OOhhh Nooooooooooooooooooo! She
is not just showing her ankle, but her knee…enough to make a fair maiden swoon.
Who sets the standards – for
acceptable behaviour and dress? Particularly for women!
Taking a broader view, a
young man goes out and sows his wild oats and it ‘good on ya mate’, a girl tries
that it is ‘you are a ****’ or another derogatory word. Now I am not suggesting
that girls do or not do anything…I am simply comparing standards.
This week I have been away gathering
history. Ancestry has always interested me and I have made sporadic attempts to
sense of the information I have collected, it is now that I am serious about
doing it. Why now? Suddenly the older generation are either gone or dwindling
and with them goes the end of an era. The
stories they tell are rich in Australian history of a bygone age – and it is
not that long ago.
Life and society has changed
so much in a relatively short space of time. And here I mean women, their dress
and what is considered acceptable by society.
In the 17th century
as in the image, girls just imagine wearing all those clothes, being covered
from neck to ankle complete with long sleeves. And I am sure, a young lady
exposing her lower leg would have been considered more than risqué. How I would
love to go back in time and have a conversation with this girl, I shall call
her Marguerite. What delights would she have to tell me?
Forward to the early 20th
century, this photo is of a lady in my extended family, Isobel is her name. She
was never seen without being in full dress and I believe no man other than her
husband was allowed to touch her. The only parts of her body visible were her
face and her hands. If she were sitting and her dress moved to expose her shoe
she would tug at the hem to cover them, not even an ankle was allowed to show.
How stifling that must have been in mid summer in Western
Queensland. One would wonder how she ever managed to have children
or go though childbirth…
Isobel was the future
grandmother in- law to my sister. On going to meet the family in the mid 1950’s
Maxine made the fatal mistake of
appearing at breakfast in red short shorts, exposing her legs (obviously). Time
stood still, not a word was spoken, the old lady just stared before someone
wrapped a tea towel around Maxine
ushering her from the room and urging her to get changed. It was years before
she was able to redeem herself in Isobel’s eyes.
Today we see girls with snippets
of cloth aka bikini, or dressed as Clara, looking classy even with her long leg
exposed. Body parts are exposed all over, some on reflection would be better covered
up...but that is another story!
There is no right or wrong,
different times, different standards. Imagine Marguerite, Isobel and Clara
sitting having a chat….would the subject be ‘girls gone wild?’ I would love to
be a fly on the wall!
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