I was just wondering when Beaver purchased the Indian sweater why did he think that it was a girls sweater just because Judy had one on? The first thing that came to my mind was mabye he did'nt have on a girls sweater mabye she had on a boys sweater. Did it ever show what department it purchased it from?

This topic came up on another board. One would think that the store where the sweater was purchased would have stocked it either the girls department, if it was indeed a girl's sweater, which we are led to believe that it was. Minimally, the store clerk would have said something to June that the sweather is for a girl. It seemed that Beaver simply assumed that the sweater was a girl's, and not the other way around.

I think that, stupid as it seems, it became a girl's sweater simply because a girl was wearing it.

I believe you're probably right about that, franki. I think we LITB-aholics sometimes over analyze these episodes, much more so than the writers ever did when composing the various scripts. Certainly, they probably never thought that someday there would be folks spending this time time scrutinizing each episode the way we do here. LOL!

I didn't mean that you were over-analyzing it, i meant it was more of a thing of the times. In the 50's and 60's things were more gender-specific. For example, a boy would NEVER wear a pink shirt. That was a girl's color. The concept of unisex didn't come up till the seventies when a haircutter could cut both men and women's hair. I just meant that it was a boy's sweater, but when Judy was wearing it, it suddenly became a girl's sweater.

i love overanalyzing these eps. so much fun.

I WANT TO ADD THAT THE SWEATER BEAVER BOUGHT WAS FOR VERY COLD WEATHER, HOWEVER ALL OF THE OUTSIDE SHOTS HAD THE CHILDREN WEARING SHORT SLEEVED SHIRTS AND COTTON DRESSES. IT LOOKED LIKE IT WAS 80 DEGREES OUTSIDE.

The sweater did look kind of girly to me. Didn't seem like the Beavers style. June had said that she tried to pursuade him to get a leather jacket instead. You would think he would have chosen that over a fuzzy sweater.

The evidence that it was NOT a girls sweater is overwhelming: (1) No one at the store apparently told him it was for girls. (2) No family member told him it was for girls. (3) None of the passers-by in the school hallway told him it was for girls. Wouldn't SOMEONE have told him ? They may have looked oddly at him, but hey, it was a far-out design! (4) Larry, another boy, also wanted the sweater.
If Judy saw Beaver wearing it first, would she have discarded hers, thinking it was meant for boys ?

If Judy saw Beaver wearing it first, would she have discarded hers, thinking it was meant for boys ?

I doubt it. Even back then, it was considered a disgrace among boys to wear anything 'of girls' but not vice versa, at least not to the same extent. One thing LITB does portray inaccurately is that girls wore 'nice' dresses all the time; notice that even in a brief outdoor scene where girls are jumping rope or talking together, they wear dresses, where many of them (at least) would have worn jeans or shorts. It's really the a similar thing with adults in general-- like in "Beaver Takes a Drive," it's Saturday morning, and after Beaver and Gilbert get the car into the street, every driver that comes along yelling or honking at them is a man wearing a coat and tie; you know that's not realistic; some, probably most, would be dressed casual.

But getting back on course, the girl Beaver and Larry met with the horse, while they ditched dancing school, was wearing 'boys'' clothes and acted like a boy (compared to other girls seen in the show), but there's no way any boy would wear a dress or golashes with fur, or a hairband... Beaver extended this to a sweater 'for girls,' and Larry had the same attitude, glad that he didn't get one for himself. That's just how it was. Today, unisex styles are mostly acceptable; but while a girl or woman might wear pants and shirt most of her leisure time, there is still no way a man or boy would wear a dress, unless he wanted to branded a transvestite, or a Norman Bates, or ... something.

I've never seen this episode, and I'd love to see the sweater. It's a longshot, but does anyone have a screen shot of it?

There's one in the photo gallery:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/43631/cat/803

(I like Ward's expression!)

The evidence that it was NOT a girls sweater is overwhelming: (1) No one at the store apparently told him it was for girls. (2) No family member told him it was for girls. (3) None of the passers-by in the school hallway told him it was for girls. Wouldn't SOMEONE have told him ? They may have looked oddly at him, but hey, it was a far-out design! (4) Larry, another boy, also wanted the sweater.
If Judy saw Beaver wearing it first, would she have discarded hers, thinking it was meant for boys ?
Whether it was a girls sweater or not, who wants to wear the same sweater as Judy Hensler...ick.

There's one in the photo gallery:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/43631/cat/803

(I like Ward's expression!)
Thanks for posting that. It looks like a boy's sweater to me. Nothing feminine about it.