When writing period settings it’s usually worth keeping in mind that societies that disapprove of homosexuality aren’t necessarily focussed on looking for it: heterosexual scandals are going to be statistically more common, so the gossips are going to be focused on male/female friendships. Also, unmarried people through much of history have either lived with their parents and/or siblings, or with roommates, so two people of the same gender sharing an apartment won’t automatically ping anybody’s gaydar *unless* they act stereotypically gay (whatever that looks like in their society) while doing so.
Women’s hairstyles in 1960s Italy— is this the early 60s or the late 60s? If it’s early ‘60s, short-ish hair was fairly fashionable and had been since the 1950s: https://glamourdaze.com/2015/03/the-italian-cut-hairstyle-craze-of-1953.html If it’s the late 1960s, then a bob will be out of fashion but more likely to be perceived as frumpy than butch. A woman wearing her dad’s old clothes, otoh, would have been seen as fairly odd, since it wouldn’t even be a case of wearing trousers designed for women (which were a thing, though for casual wear only).
How old is the girl playing football? Prepubescent girl in a neighborhood game with the other kids, maybe. Teen joining the local amateur football club, probably not. (This Wikipedia article on countries that banned women’s football (after it had been popular for a while) may be of interest). ETA -- link seems to have gone missing, trying another link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_association_football#FA_ban_(1921%E2%80%931970)
Alcoholics— male or female? Wine or other alcoholic beverage? Noticeably impaired in public, or frequent social drinker who usually remains polite and coherent? Most times and places disapprove of alcoholism, but they don’t always have the same idea of what counts as alcoholism.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2024-04-28 06:05 pm (UTC)When writing period settings it’s usually worth keeping in mind that societies that disapprove of homosexuality aren’t necessarily focussed on looking for it: heterosexual scandals are going to be statistically more common, so the gossips are going to be focused on male/female friendships. Also, unmarried people through much of history have either lived with their parents and/or siblings, or with roommates, so two people of the same gender sharing an apartment won’t automatically ping anybody’s gaydar *unless* they act stereotypically gay (whatever that looks like in their society) while doing so.
Women’s hairstyles in 1960s Italy— is this the early 60s or the late 60s? If it’s early ‘60s, short-ish hair was fairly fashionable and had been since the 1950s: https://glamourdaze.com/2015/03/the-italian-cut-hairstyle-craze-of-1953.html
If it’s the late 1960s, then a bob will be out of fashion but more likely to be perceived as frumpy than butch. A woman wearing her dad’s old clothes, otoh, would have been seen as fairly odd, since it wouldn’t even be a case of wearing trousers designed for women (which were a thing, though for casual wear only).
How old is the girl playing football? Prepubescent girl in a neighborhood game with the other kids, maybe. Teen joining the local amateur football club, probably not. (This Wikipedia article on countries that banned women’s football (after it had been popular for a while) may be of interest). ETA -- link seems to have gone missing, trying another link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_association_football#FA_ban_(1921%E2%80%931970)
Smoking— https://www.niussp.org/health-and-mortality/smoking-in-italy-since-world-war-iifumer-en-italie-depuis-1950/
Alcoholics— male or female? Wine or other alcoholic beverage? Noticeably impaired in public, or frequent social drinker who usually remains polite and coherent? Most times and places disapprove of alcoholism, but they don’t always have the same idea of what counts as alcoholism.
Hope these thoughts help.