Permitted to Pant: Modernity and the Visual Culture of Women in Trousers

Creative women in France such as George Sand and Rosa Bonheur famously had to apply for permits to wear pants in public, but their demand for trousers went beyond mere practical needs. Sand, Bonheur, and other women in France and beyond helped popularize the striking visual culture of women in pantalons, which soon became a fashion and media trend in Western Europe, the United Kingdom, and the USA. This presentation will explore the evolving image of the betrousered woman in transatlantic modernity and its relationship to feminism, suffrage, equal rights, and other issues.

Abigail Susik is Joint Editor of Bloomsbury’s Transnational Surrealism Series and author of Surrealist Sabotage and the War on Work (Manchester UP, 2021). She is the editor of Resurgence! Jonathan Leake, Radical Surrealism, and the Resurgence Youth Movement, 1964-1967 (Eberhardt, 2023), and coeditor of the volumes Surrealism and Film after 1945: Absolutely Modern Mysteries (Manchester UP, 2021) and Radical Dreams: Surrealism, Counterculture, Resistance (Penn State UP, 2022). Two books are forthcoming in 2025: her anthology, Surrealism, Bugs Bunny, and the Blues: Selected Writings on Popular Culture 1965-2008, by Franklin Rosemont (PM Press); and her volume Surrealism and Animation: Transnational Connections, 1920-Present(Bloomsbury). Susik is Department Chair and Associate Professor of Art History at Willamette University in Oregon, and a founding Board Member of the International Society for the Study of Surrealism.

Lecture in English language. Limited number of participants.
To participate in the event, all guests need a valid museum ticket.
Participation is free for annual ticket holders, Weltmuseum Wien Friends, Patrons, Members and Ambassadors as well as ICOM members and holders of the Kulturpass.
Registration:  online
Meeting point: WMW Forum