Fashion Statement ..... Chapter 6
Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett.1886
For small boys, the period posed a problem of identity. By nature, the normal youngster saw himself as Tom Sawyer. Mark Twain had drawn his hero from memory. But the mothers of many small boys preferred to recast their offspring as Little Lord Fauntleroy, a fictional golden-curled child who called his mother, "Dearest", wore spotless velvet suits, and discussed world affairs with the corner grocer. As a result of the motherly fascination with the doll-like Fauntleroy, many unfortunate sons had to face the streets coifed and dressed as in the style above. Naturally there were hoots and sneers from youngsters who had escaped such maternal excesses. And just as naturally, there were some hard knuckled confrontations with those of the Tom Sawyer persuasion. Metaphorically speaking, hopefully.
posted by jm at 3:35 AM
16 Comments:
Ha! Ha! Ha! ah me, well this tribe is born into the world bald as billiard balls for the first two years. The white down gets replaced by some silky stuff that is still better handled with a washcloth than a comb.
When my son was three and those lovely shiny silky curls actually looked like Hair. He was adorable. And yes long curling eyelashes and big blue eyes, so cute i just wanted to smooch him!
....off to visit the family for Solstice. The day before we leave i find him in the bath with sissors, the front locks are already in the sink.
Everywhere we went people leaned over desks to inquire, " Did you cut your own hair?" On the plane he looks at me smugly, "See everyone loves it!"
"No, everone just notices."
"Same thing."
The truth that falls from a three year-old's mouth is staggering.
Being a tomboy i'm first in line for skinned knees and elbows, playing in dirt, but the hair...i do confess, the curls were awfully cute.
There is a picture somewhere of my grandfather & his brother all dressed up, curls and all . . . boy, did they look snarly! :-) I'll have to dig through the ancient picture collection at my folk's house to see if I can find it.
My hair story - when I was about 6 yrs & had white blond hair, my older sister decided to color it for me. She used house paint, as in oil based . . . my mom had to cut it all off w/ clippers. There are photos of us all in Easter dresses, and one pissed off looking Scorp Rising! I do remember clearly the local grocer rubbing the top of my new buzz cut & laughing. :-) I also remember suppressing the urge to bite him . . .
Ha!Ha! Oh Neith my sides! i can just see you pissed off but unbelievably cute.
Yes, my son cut his own hair and it was just as raggedy and he was just as proud. But now he's ten and very particular. I once went to a "hair designer" who wanted to make me look like Cleopatra, and I came out looking like Bozo the Clown.
Speaking of Frances Hodgson Burnett, I've been reading A Little Princess to him, and he enjoys it as much as I did when I was a little girl. Its terribly politically incorrect, but such a wonderful fairytale. I'm thinking of rereading LLFauntleroy. Wasn't Hemingway one of those who suffered from the "Dearest" thing. And he was terrible with women the rest of his life, though also terribly attractive.
Speaking of Frances Hodgson Burnett, I've been reading A Little Princess to him, and he enjoys it as much as I did when I was a little girl. Its terribly politically incorrect, but such a wonderful fairytale.
Have you read "The Secret Garden"? I loved it as a child as well as A Little Princess. Frances Hodgson Burnett was an interesting woman . . divorced twice which must have been scandalous around the turn of the Century. She was born Nov 24, 1849 - a good Sagittarius woman!
ROFL!
bald as billiard balls
That was me until I became a raven haired beauty!
Incredible hair stories! That's hysterical about the oil paint. What mothers go through! And how nervy kids are.
From Cleopatra to Bozo is a long stretch.
I read the Secret Garden recently. A beautifully illustrated version. Thanks for the astro info neith.
This whole thing fascinates me. The gender factor is ancient. Who wears the high heels in the family is the question, isn't it?
I wonder if mothers overall like their boys to be a bit feminine.
And the hair dilemma. Who really cares about war and suffering when the important things loom before us?
Same here. I have photographs of my grandfather looking remarkably feminine as a young boy. Apparently it was the style way back when. And I recently saw a tapestry depicting an Elizabethan-era trio (2 women and a man). The man was wearing those short-short poofy things they wore then, with hose and little sandals. The women are covered from the neck down, while the man would be considered foppish today. And today it's the women who are nearly naked and the men not showing much skin. Bizarre! And then there's the white powdered wigs that men wore in the colonial America days and in the French aristocracy...
"Nothing is right or wrong, 'tis only thinking makes it so." --Shakespeare, from some play or other...
