was a teen. It was an awkward experience.
I think that might even be too scandalous for modern day strip clubs, correct me if I’m wrong. I knew they wore split drawers but I never put 2 and 2 together. Girl, you should’ve seen my face when I did.
Too scandalous for modern day strip clubs? Certainly not 😂
You held up the split drawers and I just said. OH.
I knew both of these things but never put them together! Hahahaha yea- peep show for sure!
I mean that would still be considered scandalous today.
They made me dance the cancan with my girl classmates when we were 11.... Had to perform infront of all the school and families so seeing this dance as 'scandalous' erm... Makes it a little weird..! 😟
It really isn’t weird in a modern context unless you were wearing crotchless underwear
@@oedipussy haha im talking about the roots of it, where it came from and what it was made for makes it a little disturbing, especially since in the ending of the dance we have to flip up our skirts to show the buttock's underwear
@@CrackMeth Oh, I forgot that part about flipping the back of the dress up! Pretty cheeky!! I guess it was a bit scandalous.
@@CrackMeth ... that's kind of disturbing, actually. To make a literal child dance that, not just because of the history, but because the underwear had to be exposed? And deliberately, too? How was anyone okay with that???
What is wrong with adults? "Let's take one of the most scandalous dances in history and make little girls do it in front of us!" Sometimes, I wonder why our species hasn't been wiped out.
Omg... Now I fully get it. It was not just the leg
The penny did drop when the pants were held up 😬 cancan, nigh, it shall now be called the gash flash
😂😂😂😂 one of my favourite Irish expressions I learned a while back is "frothing at the gash" - and this makes me laugh just as hard as that!!
@@cheekyb71frothing at the gash 😂lmaooo
Omfg 😂😂😂😂
@@cheekyb71she'll do that if you feek the box off er.
@@gagesons9006 hahahaha now THAT'S a new one!!
Me watching in the beginning: Why is that scandalous? Ugh, I bet it's just another typical old-timey sexist, ultra-modest attitude, upset because they're showing their ankles and... oh. OH! Oh boy. Ok, I was wrong on this one. Wowza.
Showing ankles really wasn’t that big of a deal 😅 Women’s skirts actually only hit the floor in a few specific decades, but for pretty much the rest of time, ankles were definitely exposed, especially on working women’s garments. It saves the skirt from dragging on the ground and needing to be washed more frequently. Women actually leaned into this, and they had stockings that were decorated on the ankle (so they were meant to be shown) for centuries!
Honestly still think it was dramatic, people being naked should be normalised and not taboo
@@alexjames7144There are countless reasons why we wear clothes, and it’s not just for the sole purpose of covering our crotches. It’s part of thousands of years of culture, it protects our skin from the sun, and also humans are just disgusting horny things, so..
Breastfeeding and wearing less clothes *should* be normalized, but going beyond that and saying naked should be normal is a bit much.
@@myparentsaredivorced4573 I never said that everyone should be naked all the time, that's not what I meant by saying that being naked should be normal. I think that to say the natural state of our body should be considered abnormal is bizarre in most contexts.
There is nothing inherently weird about being naked, just the social taboo we've added onto it
No.
Ain’t nothing new under the sun, the more things change the more they stay the same ❤
Comme on dit a Paris,
The song most commonly associated with the dance (the one playing in the background of this video) is titled "Orpheus in the Underworld".
Fun fact: it's the most popular song for performing the Can-Can but it was specifically written for a different dance called a "galop".
Thank you for explaining what really was the draw(ers). Lol 😆😊
Split drawers. . . All I can think of looking at those is chub rub!! (That’s thigh chafing if you don’t know)😂
I’m betting it probably prevented it, basically they were really long boxer shorts, and the seam between the legs was open. I’ve been meaning to make myself a pair cause I bet they are comfy
@@sarahbeth124I'm sorry you don't have thick enough thighs if you think split drawers can prevent chafing... You need to have a cloth separating your thighs right from the end of the youknowwhat to the knees or a little above that lol
@@tanie3543oh I know , I’ve got thighs that have burned holes in jeans. You’re talking to an expert.
Currently, I love me some lady boxers to prevent chafing under dresses.
@@tanie3543keep in mind, these split drawers were tied up at the waist so the cloth went right up to where the leg meets the pelvis. Most of that gap actually reaches up to the belly button .
