The other day I stumbled upon a wonderful article from the Smithsonian Magazine that discusses gender, clothing & color (of clothing). It is packed with rich history and references and, in my opinion, much too dense to summarize here — though I will attempt to do just that.
I highly recommend that you all read the post if you haven’t already over at their website, link posted below.
While I have been aware for quite some time that boys used to wear pink while the preferred color for girls was blue, I had no idea that it was completely normal practice for boys to wear dresses for their first few years of life.
Along the way, of course, things changed radically but it is fascinating to discover this bit of trivia. As we all know, today’s society is unbelievably extreme when it comes to both clothing items and colors. I still get questions and weird looks if I wear a pink or lavender men’s shirt!
It is very interesting that society actually regressed in this area of life from being very open to very close-minded.
President Roosevelt in a dress.
Check out the article here.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
…just goes to show how much B.S. this gender-based social construct that we still have to deal with as males really is…
And don’t forget that back in the 1500′s, 1600′s, and 170o’s, it was the European males who wore the powdered wigs, high heels, make up, and elaborate, lace-trimmed fashions that in today’s world would be considered decidedly “gay”.
And despite these “girly” outfits, they were still “man” enough to subjugate and colonize much of the known world at that time by sheer willpower and force of arms – and no doubt as a result of all that testosterone still coursing through their bodies irregardless of what they wore.
It does remind us of how much gender is just a social construct and not innate. Let us all hope that we can continue to move to a time when everyone will be free to openly express their gender as they wish.
Sto true. I think it’s because of industry we came out. What I mean that our grandpartents, and our parent live thought this socitey. We our in the end of the industry society. In a new one so to speak out. The style is still of 40′s or 50′s industry society. I’m saying it a bad thing. But it’s still one sided. And I think the two or three piece suits the right thing the world. For instands you ever watched those old 60′s, 70′s and 80′s sci-fi movies of the future it doesn’t look the same as present-day earth. It looks different, I’m not said we should a lession from those movies. Okay we should. I may know what the future should bring. But I do know that shouldn’t basical the same thing as our gandparent. I believe we should change. Not stay the same. It like said it was good for by grandfather, and mine father it good for me! Not always true!