Hatpins

A fashionable pin

Primary function of keeping

Fashionably large hats in place

On top of Edwardian women’s heads.

When they started to gain some freedoms

Being out of the house a bit more.

Sharing public spaces with men more

Existing.

At some point such pins

Caused a panic—

Debates, to ban them

Or to shorten them.

For safety? Whose?

Mashers.

Grabby, ‘Gentlemen’ that

Didn’t know personal space.

More freedoms of women

Sharing public spaces—

The pin gains another use

Self-defense.

A prick for a prick

The handsy ‘gentlemen’

Getting a pin-prick

Causes pandemonium.

The ‘good old days.’

Back when men could

‘Compliment’ a woman.

Not like today,

When women became ‘sensitive.’

More like not putting up with

Cat-calls and butt smack and

So much more.

Not putting up with harassment

Just like women before

Even when they had more layers

But their modesty was the problem,

So were their pins,

Not the ‘men’s’ actions.

Just ingrained.

Even back in the day

They just ‘asked for it.’

Existing in the same space

Never, if the men didn’t want

a small pin-prick

They could just keep their hands

To themselves.

Perhaps the grabby ‘men’

Were just ‘asking for it.’