Clothing, Choice, and Coercion

[Marc Chevalier]

You definitely need courage and confidence in yourself to be an individual in Sydney. More people than not admire those who style themselves differently to the drone masses, but there are many who try to make you feel as uncomfortabel as possible for not following the flow.

No wonder so many Chileans moved to Australia! It's just like back home for them! lol

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[Benny Holiday]

Ha ha! Yeah, I have a lot of friends whose parents emigrated from South America, especially Chile!

 

[Benny Holiday]

fftopic: Cool! I'm an A-list customer now!

 

[nightandthecity]

I remember an incident when I was a kid in the '60s. We were leaving a Red Sox game at Fenway. A couple of guys who were leaving grabbed another guy who was leaving and beat him up.

The attackers and victim were alike in most ways -- they were all baseball fans of around the same age. The only difference was that the victim was the only guy around who was dressed in hippie clothes and the attackers weren't.

So this was a case of violence arising from what someone chose to wear, and right here in the USA. Of course this was 40 years ago.

Might this still happen in the USA today? Don't know.

Incidents like that were common and widespread in Britain in the 60s. I personally knew several people that were beaten up in the street for looking "hippie-ish" or having long hair, and verbal abuse was pretty much a daily affair ( I put hippie-ish in quotes because many people's use of the term was VERY indiscriminate. Like "punk" later, the term "hippy" tended to be applied to any young person who dressed a bit non-conformist, regardless of how they defined themselves.).

I remember seeing one incident in the papers where gangs of servicemen had gone through the streets attacking "hippies" and forcibly cutting their hair: this was reported approvingly.

Dress codes in general were very strict. I can remember being refused service in ordinary downmarket cafes just because I was wearing jeans and an A2. Both jeans and leather jackets were considered a very radical statement and particularly hated by devotees of Mrs. Lauranorder. Bikers were especially feared: it was common to see notices on the doors of pubs and cafes saying that people in jeans or leather jackets wouldn't be served: this was really aimed at bikers, though the policy would be strictly and literally enforced on anyone.

As for vintage: that was "old clothes" and meant you were poor. When I started wearing vintage suits and hats the reaction I got was similar to as if I was wearing rags. My poor old mum has never really reconciled herself to my dealing in "old clothes".

I supposethe point I'm trying to make is that society was very repressive in these matters and it was NOT about "smartness" or "dressing well" versus being a "slob" but about conformity to a very narrow code, and that code was often violently enforced.