Keyword – turn of the century

Huszti-Szlama, Gabriella Zsófia:

”There was a stampede, the crowd shouted abuse and then ripped their clothes off...”

In recent years, the concept of moral panics has been in the spotlight of interest again, mainly because of issues linked with current politics, society, the economy, and culture such as migration, artificial intelligence, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The term was first used in 1971 by Jock Young, and the theoretical framework was developed by Stanley Cohen. Most researchers used the concept to analyse contemporary changes, but it has also been used to study historical themes such as witch hunting and the widespread garottings in London in the mid-19th century. In the context of the historical extension of this term, the paper will look into the moral panic caused by women’s trousers in the Hungarian press between 1896 and 1914.

Keywords: dressing, fashion, moral panic, turn of the century, women wearing trousers