weak and unfit as its goal. People who did not read him closely soon ap-
plied this theory to social dynamics, and called the result Social Darwinism.
Social Darwinism was a very popular theory among white-collar workers
whose masculinity (and jobs) were threatened by women and immigrants.
1865 General James Miranda Barry, the inspector general of the
British Army Medical Department, dies in London, and is discovered after
death to have been female.
1870 In a world where clerks and secretaries are increasingly female,
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s novel Venus in Chainsturns male clerks’ ter-
ror of what Henry James called “damnable feminization” into a fantastic
story of fur-clad, whip-cracking women verbally and sexually abusing men.
Besides creating a stock figure for subsequent pornographic fiction, von
Sacher-Masoch’s conclusion retains some validity: “Whoever allows him-
self to be whipped deserves to be whipped.”
1875 Parisian street gangsters are reported shaving their heads and
dressing in metal-studded leather jackets; the press responds by calling such
people “apaches.” Originally, this name referred to a Belgian pepperbox
revolver that had a blade under its barrel and a knuckle-duster in its butt,
rather than to the Athabascan people of the American Southwest, but after
the Apache leader Geronimo became a household word, the revolver was
forgotten. Around 1890, the apache name also began to describe a sado-
masochistic dance genre in which tattooed, scarred women fought knife or
saber duels while stripped to their underclothes, or smiled while men
slapped them around.
1878 J. R. Headington argues in the American Christian Reviewthat
female athletics represent a nine-step path to ruin; for example, a croquet
party leads to picnics, picnics lead to dances, dances lead to absence from
church, absence from church leads to immoral conduct, immoral conduct
leads to exclusion from church (no forgiveness here!), exclusion from
church leads to running away, running away leads to poverty and discon-
tent, poverty and discontent lead to shame and disgrace, and shame and
disgrace lead to ruin. Although many middle-class women heeded Head-
ington’s advice, fewer upper-class women did, causing female athleticism,
especially in golf, tennis, and cycling, to become increasingly common
throughout the late nineteenth century.
1881 Author Charlotte Perkins Gilman of Providence, Rhode Island,
perhaps best known for her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” becomes
the United States’ first known female bodybuilder. Besides lifting weights,
Gilman ran a mile a day and boasted of her ability to “vault and jump,
go up a knotted rope, walk on my hands under a ladder, kick as high as
my head, and revel in the flying rings” (Guttman 1991, 124). By 1904,
fencing was also popular with Rhode Island society women; instructors678 Women in the Martial Arts