Dress codes in the late 1970s
1977
In the mid to late 1970s, Gill and Betty note that there was more mixing between lesbian and heterosexual feminists but that there was a dress code which helped identify their sexual identity:
G: “I used to notice the way in which the straight women would take a
fair bit of care to dress in ways that would signify that they were
straight, so although they were quite clearly Women's Liberation
Movement people, they might be wearing dungarees, but they would also
wear dangly earrings or something that the lesbians necessarily
wouldn’t”.
B: “In those days feminist lesbians didn’t wear dangly earrings. When I
first came out at The Gates (Gateways in London) there was a fairly
butch/femme scene”. (around 1969/70)
G: “And in Birmingham”.
Contributed by: Gill Coffin, 63, Betty Hagglund, 50