According to the people who decide when a generation starts and ends, I’m on the cusp: 1960. I’m the Hippie Generation, in point of fact. As a junior high / high school teen, I wore elaborately decorated bell bottom jeans and decorated all my PeeChees (google it) with fantastical images and “groovy” font text.
But to the point: When people talk about the Hippies, they somehow imagine it was the 60s. And it was. But Not In Schools. Unless it was a progressive, fair-minded school (most weren’t), sexism and misogyny wasn’t just rampant, it was institutionalized.
Girls weren’t allowed to wear pants until 1972.
I’m serious.
And even so, we could only wear pantsuits. Pantsuits, for cryin’ out loud.
Further, jeans were outlawed until 1975. What caused the sea change? Was it because teen women wore them anyway and got expelled or suspended? Was it teen boys?
Nope. It was all thanks to the jean companies, Levi Strauss and Lee. They saw the newest teen generation as dependable buyers. So the “Jean Lobby” won the day.
So if you’re a young thing wearing jeans, give a thought to the Jean Lobby, whose greed accidentally ushered in Hippie Feminism.
