为什么维多利亚时代的小男孩都穿裙子？

It has been said that clothes make the man. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant, but the fact remains that we, as a society, are all aware that appearance is everything; it’s the first thing most people notice when looking at someone. Unknowingly, more often than we care to admit, we judge people by what they wear or how they look. It’s in our nature and there’s nothing we can do about it. In a way, it’s a sort of an unwritten rule: if you want to make a killer first impression, you’ve got to look good.

俗话说，人靠衣装。无论这话正确与否，我们都知道，这是个样貌决定一切的社会。不知不觉间，我们会通过衣着或样貌来判断一个人——虽然很多时候，人们不愿意承认这点。这是人类的天性，我们对此无能为力。在某种程度上，这是条不成文的法则：如果你希望给人留下良好的第一印象，就必须拥有好看的外表。

When it comes to clothing in general, most of us remain confined by the norms and principles that define our gender. It’s a distinction made in the broadest spectrum possible. For instance, we often make those stereotypical color associations that relate to gender (blue for boys, pink for girls), or we identify certain kind of clothing as suitable for men or women.

在衣着方面，大多数人都受限于性别规范。举例而言：男性穿蓝色、女性穿粉色;只有女性才能穿裙子……

In order to maintain these strict social rules, many would sacrifice their comfort to appease their sex. Just think about it, wearing a dress is absolutely more comfortable than wearing, let’s say, jeans. But, for all of us “true” men, that would be quite shocking because we are not prepared to lose our “macho” image over a dress. However, if you were a baby boy in the 19th century you could have easily ended up wearing a dress and that wouldn’t be weird in any way. On the contrary, that was a common practice.

为了遵守严格的社会规则，人们会牺牲舒适度，以符合性别角色。想想看，穿裙子显然比穿牛仔裤舒服。然而，“男子汉”们可不愿意因为穿裙子而失掉“男子气概”。不过，如果你生活在十九世纪的维多利亚时代，那么小男孩穿裙子是再平常不过的事情了。

Not to get confused, the patriarch system was the norm in the Victorian era and gender roles were extremely polarized. However, young children were left out of the equation. According to most accounts, pictures, and photos, up until the age of seven, gender was apparently not something that parents paid much attention to. The clothes worn by boys and girls were nearly identical, indistinguishable from one another.

别误会。在维多利亚时代，父权体系才是社会规范，性别角色两极分化严重，但小孩子除外。根据大部分记载、绘画、照片：在7岁以前，父母不会注意孩子的性别。小男孩和小女孩穿的衣服几乎一模一样，两者不存在明显差异。

Chances are great that you’ve accidentally stumbled upon an image of a Victorian-era toddler boy wearing a dress, you’ve probably mistaken it for a girl. Even some of the most famous individuals of the 20th century, including Ernest Hemingway and Franklin D. Roosevelt, had their picture taken wearing white skirts that were considered gender-neutral for the time period.

偶然看到一幅维多利亚时代的绘画时，你很可能会把图中穿裙子的小男孩误认成小女孩。即便是在二十世纪，一些著名人物(包括欧内斯特·海明威、富兰克林·罗斯福)也曾拍过身穿白色裙子的照片——当时，那类裙子被视为中性着装。

Many people would find this practice peculiar today and perceive it as feminine, but the explanation behind why this was done the way it was is very simple and it is due to pragmatic reasons.

如今，很多人会觉得男孩穿裙子很奇怪，认为这种行为太过女性化。但其实，小男孩穿裙子的原因很简单——为了实用。

Imagine being a parent in an era when zippers and snaps were yet to be invented and the pants that were available were too complicated and had too many accessories, which made it almost impossible for a small boy to put them on all by himself. What would you do? One alternative would be to dress your toddler boy by yourself, spending quite some time doing it. But Victorian-era parents had another method and frankly, it was much more effective.

那时候，拉链和纽扣尚未发明，裤子样式复杂、配饰太多，小孩子几乎不可能自己穿裤子。如果身为父母，你会怎么做?你可以选择花时间手把手替孩子穿裤子。但在维多利亚时代，父母有更高效的解决办法——给孩子穿裙子。

Dressing boy toddlers in dresses made the process of potty training significantly easier and much more flexible. Parents were able to change the toddler’s diapers without the need of undressing them. Just lifting their skirts up would suffice. Additionally, the flexibility of the dresses allowed them to be worn from infancy to about age six or seven.

这样一来，事情轻松多了——孩子不用脱裤子，就可以上厕所;家长不用替孩子脱裤子，就可以换尿布。裙子非常方便，孩子可以从婴儿期一直穿到六七岁。