difficult images : gender identification page 1
Many of the images in this web site have been acquired with out the important details on who the people are and where and when the photographs were taken. Often we are forced to deduce the date from the style rather than use the date to follow style trends. Some of you have forwarded information and asked if I have any insights. In the case of children in dresses it is often difficult to determine gender.
Here are some difficult images I have encountered. Please let me know if you have any insights or thoughts. Your thoughts will be added by the different images. Hopefully out of the discussion will cone some useful insights.
Reader comment: I disagree with you, in my uneducated opinion. I think the middle child is a girl and the two on the outside are boys. The inside child's hair is not parted. She may even have bangs on her forehead. The inside child's collar is smaller than the outside children's. The large, square collars seem more like boys' styles than the dainty little collar on the central child. The boy/girl on the right (viewers' right) has a little bag hanging off the outside arm. It looks like a very full and rather heavy bag. Could it have marbles in it?
The outside child (standing) on the viewers' left has a boyish look. The middle child could be a boy because of the plaid material of its outfit. -- DS
Reader comment: I believe the children are froim the left a girl, boy, girl. The young child in the middle looks to have a side part. During the Civil War years girls had middle parts and boys side parts. Boys did wear long hair and sausage curls. I have a photo of one. -- BM
HBC reassessment: HBC believes that for the reasons stated in the image text box that the child on the left is a girl. The middle child is too young to tell, but as DS suggests, the plaid dress does suggest a boy and as BM suggests the side part also sugests boy. The collar is small, but HBC would not describe it as dainty. The difficult child to assess is the child on the right. For the reasons stated in the image box, HBC believes the child is a boy. He certainly looks like a boy. The fact that he wears a dress and collar similar to his sister on the far left, does leave HBC somewhat unsure as does the center hair part. But some brothers and sisters were dressed a like, so it is quite possible even when the baby is dressed differently that a boy and girl could be dressed alike. The locket the child is wearing does not signify a girl, bith young boys and girls wore them. HBC has no idea what is in the bag that the child is holdingm but it does not look to me very boyish. The center hair part does suggest a girl, especially if the portrait had been taken in the 1860s. The center part in the 1890s, however, is less definative.
HBC comment: I think this is a French image which I would date in the 1900s. I'm not sure though as to the gender of the children. I think the child on the right may be a boy, although dolls as props usually (but not always) mean a girl.
Reader comment: A French reader tells us, I agree that this is a French image. The child on the mother's knee is a girl, but the other child could be a girl or a boy.
In this time about the turn of the 20th century some boys had rag-dolls. In the early 20th the principal difference between a dress for boy 2-5 years old was the place of the
belt: low for boy and in at the waist for girl. The dresses for babies were similar , without belt. At this time the puffed sleeves were for girl. Some time later (1930s) the fashion changed and the boys 1-8 years old and even 10 yrs wore blouses with short puffed sleeves. During the late 1940s and early 50s I was very often dressed with blouses that had puffed sleeves.
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