The best non-clothing chub rub preventative I've found is elf's Putty Primer Potion. It's a really thick silicone makeup primer that's as effective on faces as it is on thighs. A $10 (US) pot will last for ages.
My mother, I am now 60 and she had me at the age of 42, used to say the women wore NO underwear. I'm also sure my mother, with her very conservative mother, would never have been allowed to go into a place where the Can-Can was being performed. Interesting to know.
My Mother also had my brother at the age of 42! He was a premie and breech, my Mom almost died; somehow he grew to 6’4” and healthy!
@@humaneleaguelancPA My mother always guilt tripped me by saying I almost killed her, pre-eclampsia; however, that was not supported by my paternal grandmother (a nurse), my father, and my sister who was 12 years older than me and took over raising me when she was 16.
It was common to not wear underwear until crinoline (“hoop”) skirts were invented. And after crinoline went out of fashion, it was probably not common again until 1920s when skirts got shorter and underwear became more of a “onesie” (aka bloomers).
They also did that, yes. A chemise/shift was considered the basic undergarment, anything else was extra. Shifts were changed out just as often as we change our underpants.
@@humaneleaguelancPA my ggrandmother had my grandmother at 55.
Despite the poor understating of math by an Atlantic "writer," surprise 45+ babies were normal until ww2 - Korean war, and 96% of those babies were indeed born normal with fewer maternal deaths than younger women. How women over 40 are the highest demographic of abortions die to that article that the writer completely messed up the statistic.
I never put two and two together! 🤦♀️
Just when we think modern times are so scandalous and the old days were so prudish 😅 we get taught the facts
The "Can Can" was the "Thong Song" of it's day.
To be fair, thong song includes a thong to cover up. Can can showed all.
My ballet studio does the can can dance every 2 years, I finally got to participate in it this year and was so much fun, I even got to perform some tumbling as well, this was a fun fact to learn!
My youngest daughters dance troupe performed the Can Can EN POINTE' sans the crotchless underwear, short ruffled bloomer panties. It was THRILLING however I know it killed lots of knees and ankles and feet which showed up much later.
Ya know, I used to hear clothing got more skimpy over time, There are no words for this.
The can canners were pre sharon stone! 😂😅 wow, I never knew!
I knew that drawers like this existed, and yet I never put two and two together. Thanks for this video! It all makes so much more sense now.
Oh wow!! I didn’t even think about the fact that that’s their underwear so they were literally showing everybody the goods with those crotchless ones!! Lmaooooo I love it!!
Yep! That would be scandalous even by today's standards to dance that with your hooha hangin' out your split drawers.
So, the CanCan dance was the original "Basic Instinct".
One of the best channels on RUclips hands down! 🏆
Me and the boys on our way to go back to 1860 to watch a CanCan performance:
Answering a question I didn't know I needed an answer for until now.
Too bad the Can-Can isn't popular now amazing truly amazing😂😂😂❤❤❤❤❤
Oh Lord!!!!😂😂😂
Guess again
🤣 When I was in France, I was playing Barbies with my little host sister (like 6 y.o.) and made one do the Can Can, because to me, it's just silly and fun. But the horror on my host mom's face when she saw told me France didn't quite see it that way 😂😭 Now I know why! 🤣
No it's just a dance, yes it is weird if your half naked under it, but nowhere near as scandalous as the twerk x) . Nobody dans the french cancan half najed, it was an old weird thing. Plus if a child dance the french cancan it's more cute than weird, really, and some old people may not see it that way because they are stuck in the past, but some others will be really proud that others people dance it ^^
Those are very green eyes you got there. Awesome.
Back it was originally popular, it was the equivalent of a modern strip club dance.
Hahaha! I found this out in the late 80s or early 90s. No one believed me when I told them. 😅😂
I only hear it when the can can sale is happening at the grocery store 🤣
Well _there's_ two pieces of knowledge I had that I never put together!
And before the 1850s, respectable women didn't wear drawers at all! They didn't need to because their skirts were so long and they wore lots of petticoats. The bell-like crinoline dresses of the Second Empire could be much more revealing because the whole point of them was to give volume without the weight of layers and layers of petticoats. So coming down stairs, in high winds, or sitting down carelessly tended to show much more leg, or even more! I did a lot of research into this because I wrote a book on the Cancan in the 1990s.