Nothing is right or wrong
Or...
We just can't seem to get it right
It's absolutely amazing to see how ill defined these images have been throughout history and how hopelessly people continue to separate.
I wonder where the trend is going in our society. Men's hair got long awhile back, and women's short. Women are losing their breasts to cancer and I wonder if they will eventually stop implanting. I saw a lady the other day with one large pendulous breast and one indentation where the other used to be. A beautiful bold women. I asked her if she wore a prosthesis and she said...sometimes. She was magnificent. She said losing a hand would be problematic, but a breast isn't. She's a professor of Greek and Roman so she's probably philosophical by nature. It was an inspiring moment to meet and talk with her so openly.
The thing I'm waiting for is for men to get out of the hangman's noose...the necktie.
I'm with you, jm. I haven't worn a necktie in about 15 years and never will. I don't care if it looks unprofessional at a job interview or inappropriate at a funeral. It cuts off circulation and severs the head from the rest of the body. No wonder so many men are out of touch with their physical body.
Perfectly said joe. And I'm amazed that it's been 15 years.
I've noticed that when boys and men dress in women's clothes they get absolutely hysterical. My transvestite friends call it liberating.
Three of them spent a weekend in Amsterdam dressed as nurses and the whole affair escalated into hilarity as the city got to know them. It was a a city wide party never to be forgotten.
Actually they weren't serious transvestites. Just drag queens.
I did see a very solemn transvestite in the grocery store recently and s/he was very interesting. Long hair and high heels but subtley dressed and the maleness left intact. The people around were cool and the incident was intriguing.
That's why transgenders, at least the ones who are secure in themselves, can be so Neptunian by dissolving rigid gender lines, and Uranian by being independent and revolutionary. They simultaneously put others at ease with their comfort with themselves, yet at the same time, they keep others on their toes by being unpredictable. They're like shapeshifters.
The insecure trans-people, the ones who are not yet fully integrated within themselves, are far more numerous, sad to say. They haven't had time or the opportunity to explore themselves. Sometimes it's due to racial or socioeconomic barriers, or sometimes it's financial barriers (such as surgery), or sometimes it's fear of exploring the unknown self.
We're all females. What we call males are modified females or, as some unkind souls might say, mutated females. Males have nipples for latent breasts & sometimes well-developed breasts. The famale "X" chromosome is in "both genders" with the "Y" of the male being an "X" with half arms & one missing arm as it's the full female that must do the work of birthing. But I imagine in severe circumstances that the male might also "bring up" the ability to nurse an infant. There've been stories.
It's also fairly common for the male urethra to not make it thru the penis/cliteris properly & have to undergo a bit of sergery. Thinking about a few of these things makes it easier to understand some of the hyperattention placed upon gay men & the transgendered. Nobody seems to give near as much thot & care to the female lesbian/transgendered.
That's why transgenders, at least the ones who are secure in themselves, can be so Neptunian by dissolving rigid gender lines, and Uranian by being independent and revolutionary. They simultaneously put others at ease with their comfort with themselves, yet at the same time, they keep others on their toes by being unpredictable. They're like shapeshifters.
That is so damned eloquent joe. Wow. I hadn't thought of the shapeshifter analogy and I love it.
The one in the store was like this. People had respect for him.
We've talked here about the fact that we all start as females. Amazing.
Thinking about a few of these things makes it easier to understand some of the hyperattention placed upon gay men & the transgendered. Nobody seems to give near as much thot & care to the female lesbian/transgendered.
This does seem to be so. And hyper is the word for it. A great nervousness. Interesting.
Joanna, I would venture to say it's related to the notion that being a female gender outlaw is easier than being a male gender outlaw. While there are certainly many more examples, the one that leaps to mind is that it's more outrageous for a man to wear women's clothes than vice versa. Something about compromising his masculinity...? *eyeroll* But a woman trying to imitate men? No problemo!
And you're right about males being modified females. Female is the default, and the word "matrix" echoes that.
It's also fairly common for the male urethra to not make it thru the penis/cliteris properly & have to undergo a bit of sergery.
Yes, the hypospadia. That occurs naturally in 1 - 300 births, I learned this past weekend at a conference. The presence of soy in food and food-like substitutes is causing a tremendous problem for baby boys worldwide as well as for men's sperm counts. Apparently the estrogens in soy disrupt the very delicate differentiation process during gestation.
Sometimes I think soy is the revenge of the Goddess for being suppressed for so long.
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