Figure 1.--This unidentified image is certainly a boy, the hair part isstring indicator and perhaps the plain dress style. Note the leg pose with the ankles crossed. We also notice a similar pose with one foot cocket up. We are not yet sure about the gender connotations here.

There are several posture variables. The two basic posture alternnatives are standing and sitting with a few children laying down. Many images are just the children standing square shouldered before the camera. There are no gender indicators here. A few children are standing, but with one of the feet cocked up in a rather jaunty way. A good example is an unidentified French child. We are not sure yet, if there are any gender connotations here or if so, what they were. It should be recalled that the woman's ankle was at the time considered risque and rather titilating. This was not the case of course for girls who commonly had higher hemlines than their mothers and older sisters. And thus the the younger children whose gender we are not sure about wiuld not be bound by this convention. But such an obvious focus on the ankle we are nor sure about. We are not sure just what the age conventions were, but certainly by the mid-teens this was the case. We have just begun to assess this topic. There may be other ways of diferentiating standing postures with gender connotations. We welcome any reader insights here.

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Created: 5:27 AM 7/27/2011
Last updated: 5:27 AM 7/27/2011