Wait what book? Drop the link!
@@thesewloartist I thought I replied before but it's disappeared. I said you could try my website (somewhat out of date now) but I think they blocked my message because I put a link in. I should have said that in the 1890s the Moulin Rouge wouldn't allow its dancers on to the dance floor with open drawers and employed a man to make sure they were sewn up. His name was Father Modesty - Père la Pudeur!
crotchless undies have been a thing for centuries it seems 💀
They've been a thing for much longer than modern closed-crotch underwear.
This explains SO MUCH. 😂
Ayo so they were just flashing people the whole time 😧
Really enjoying seeing others reactions to this one 😅 I mean I knew the reason as she describes but I FORGOT I KNEW till this vid comes up. Thanks for that haha
They made us dance it at school for a play about Europe… We were 10 years old 😂…
Thank you!!! I have been trying to tell people this for years!!!
"le gasp" i can can see why it was scandalous 😂
I didnt put 2 × 2 together in the past...i guess i was out to lunch....😅
I also believe the Waltz was similar in being a very scandalous dance around it's initial introduction?
In that, they viewed it as sexual because you were so close to your partner, compared to other dances of the time.
So after this Bit of Knowledge I will Forever hear the music of the "Can Can" blurring into the song "I See Your Camel Toe"!!!!! 🥰🤠👍
The pumm pumm flashing yesss😍😍😍
The-
Okay………
I've always heard the petticoat/undergarment piece of a skirt referred to as a can can. My family is Indian 😅
So much for Boot Hill being historically accurate. Probably a good thing though, my 4th grade teacher played Miss Kitty for years.
It's Orpheus in the Underworld
my inner toddler is wondering if you can find a "historically correct performance" somewhere.
Yeah, most toddlers don’t want to get a peek via a “historically correct performance” 🙄 that’s not what toddlers are thinking about, man.
@@sshultz I think they were joking! Maybe you were too!
@@humaneleaguelancPA Why would you joke about something like this? Children and s*x should be an automatic 🚫 for the brain, not something to be expressed even for a joke! Disgusting.
I always knew it was scandalous but never knew why…
This explains it. Lol
“Can can- can you see my can-can?”
I still think that dance is scandalous ok. And I’m only 27 and a women…
just had to add my age and gender because most women my age are Twerking for attention
You want a cookie?
because us poor sinners need obviously the opinion of a mysoginistic pick me that shoves her beliefs onto the throats of others saying she's superior than grown women that have all the right to twerk as much as they want
@@emildeezhow old are you?
So what? Live and let live
Same, except I'm 28.
I am so in love with your outfit!!!!
That adds up, especially with how they thought ankles were once scandalous as well...
I'm ngl all I can hear is the periodic table song in the background
Can you please show dresses People used When they were pregnant?
WOW! I sure understand why it was so naughty! Thanks for the history lesson! Gosh my grandma turned off the Ed Sullivan Show when Elvis Presley was on there! She was so upset about him she probably wouldn't even think the words!
Your split drawers are really Cool…
The Can Can🎵tune makes me feel very Happy…!!!
Oh...OH! 😂😂😂😂 that penny took a minute to drop.
The only thing that comes to my mind when listening to cancan is the periodic table song 😂
My jaw actually dropped….that’s crazy! Lol 😂
omfg full frontal exposure girl why it is not worth it
Oh wow! Never thought of the split draws 😮 That certainly puts a twist on the "on sale" theme song 😂
i now wonder whether i should have watched all those ship rite commercials as a kid
Oh thank God, I'm not the only one who made a Shop Rite comment
That makes so much more sense than just ... legs being the scandalous part. lol
My favorite part of can can is the guy going ham on the triangle
😆🤣🤣 Well,well, well, I suppose the lingerie stores here CAN come up with a few CAN- did ideas ! N'est-ce pas? 😂
The way my two separate and seemingly unconnected special interests just THUMPED into place like a science fiction space ship docking onto a landing platform
😨😨😨 you learn something new every day.
It also sheds a good bit of light on the extreme practicality of the whole side-saddle phenomenon.
Our high school dance team danced this (as we celebrated as a town the 1862 discovery of gold) and while I knew it was scandalous (legs in the air and all) I did not know about split drawers then. 😂
Thank you for shedding the light on this. I never heard about "split drawers," and that would be scandalous!