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The Bloomer Dress  For over eighteen centuries, women were expected to wear long dresses and skirts. It was a sign of femininity and beauty, but it also symbolized the social position of women in society. Indeed, the place of women has always been a vexed subject to discuss or write about. In a world led by men, women had to live in the shadow of their fathers, brothers and sons, unable, until the nineteenth century in some countries, to make a decision without a man's approval. Unfortunately, this situation is still true in some places such as the Arabic countries or Africa. In most countries, women earned the right to vote, to work and to take care of themselves during the nineteenth and twentieth century but the fight has never been easy and seems to have become even harder these past few years. To express themselves, American women tried all sorts of strategies to be heard by the patriarchal society, starting by something that seems natural nowadays but that must have been really hard to do back then: wearing the ''Freedom Dress'' or the ''Bloomer Dress'' in the 1850s.            First called the Freedom Dress, the Bloomer Dress was an outfit brought from Turkey by Elizabeth Smith Miller in 1851 which was later popularized by Mrs Bloomers. The women who adopted this trend were refered to as the ''Bloomerites'', as a tribute to the woman who popularized this Reform Dress.  At first, only a few women had the courage to wear this outfit, but the most adventurous ones would wear it proudly. They were usually and mostly from a high social class and would wear such outfits during parties and political events in order to challenge the nineteenth century gender system.            This dress was first made out of a dress that was shorter than usual and showed women's feet and ankles. For a time and in a puritan country, this seemed insanely ridiculous and scandalous: women were supposed to wear long dresses that would cover their entire body down to their feet. By cutting their dresses short, the creators of this 'Reform Dress' and their followers were trying to reject the position of women. Indeed, Gayle V. Fisher, in her book Pantaloons and Power, explains that only men were allowed to wear pants. At the time, wearing pants was a sign of power, since only men had the power and the right to wear them. By wearing the Reform Dress, women would show a little of their legs and gain a little power over their lives.Women represented wearing the Reform dress,http://www.victoriana.com/bloomer-costume/            Upon noticing the change, men got worried that women might actually get what they wanted : legal rights. However, this was America in the 1850s, and the country was not ready to let women gain 'that much' power over men. Though this trend lasted a few years, keeping it alive was not easy for those brave women. Indeed, Fisher relates that those wearing the Reform dresses were getting lots of hatred from a lot of people, including women. Many of them were not ready to let go of their position as good wives, sisters and daughters in the name of tradition. Women wearing the Reform Dress were getting looks and were called names.            In addition to wearing the Bloomer Dress, the Bloomerites were campaigning for more than the right to wear pants like men. These women elaborated one of the first forms of feminism and cleared the path for the first suffragettes. However, some of the revolutionaries were not as strong as the soon-to-be said suffragettes. Lots of them actually gave in to the majority and were forced to drop the Reform Dress; nevertheless, they kept fighting for their rights. These women were actually made fun of because of the appearance of the dress rather than the ideas the dress was carrying, even though rumors had it than some women looked better than others in this outfit.            Lucy Stone, one of those women -who looked better than others in the Reform Dress- was the first to drop this rebellious dress but only to put on another one. This new outfit was an actual short dress but with no pants underneath. Though she wore it for several years, she eventually stopped wearing it for a very simple and practical reason: the wind was getting in the skirt and would lift it up her legs; she ended up coming back to her old long dresses for convenience. Nevertheless, she never gave up fighting for women's rights.            The journey of the Reform Dress, the Bloomer Dress or the Freedom Dress reveals one of the starting points of a new area and a new start for women's political position. The phrase ''What is physical freedom compared with mental bondage?'' is taken from the book mentionned earlier, Pantaloons and Power, published at the very beginning of the twenty first century (2001). Its author quotes this statement uttered by one of the last women to wear this Reform Dress, Lucy Stone. Despite the fact that most of these rebellious women dropped the outfit after being called names or having their clothes damaged by other non-rebellious women, they were actually making a point of having legal rights and let the men decide on the way they were supposed to dress. On the other hand, they took the fight to another level. Instead of hiding their fight to gain civil rights behind fighting for their right to wear pants, they dropped the pursuit of physical freedom and started the real battle: getting rid of that mental bondage.Elise PontentierMaster Anglais&#160;