When I posted my tribute to Patsy Cline yesterday, the general agreement seemed to be that people used to look a lot older when they were young.
When I was a kid, my mother had strict rules about how a woman should look and behave according to her age. Adult women shouldn't have long hair. The looked better in knee-length dresses, should always wear hose, and should always powder their noses before going out. They didn't speak too loudly or too assertively in public even if they were smarter than all the men in the room which she quite often was. Women should look and act their age, and from my perspective, women like my mother all looked like grandmothers.
When it was time for me to have a new dress, my mother would drag me into the fabric shop to choose a pattern and fabric. I liked playing with the wall of buttons and spools of thread, but beyond that, a trip to the fabric store was as appealing as going to Home Depot for two by fours. My mother would sit me down in front of the big books from McCalls and Simplicity and walk me through the isle lined with bolts of material, and almost every time, she would look over my choices and shake her head. "That fabric is too old for you." or "That style doesn't suit your age." I never understood why there had to be such strict lines of distinction--if I wanted the green paisley, then why couldn't I have the green paisley? Instead I had to have the childish prints and childish patterns because those were the intended choices for children.
Those lines of distinction seem to have blurred. There are certain styles that only a skinny teenager can wear. There are certain styles that work best on women in their early twenties. But beyond that, the fabric store is wide open, and women can wear whatever they'd like regardless of their age, usually. And they can do whatever they'd like with their hair regardless of their age. Maybe those lines have been blurred because women don't want to look like their grandmothers anymore, and they don't want to be locked into unnecessary restrictions.
If Patsy Cline were alive today, I don't know if she'd look like Minny Pearl or more like Shania Twain, but at least she'd have options.
When I was a kid, my mother had strict rules about how a woman should look and behave according to her age. Adult women shouldn't have long hair. The looked better in knee-length dresses, should always wear hose, and should always powder their noses before going out. They didn't speak too loudly or too assertively in public even if they were smarter than all the men in the room which she quite often was. Women should look and act their age, and from my perspective, women like my mother all looked like grandmothers.
When it was time for me to have a new dress, my mother would drag me into the fabric shop to choose a pattern and fabric. I liked playing with the wall of buttons and spools of thread, but beyond that, a trip to the fabric store was as appealing as going to Home Depot for two by fours. My mother would sit me down in front of the big books from McCalls and Simplicity and walk me through the isle lined with bolts of material, and almost every time, she would look over my choices and shake her head. "That fabric is too old for you." or "That style doesn't suit your age." I never understood why there had to be such strict lines of distinction--if I wanted the green paisley, then why couldn't I have the green paisley? Instead I had to have the childish prints and childish patterns because those were the intended choices for children.
Those lines of distinction seem to have blurred. There are certain styles that only a skinny teenager can wear. There are certain styles that work best on women in their early twenties. But beyond that, the fabric store is wide open, and women can wear whatever they'd like regardless of their age, usually. And they can do whatever they'd like with their hair regardless of their age. Maybe those lines have been blurred because women don't want to look like their grandmothers anymore, and they don't want to be locked into unnecessary restrictions.
If Patsy Cline were alive today, I don't know if she'd look like Minny Pearl or more like Shania Twain, but at least she'd have options.
Comments
Did your mother put you through what ours put us through, Robyn?
Dressing us IDENTICALLY?
We hated that! We would rather have gone to school in our pajamas.
Robyn my mother must have been the antithesis to yours then. I was encouraged to wear trendy stuff. I remember wearing tights, even stockings at nine, bras and psychadelic mini dresses with kipper ties and fairly high shoes. My mother looked like Doris Day/Marilyn Monroe and occasionally on a bad day, Diana Dors with shapely sixties dresses and fawning men wherever she went as i recall. Whilst being secretly proud to have a glam mum, it was slightly embarrassing at parents' evening (when she occasionally went) when she turned up in pristine, smart pink suit with matching shoes whilst my friends' mums wore floral workaday dresses or slacks with breast flattening bras under sweaters (my mums were pointy of course).
lol ahhh childhood. lol.
Lynn, your mother sounds delightful. How fun. I have heard my kids say I don't look like the other mothers, and they seem to mean it in a good way, but I would never put myself in the league of Doris Day--I loved her.
And the 100 things: it may seem self-absorbed, but it really is an interesting exercise, even if you never post it.
Yes it was fun, though she was a little self-absorbed herself.
My sons say it too Robyn, isn't it great? I must say i like not being like others. I'm sure we don't consciously set out to be unlike them. No let's be honest, we do. We don't want those floral workaday dresses do we Robyn, or anything else they do. No we don't.
you are so right about choices and how things have changed in that direction.
I think I'd like to see a few of your mum's rules come back. You know, nothing too strict, but let's say... um, if you're a celeb, wear knickers when you head out on the town. Let's bring a bit of class back.
Prudence, I have said before that Rich is my long lost brother. I suspect you are our long lost sister--welcome to the family. I know I should be grateful for having clothes as a kid, but honestly I hated the homemade clothes when everyone else had cool clothes from the store.
GG, class is definitely missing these days. Let's bring it back, but as guidelines instead of rules. Some people, like myself, just look silly in pumps and skirts.
Perhaps he should think how alike they both dress now, in their rugby shirts....!!!!