For the later part of the 19th Century, into the 20th Century, polite women had an effective defense against rape in the form of hat pins. Certain men had strong objections against that as well:
“Laws were passed in 1908 in America which limited the length of hatpins, as there was a concern they might be used by suffragettes as weapons. Also by the 1910s, ordinances were passed requiring hatpin tips to be covered so as not to injure people accidentally.”
Truthfully, it wasn’t just suffragettes they were worried about, but ordinary women defending themselves. An injury in the abdomen with a hat pin might not even be noticed at first, but could cause deadly internal bleeding, and later, deadly peritonitis (inflammation, often infection, of the peritoneum, the thin tissue that lines the inner wall of the abdomen and covers most of the abdominal organs.)
The idea that women might have a *lethal* defense against rape rather terrified many men who had at least an inclination to rape.
In 1900, the Chicago Tribune published a tabulation of the different weapons used by women in the previous year’s assaults. Involved in 55 assaults, hatpins were ranked between thrown plates (73) and hair brushes and hand mirrors (48).
In 1898 in Chicago, a woman vindicated the reputation of the hatpin as a woman’s most efficient weapon, and drove two robbers from a Blue Island avenue (street)car, stabbing both multiple times, preventing them from robbing the conductor.
There are many examples of women thwarting robbers, muggers and rapists with them.
Movie star Marlene Dietrich even proposed to Douglas Fairbanks that by concocting an elaborate ruse to get near him, she could use a poisoned hat pin to assassinate Adolf Hitler. However, becoming familiar with the tight security that surrounded him, it became obvious she could not smuggle it close enough to him to use it.
That’s Interesting!
Looked around for more info and found this site:
http://www.americanhatpinsociety.com/tour/history.html
with this passage
((1908 An English judge, fearing that their pins could be used as weapons in his court, ordered a group of suffragettes on trial to remove their hatpins and hats, an insulting request. In 1909 a bill was introduced in the Arkansas legislature which copied an Illinois law limiting the length of pins to 9 inches or making ladies take out permits to possess longer ones. The pins were considered deadly weapons. As a result ladies had to cut their pins to the shorter length if they wanted to wear them in public.))
Long ago—in the American west—women were armed to the teeth, Muff Guns, belly guns (put muzzel in mans belly and pull the trigger) knives, daggers, but the best weapon was the infernal hat pin—12 inch needle to be thrust into an eye, neck or groin! Rape was almost unknown. Why are we turning to chastity belts?