To ask if anyone else’s family had this belief growing up?

[Latenightthoughts111]

NC for this as it seems like all my threads lately have been about my family and don’t want them linked

late night thought tonight is about when I was growing up (late 80s born to a mid 40s born DM) I was told that drinking from a can and eating in the street was like being a prostitute

im not exaggerating I can clearly remember being about 10 and told that walking home from swimming with my hair down and wet and drinking from a can made me look like a prostitute! What was this about?? Where did it come from?? Even now I struggle to drink from a can and I don’t think I ever eat whilst walking!

This…
However, wearing an ankle chain was evidently the identifying feature of a prostitute 🙄according to the world’s authority on everything ( my Mother). Grew up in the 80’s.

oh yes, common as muck! Eating, drinking, smoking, wearing ankle chains, red nails etc all signs of being common, and verging on prostitution!

WTF - I love red nails now, red lippy although I dont smoke, or eat in the street, and I rarely drink from a can, I dont equate it to prostitution, just a bit yuk.

As kids we were told 'grazing', ie eating or drinking in the street was common. But we were told wearing mascara was something only prostitutes did.

I had my revenge on my DM a few years later. She wore lipstick and I told her that lipstick was invented by medieval prostitutes who used it to indicate they were willing to perform oral sex.

She never passed comment on my choice of makeup again.😀

Yes - my mother too. Any sort of eating in the street (with the exception of a seaside ice cream) was very déclassé. As were white shoes and, bizarrely, wearing rings on your middle finger. Anyone else heard that one?

Whistling, saying 'what' instead of 'pardon', saying 'kids' not 'children' were all things that marked you out as common when I was younger. Women were absolutely not supposed to swear, not even in their own home.

Pierced ears were absolutely not allowed until the age of 16. Tatoos were beyond the pale. Women did not 'sweat' they 'perspired'. I was also told that going outside with wet hair was not only common, but would result in an instant heavy cold, or even flu.

Eating in the streets was not allowed. Drinking from a can is something I still cannot bring myself to do. Fish and chips should not be eaten from the wrappings, but must be plated up.

I was brought up in a very poor area with very little money, but standards were meant to be kept. My mother was past the time when keeping your front step and windows ultra clean was a mark of pride, but my grandmother certainly thought this was a mark of respectability.

Absolutely. Eating in the street was a massive no no as were ankle bracelets - most definitely a sign of a prostitute . For my nana going out without gloves was "common " too and bareheaded would surely mean a lightning bolt would strike you down . A hat and gloves always even if it was 30 degrees outside.

I remember hearing the word "prostitute" on the radio when I was about ten, and asking my mum what it meant. She said " Erm...erm......it's a naughty lady." !

Every one of these could have been my teenage checklist from either my school or my mother. Not so much because it would make me look like a prostitute, but because it was uncouth and “unladylike.”

However there was one little black mini dress I bought in the late 60s, made of some synthetic material, like a short smock with ruched sleeves and a scoop neck, which nearly showed my bum in the fashion of the day… how I loved that dress. How my mother hated it.
It was way beyond unladylike, apparently. I now realise that she thought I looked like her idea of a prostitute, although she would never have come out and said it.

I have no idea if this is true about lipstick, but I like your style! You are an evil genius @MintJulia 🤣

Yep, "A lady should never eat, drink or smoke in the street" but you could eat something in the street if you were sitting down.

Ankle chains = prostitute

When we wee on holiday and I was in my early teens my mum would elbow me and say, "I think she's 'on the game' I once asked why someone on the game would have a small dog, apparently that was a 'sign' with a knowing nod.

According to my mum every other French woman was 'on the game'.

Similar was said by some people when growing up in the late 70's, but tbh the same ones spouted rubbish about not getting a bath when on your period etc, so we just saw them as ignorant. A lot of this stuff is about policing women's behaviour. My GM saw double standards and how women and children were impacted by societies demands really early on in her life and fought against them. She said that the anti eating in the street came about because of soup kitchens and not wanting to be identified as poor enough to use them. Before that street food has been available in every culture.

@Sweetpea1532
@echt
"how could I have forgotten how common it was to have pierced ears?!"

That was indirect racism.

Prostitutes in some cultures would wear ankle bracelets to show that they were available for hire. In others they would die their hair blonde, which is why there's stuff about blondes as well.

I was told that it was 'common'

Agree that we were told at school never to eat or drink in the street (no mention of prostitution), even now at 64 I could never eat whilst walking down the road or even have a takeaway coffee 'on the move' ... I might buy one and sit on a park bench or something .

I remember this. It came from the same place as smoking in the street, having dirty nets and swearing made you slovenly/loose of morals too.

God forbid you chewed gum.

We were told eating in the street was extremely common but not the prostitute thing.

I really don’t have the coordination to eat and walk at the same time.

Also told it was 'common'.

My dad told me never to drink from cans as rodents pee on them in the warehouse.

I have never drank from a can since a young age really.

Haha this reminds me of many years ago I was in Dumfries one lunchtime and saw a group of schoolboys who each had a full size Swiss roll that they were tucking into in the street, munching them whole. I remember wondering at the time if it was a Scottish thing! Sorry Scottish people for my generalisation!

Er...no

I wasn’t told this but I must admit I don’t like eating in the street and do avoid it

Ha ha ha, remember all of this old guff. Confess now, how many of you had a milk bottle on the dinner table? That was the absolute pits, apparently. The first time I saw one was in Coronation St (I was in someone else's house, of course, no ITV at home) in Elsie Tanner's house. Who was, quite evidently from such sluttishness, 'no better than she should be' and, likely, ate chips in the streets whilst wearing red nail varnish with a fag hanging out of the cornerof her mouth at the same time. Tsk.

Yes, eating or drinking in the street was considered common/rough/trampy.

I have heard my grandma describe a girlfriend of her brother's (when they were much younger) as 'the kind of woman who went down to the docks when a ship came in' meaning 'shagged sailors for money'. I don't think she thought eating in the street made you a prostitute but certainly common- along with:

bare legs, apart from on a beach
not wearing a slip
short skirts
bare shoulders
sleeveless tops/dresses without a cardigan
shorts, unless decent length and worn by someone under 30 on a beach
being seen in nightwear by anyone other than your husband, sister, child
pierced ears
flashy jewellery- pearls or a brooch and a small watch were fine.
drinking anything in a street
not eating at a table
high-heeled shoes
women who made noise to get attention from men

Coke did actually contain cocaine until about 1930!😂

I was also told eating or drinking in the streets was common and wearing an anklet was signalling uou were a prostitute. Very odd.