Liberator

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The Liberator you see here perched on a Statue of Liberty base ready to do battle is actually making a statement about women’s fashion and the difficulty of riding bicycles in 1888 - wearing corsets and heavy skirts. She comes off a French poster advertising Liberator Cycles, one of many handsome posters in the San Diego Historical Society’s exhibition in 1998 of the Pryor Dodge collection, called Bicycles: History, Beauty, Fantasy.

As a law-abiding suffragist and spokes-person for the Rational Dress Society, Liberator Babe made the following statement in a local newspaper: "The Rational Dress Society protests against the introduction of any fashion in dress that either deforms the figure, impedes the movements of the body, or in any way tends to injure the health. It protests against the wearing of tightly-fitting corsets, of high-heeled or narrow-toed boots and shoes; of heavily-weighted skirts, as rendering healthy exercise almost impossible; and of all tie-down cloaks or other garments impeding the movement of the arms. It protests against crinolines (lining) of any kind as ugly and deforming. The maximum weight of under-clothing (without shoes) approved of by the Rational Dress Society, should not exceed seven pounds."