The Unmentionable History of the West

by Nancy Millar

The Unmentionable History of the West is a fond romp through the underwear that men and women wore in days gone by. Think of corsets, navy blue bloomers, long underwear with its trap door and brassieres that could kill. Think also of the other unmentionables that came along with being sexual beings. Women had to hide their pregnancies, talk of birth control was illegal, seduction was a crime, prostitution likewise. There were so many silences, so many secrets about the private lives of men and women. Then along came the 1960s and the social revolution known as the women's movement. Suddenly, underwear was out, girdles were gone and women began wearing pants. What came first then . . . the women's movement or pants? The removal of restrictive underwear or the force that was Gloria Steinem? The Unmentionable History of the West tackles these questions seriously, but with a good dose of humour.

Genres: Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 9, 2006

Reviews

[Carina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Millar's work has a unique perspective in that has a great deal of history that is specifically related to Canada. However, I struggle to believe that this book came out in 2006 as the attitude is of someone writing twenty to thirty years earlier. "The Unmentionable History of the West"? More like "The Unmentionable Blanket Statement of the West". Millar strips the historical women of agency, paints history with the same brush of "these poor oppressed women", and writes with enough pathos that my molars started to ache from the pain of overwhelming emotional appeal. The introduction has a picture where the caption starts with "If only we knew the story of this beautiful woman in white..." (you [Millar] are the historian; you should be able to tell us if you're bringing up the point). This was simply the first of many languid sighs over how incomplete history is and how neglected women are. What really made me want to scream was a paragraph on page 79:

"Childbirth was often a figure-it-out-for-yourself problem. If you were lucky, there was a hospital nearby or a doctor who would hitch up a horse and buggy to come for the delivery. If that wasn't possible, a woman could hope to get an aboriginal woman to help. These women had looked after birthing for thousands of years, so they were good at it..."

I'm sorry? Were only Native American women giving and assisting with births? Millar will also make the odd reference to something outside of the time period (1800-1950) she is specifically writing about, which was jolting and also undermined her shaky authority on the subject (believe it or not, the rules of 1800s Canada don't readily apply to 1200s and 1400s England). Millar never put in any footnotes or even a proper bibliography. There is a "Sources and Suggested Reading" at the back (59 items, most of which are memoirs [not bad but would be better if balanced with relevant articles and government records]), which gives the book the authority of a local historian who published their findings and may or may not have been adequately fact checked.

Alongside stripping the agency of actual historical women, Millar regularly comments on the "bad old days" (not arguing that, but yikes! Apparently life was a living hell before the invention of Kotex, and even after then it's barely acceptable) and all men at that time either didn't care of about their wives having endless children or were as squeamish as their delicate prairie wives about sexual matters, especially concerning underwear and condoms. Jaded romanticism seems to be a kind of describing the author's attitude. It almost reads like a half-researched post or romance novel where the situations are removed from their historical context and held up in the sterile environment of modern morals and judged accordingly.

This wasn't about undergarments and other "unmentionable" parts of history so much as it was a lament as to the horrors women underwent and will we, with the luxury of dressing however we want and the freedom of modern sanitary products, ever be able to understand those terrible times? Well, probably no, but there's no need to be dramatic about it. And if you're going to lament the horrors, putting a corset with nipple tassels on the cover destroys what remains of the limp call to feminism and female liberation.

*I'm not even going to start with her section about the ills of the corset, especially since so many of the popular myths concerning corsets have been debunked at this point.

[Damaris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever picked up a book, finished reading it, and felt like screaming- WHERE HAS THIS BOOK BEEN MY WHOLE LIFE?! I felt that way with this one!! As a female history buff, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of women's fashion. The Unmentionable History of the West is an absolutely fantastic overview of Western Canadian history on previously *unmentionable things*... especially to do with women. Nancy Millar does a brilliant job on writing and making topics such as undergarments, menstruation, or childbirth very accessible to whomever is reading her book. Her tone is homey, welcoming and makes you feel at-ease and comfortable. This book is going on my recommendation list for any Canadian history teachers, or anyone who is interested in learning more about women's history. Absolutely brilliant!!

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that the full title of this book really says it all: "The Unmentionable History of the West: Undressing our history of corsets and crinolines, bustles and brassieres, girdles and garters, secrets and silences." This isn't just a factual list of what women wore (as far as we can know). It's about the hows and whys of undergarments in the West.

(I am also very pleased that the "West" mentioned in the title of course refers to the Canadian West, not solely the American West. It's so difficult to find Canadian-specific history books sometimes!)

It attempts to answer quite a few very interesting subjects. Why did women "subject" themselves to wearing tight-laced corsets? Who did wear such undergarments? How did women wash and dry their underclothes without having them seen by all and sundry? (One of the more interesting answers: drying underwear within pillowcases so they weren't seen!) Most importantly, I think: how does a woman juggle propriety and practicality on the frontier?

It's a fascinating book which makes liberal use of archival photographs and images, many from old mail-order catalogues.

One of my only critiques is that while it as a lovely list of sources and required reading in its final pages, the author doesn't actually footnote her work throughout. Sometimes she of course makes mention of where she got her information from - particularly fascinating are the many private interviews she made with elderly women - but I always appreciate knowing precisely where she got her information from without having to dig through every book in the bibliography.

A fascinating social history of a subject that remained little talked about for far too long!

[Christopher Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally delightful! Despite a title and cover illustration that would lead one to think that this book limits itself to women's underwear, that is not the case. Starting with fashion, Millar proceeds to other "unmentionables" in women's lives in the 19th and early to mid 20th centuries: menstruation (just what did Aboriginal women use as tampons?), intercourse, birth control (illegal in Canada until 1969!), illegitimacy and toilet functions especially as women entered such male-dominated realms as the armed forces. While this book focuses on Canada and the Canadian West, the topics listed above are certainly universal in their scope. In addition to those "unmentionables, here we also have descriptions of such aspects of family life as mail-order brides and the Saturday Night Bath.

Millar writes in a casual, conversational style, quoting liberally from interviews she conducted herself and displaying a nicely puckish and gentle humour toward arcane practices and attitudes but never at the expense of the poor women who despite all the obstacles and hardships, nobly performed their inherent roles as mothers of the human race.

Women will love this book but as a never-married man, I can attest that all men probably will too. Eye-opening.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the history of unmentionables of the women of western Canada. Beginning in the late 1800’s up until the 1960's. It was amazing how these women survived being so bound up in the undergarments and isolated. Information on women, their bodies etc. was not shared, everyone kept quiet. As services became available for families, women were judged harshly based on British standards of how proper women behave, not how to survive in northern winters.

[F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but very meandering with no real structure.

[Muriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Answers many things that you often wondered about. A delightful read. Not as funny as the authors book about old time weddings in the west, but I certainly enjoyed this one too.