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When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?

#2
Never heard that dresses were gender-neutral for small children in the 19th century. Seems I've seen plenty of old photographs that show boys wearing traditionally "masculine" clothing, though commonly with short pants, transitioning to long pants during adolescence.

Re: When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?

#3
post #2

Never heard that dresses were gender-neutral for small children in the 19th century. Seems I've seen plenty of old photographs that show boys wearing traditionally "masculine" clothing, though commonly with short pants, transitioning to long pants during adolescence.

I love the picture of FDR in a dress.

http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/pink-and-blue-Frankli...

Re: When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?

#4
post #2

Never heard that dresses were gender-neutral for small children in the 19th century. Seems I've seen plenty of old photographs that show boys wearing traditionally "masculine" clothing, though commonly with short pants, transitioning to long pants during adolescence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeching_(boys)

Re: When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?

#5
post #2

Never heard that dresses were gender-neutral for small children in the 19th century. Seems I've seen plenty of old photographs that show boys wearing traditionally "masculine" clothing, though commonly with short pants, transitioning to long pants during adolescence.

It's hard to say if a 5 year old is a boy or girl withought clothing identifiers so it's not always obvious. However, from a practical standpoint a dress takes less effort to make, you don't outgrow them as fast, and it makes changing faster so I can see why it would be the gender neutral choice.

Re: When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?

#6
post #2

Never heard that dresses were gender-neutral for small children in the 19th century. Seems I've seen plenty of old photographs that show boys wearing traditionally "masculine" clothing, though commonly with short pants, transitioning to long pants during adolescence.

My guess is that it was very rare but because of agendas, it'll be played up and mentioned to seem as though it was more common than it actually was. Just me guessing... knowing nothing about the subject.

Re: When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?

#7
post #2

Never heard that dresses were gender-neutral for small children in the 19th century. Seems I've seen plenty of old photographs that show boys wearing traditionally "masculine" clothing, though commonly with short pants, transitioning to long pants during adolescence.

They were common in early 20th century as well. I have photographs of both my grandfathers wearing them as small children.

Re: When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?

#8
post #6
post #2

Never heard that dresses were gender-neutral for small children in the 19th century. Seems I've seen plenty of old photographs that show boys wearing traditionally "masculine" clothing, though commonly with short pants, transitioning to long pants during adolescence.

My guess is that it was very rare but because of agendas, it'll be played up and mentioned to seem as though it was more common than it actually was. Just me guessing... knowing nothing about the subject.

isn't this a nice example of healthy, unbiased skepticism?

lmao. "agendas".

Re: When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?

#9
One practical aspect of the same clothes until age 6 is that kids grow so fast you need to re-use clothes. In the 18th and 19th century when having clothes made was much more expensive, and the number of children a family had was high, the re-use would have been essential. Any parent today who has had two kids of one sex and then the third comes along of the other sex finds they have a bunch of boxes of things that they don't want to use.

We sought to keep our baby clothes especially and up to about age 3 clothes as neutral as possible for that reason.

Re: When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?

#10
post #5
post #2

Never heard that dresses were gender-neutral for small children in the 19th century. Seems I've seen plenty of old photographs that show boys wearing traditionally "masculine" clothing, though commonly with short pants, transitioning to long pants during adolescence.

It's hard to say if a 5 year old is a boy or girl withought clothing identifiers so it's not always obvious. However, from a practical standpoint a dress takes less effort to make, you don't outgrow them as fast, and it makes changing faster so I can see why it would be the gender neutral choice.

As a Father of four, this makes a whole lot of sense to me. I'd guess they'd potty train faster in a dress than in pants.
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