Assumptions about gender and clothing are always frustrating, especially for those who break away from expected norms. I wrote about how ideas about gendered clothing play out when two women get hitched for Daily Life. I also got to put lovely pictures of my friends in!
But who decides how men and women should dress and look? Is there an arbitrary points system that defines whether someone is feminine or masculine? Flat shoes? 2 points to masculine. Long hair? 3 points to feminine. A bow-tie? 1 point to masculine. Earning 75 cents to the dollar of your male counterparts? Ding, ding, ding, you win the woman-prize!
If we’ve learnt anything about gender in recent years, surely it’s that there’s much more to it than ‘man’ and ‘woman’. Could we finally, once and for all, allow individual human beings to define their own gender and dress in whatever they like without comment?
