Chapter Chronology

Quiz for Visualizing History: “Anti-Establishment Clothing”

Choose the best answer to each question.

Question

1. Why did hippies of the 1960s adopt a personal style that featured distinctive and colorful clothing like the garments illustrated here?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is B. Hippies rejected the priorities of their parents’ generation, such as steady work, homeownership, and conventional family life. Their clothing, like other aspects of their lifestyles, rejected conventional values and 1950s-era conformity.
Incorrect. The correct answer is B. Hippies rejected the priorities of their parents’ generation, such as steady work, homeownership, and conventional family life. Their clothing, like other aspects of their lifestyles, rejected conventional values and 1950s-era conformity.

Question

2. Many classic hippie garments displayed some element of the American flag. What message did a garment, like the fringed jacket in this image, express for its wearer?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is D. Clothing worn by countercultural youth often made use of the American flag to express a disdain for blind patriotism and support for free expression. After a Massachusetts man was arrested for wearing a flag on the seat of his pants, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction on the basis that laws forbidding the desecration of the U.S. flag were unconstitutionally vague.
Incorrect. The correct answer is D. Clothing worn by countercultural youth often made use of the American flag to express a disdain for blind patriotism and support for free expression. After a Massachusetts man was arrested for wearing a flag on the seat of his pants, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction on the basis that laws forbidding the desecration of the U.S. flag were unconstitutionally vague.

Question

3. Among countercultural youth, both men and women wore items like the patched jeans and fringed jacket shown here. What message were hippie men and women intending to send when they dressed in this manner in the 1960s?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is B. Hippies of both sexes wore clothes like these to express their rejection of mainstream assumptions about the acceptable parameters of gender expression. Countercultural youth were not necessarily feminists or proponents of women’s liberation.
Incorrect. The correct answer is B. Hippies of both sexes wore clothes like these to express their rejection of mainstream assumptions about the acceptable parameters of gender expression. Countercultural youth were not necessarily feminists or proponents of women’s liberation.

Question

4. When young women wore clothing like the shorts and bikini-top pictured here, they were not protesting gendered clothing but expressing a different message. What was it?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is A. Countercultural women who dressed in revealing clothing were expressing their disdain for old-fashioned notions about female modesty and propriety that had required garments like girdles, long skirts, and hose.
Incorrect. The correct answer is A. Countercultural women who dressed in revealing clothing were expressing their disdain for old-fashioned notions about female modesty and propriety that had required garments like girdles, long skirts, and hose.

Question

5. Which of the following statements describes the historical significance of anti-establishment clothing?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is C. Anti-establishment clothing was historically significant not only because it made an important cultural splash in the 1960s, but also because it influenced mainstream dress in the United States profoundly. As a result of the hippie movement of the 1960s, even conventional Americans began to adopt more personally expressive and informal modes of dress.
Incorrect. The correct answer is C. Anti-establishment clothing was historically significant not only because it made an important cultural splash in the 1960s, but also because it influenced mainstream dress in the United States profoundly. As a result of the hippie movement of the 1960s, even conventional Americans began to adopt more personally expressive and informal modes of dress.