Leaving Nursery Status
Until the late 19th century, young Western boys and girls often wore the same attire: a dress. Unisex infant clothing made changing diapers easier and simplified the passing of garments from one child to the next. When a young boy had reached an age at which he could begin to train in manly pursuits, he would be dressed in pants rather than dresses. Before the 19th century, his clothing might be simply a miniature edition of adult wear. During the 19th century, men wore long pants and boys wore short pants.
In current Western societies, even infant clothing may be marked for gender, and there is no such transition as the donning of the first pair of pants.
Read more about this topic: Ceremonial Clothing In Western Cultures
Famous quotes containing the words leaving, nursery and/or status:
“When any one of our relations was found to be a person of a very bad character, a troublesome guest, or one we desired to get rid of, upon his leaving my house I ever took care to lend him a riding-coat, or a pair of boots, or sometimes a horse of small value, and I always had the satisfaction of finding he never came back to return them.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774)
“The very nursery tales of this generation were the nursery tales of primeval races. They migrate from east to west, and again from west to east; now expanded into the “tale divine” of bards, now shrunk into a popular rhyme.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A genuine Left doesn’t consider anyone’s suffering irrelevant or titillating; nor does it function as a microcosm of capitalist economy, with men competing for power and status at the top, and women doing all the work at the bottom.... Goodbye to all that.”
—Robin Morgan (b. 1941)