I have to disagree with that. I grew up in a small farm town in the 80s. When you're prepubescent it doesn't freaking matter what clothes you wear and you often wore your big brother's hand-me-downs. Me and my friends got mistaken for boys all the time and there was no issue about it. People were actually less uptight about strict gender roles in the 80s than they are *now*, which is totally weird to me, but true.