Paris To Permit Women To Wear Pants

A long-standing law in Paris, France that forbids women to wear trousers, might soon be repealed, the Telegraph UK reports. Ten French ministers submitted a bill to parliament to get rid of the outdated law, which was put into place in 1799.

The law was amended several times: once in 1892 to allow women to sport trousers while riding horses and again in 1909 to permit the ladies to wear pants while on bicycles.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy recently called on parliament to take a look at French laws that need reworking. The France pants ban is one of them.

Comments

[omobob]

06:58 PM on 05/20/2010

Intersting twist of irony, it was the Persians who gave the west pants. Until then it was robes, skirts and ponchos.

[Kamaal Khan]

10:06 AM on 05/10/2010

haha and they want to ban the veil.

[droog007]

08:03 AM on 05/10/2010

Are you kidding me? This must be a story from the Comedy section. Someone must have hit the wrong key at HP.

[EbonBear]

10:48 AM on 05/08/2010

I know for a fact that both Britain and the USA have equally absurd laws that remain on the books purely because everyone's forgotten they exist so let's not get too huffy about the French.

[MorganT]

05:58 PM on 05/09/2010

I was gonna say the same thing! Like parking your elephant in front of a fire hydrant. Obviously the law was not enforced in the first place

[momofvegasgirls]

08:01 PM on 05/07/2010

WHAT??? My husband is French grew up watching female friends, and family members wear pants In PARIS all of his life. I have been to Paris a million times and usually wear pants. My best friend resides in Paris and I'm sure this would make her laugh!! Is it a slow Friday or something?

[omobob]

07:00 PM on 05/20/2010

You’re lucky you weren’t accosted by an irate lawyer.

[pinkeyelemonade]

06:50 AM on 05/07/2010

Is this just now huge-ish news to me because French women ignore this mentally unsound law, or is it really enforced? Somehow I just never took notice.

[EbonBear]

10:46 AM on 05/08/2010

It's universally ignored. Virtually everyone had forgotten it was on the books.

[Daniel Roberts]

02:43 AM on 05/07/2010

Wasting the people's time and money to repeal a law that isn't even enforced...

[Dave Bee]

12:54 AM on 05/07/2010

is this law even folllowed today or is this something that is merely a waste of time?

[Jennifer Astle]

10:07 PM on 05/06/2010

And then there is this; http://jezebel.com/5532683/genital-cutting-advocated-by-american-academy-of-pediatrics

[IslandGyal]

07:27 PM on 05/06/2010

WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[Sock De Jour]

11:40 PM on 05/06/2010

It was never enforced. Coco Chanel changed fashion forever. She's the one who made them popular and acceptable, worldwide.

[norepublicanleftbehind]

05:37 PM on 05/06/2010

????LOL--I've been to Paris dozens of times and have never been stopped for wearing trousers.

OMG--Please repeal that ridiculous law.

[GeoNorth]

05:26 PM on 05/06/2010

Go back to the time of this stupid law's passing and you'll find that one of the fashions of the day included peasant blouses...with the tits hanging free. Women protested that and won, but this idiot idea hung on. You can't legislate culture.

[capitaldysfunction]

03:29 AM on 05/10/2010

I like it very much to return to peasant blouses. Excuse my english.

[Maribeth Curry]

05:20 PM on 05/06/2010

That's funny- I wore jeans in Paris in both 1971 and 1981- had no idea I was breaking a law tho I must say that in Marseille I was so uncomfortable in my jeans with the attitude of the men on the street that I went and bought a skirt- still had trouble rationalizing the need for a skirt when a mile away women were stripping on the beach and forgetting to put their tops back on .

[overcat]

03:33 PM on 05/06/2010

Right. Great headline. France is clearing the books of seriously outdated laws like many countries do. Laws still on the books but long since not enforced. My brother had a home in a suburb right on the edge of Paris that had a clause in the deed, dating from the 1800's, prohibiting the homeowners from using the premises to cure animal skins in accordance with a local ordinance from the time that the home was built. Needless to say he was crushed at having to abide by that restriction.

[Lachlan Prescott]

11:12 AM on 05/06/2010

Ok I'm gonna laugh now.