CULTURE WATCH : Before Madonna

“100 Years of Western Wear,” written by Tyler Beard, photographed by Jim Arndt and published by Gibbs Smith of Layton, Utah, is in bookstores.

It contains an excerpt from a ranch woman’s diary:

“First I discarded, or rather refused to adopt, the sunbonnet, conventional headgear of my female neighbors. When I went unashamedly about under a five-gallon Stetson, many an eyebrow was raised; then followed a double-breasted blue flannel shirt with white pearl buttons, frankly unfeminine.

“In time came blue denim knickers . . . slow evolution (or was it decadence?) toward a costume suited for immediate needs.

“Decadence having set in, the descent from the existing standard of female modesty to purely human comfort and convenience was swift. A man’s saddle and a divided riding skirt was inevitable. This was the ‘90s.”

The 1890s.

There is no indication, however, whether the cowgirl ever pushed her emancipation further by attempting to vote for Teddy Roosevelt.