Ravenstone said:Quite a few boys were dressed as girls in Cushing's generation. Clothing didn't really differentiate between boys and girls much at some times. Didn't stop them knowing what was what though. Even if pink was originally a boys' colour anyway - apparently.
It was common among the poor. If a boy only had older sisters, he got their hand-me-downs.My dad (born 1928) was the last born, two older sisters. He wore their dresses until he was five.
Bearing in mind this was a very rural family, I wondered if this was a remnant of the old custom of dressing all children alike, in dresses (facilitating nappy changing) until the boys were 'breeched' and put into trousers.
My dad (born 1928) was the last born, two older sisters. He wore their dresses until he was five.
Bearing in mind this was a very rural family, I wondered if this was a remnant of the old custom of dressing all children alike, in dresses (facilitating nappy changing) until the boys were 'breeched' and put into trousers.
I've read that this a was common practice from the early modern period and into the 19thC, possibly early 20th, infant boys, up until around five - like your dad, would wear dresses and might even have long hair as well.
Little Franklin Delano Roosevelt sits primly on a stool, his white skirt spread smoothly over his lap, his hands clasping a hat trimmed with a marabou feather. Shoulder-length hair and patent leather party shoes complete the ensemble.
We find the look unsettling today, yet social convention of 1884, when FDR was photographed at age 2 1/2, dictated that boys wore dresses until age 6 or 7, also the time of their first haircut. Franklin's outfit was considered gender-neutral.
There was a lot of talk of 'dress boys like girls so the boys won't get stolen by the fairies', but I'm still not sure how true any of that was. I'm sure people believed that this might be the case, but I'm firmly on the side of 'dresses are more practical for nappy changing.'
Also the long hair? Have you ever tried to get a small child to sit still to have its hair cut? Easier to let it grow until it's old enough to threaten with having its ears cut off if it moves...
Blimey .. Mothers dressing their Son's as girls has been touted by serial killers as an influence on their later behaviour. It's a relief he got into acting instead.
It was actually pretty common back in the day. My family has a photo of my Dad when he was 2, looking like a little girl. I think Nana (grandma) wanted a girl, but my Dad arrived instead. He wasn't a serial killer.Blimey .. Mothers dressing their Son's as girls has been touted by serial killers as an influence on their later behaviour. It's a relief he got into acting instead.
It was actually pretty common back in the day. My family has a photo of my Dad when he was 2, looking like a little girl. I think Nana (grandma) wanted a girl, but my Dad arrived instead. He wasn't a serial killer.
Peter Cushing's mother dressed him as a girl because she really wanted a daughter, though. ...
In small town and rural America it was common through the 19th century and into the early 20th century to clothe little boys in "dresses" (frocks) until they were old enough to use pants. Folk art portraits of young kids from the 18th and early 19th centuries often show infant boys dressed similarly to girls.
I have a family photo of my father circa 1925 or 1926 sporting a girl-style "page boy" hair style and wearing a lacy-trimmed white "dress." He had two older sisters, and that may have had something to do with the available sartorial options, but still ...
In the old days there wasn't a huge supply of diversely-sized clothing for rapidly growing toddlers like there is today. It was also the case that clothing purchases weren't treated as casual transient trappings in those days.
...Boys would be kept in dresses as it was easier to toilet train them and also they needed to learn the dexterity to operate trouser clasps...
...Any guesses as to who he was?
Ernest Hemingway!
Is it Hemingway?