WELCOME!!!!!

This is an Intergroup Collaboratory Project of SOC/WPS 230

Our goal is to perform a safe and active environment on this blog where people can participate in dialoge about gender and fashion. We want to expose gender polarization, socialization, and construction. Every individual performs gender different ways based upon their socialization and influences. This issue includes ideas about race, ethnicity, religion, location and more.

We hope to educate and move you from questioning yourself to sharing questions and dialogue with others. Our focus is on fashion and style and how it is associated with gender association. A goal is to get you thinking about the way you dress, do your hair, walk, and talk. We want to explore how gender is largely interconnected with how you dress yourself in the morning, for school, for work, for everyday life.

There are individuals that do not see how they dress is influenced by the gender; therefore, we plan to bring awareness by talking about gender and clothing in various different aspects. For example, politics, fashion industry, beauty, labels, music cultures. The overall power of clothing.

• Have you ever seen a man wearing a skirt? Why can't men wear skirts? How is this linked to masculinity?
  
• What do you think of women who wear power suits?
  
• What do you think when you are getting dressed?
  
• Why do you dress the way you do?
• What makes girls want to wear pink or things that are sparkly? Why are genders associated with color?
  
• Is it because they are pressured by their peers, the media, want to impress the opposite sex?
  
• Why do boys wear jerseys or baggy pants? Why can't women dress masculine?
  
• What is feminine and masculine?
• What makes people think that is what their gender is supposed to look like?

Come EXPLORE !!!!

Feel free to respond to this. Let's remember that tis is a safe space. We encourage positive thinking. Please refrain from using words that are offensive.

THANK YOU

EvenStevens

SOME QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT

How do you perform gender? e.i. how do you show what gender you identify with

What type of clothing do you find yourself wearing? Why?

When you are going out, how do you clothe your body?

Why do you dress this way?

Do you believe you were taught this or was it something that you experienced and repeated?

Besides your features, what distinguishes you from other gender(s)?

How were you clothed when you were younger?

What type of clothing were you restricted from wearing?

Do you feel that clothing is important to identity?

What is SEXY? how would you define it?

How do you know when your sexy?

WHy d you dress sexy? is it for attraction?

When do you dress sexy?

Why the need for the term metrosexuality?

This is a video that on metrosexuality. Basically, in the video they are asking people on the street about metrosexuality.

What's interesting about metrosexuality is the term itself. It's a way to make sure that men keep their masculinity in the eyes of society while transgressing gender boundaries. Metrosexuality is a way for heterosexual men (as well as same gender loving males)to feel comfortable about being hyper-masculine as well as more into their fashion and hygiene without having to worry about being questioned.

However, females do not get a term to hide under when they trangress gender boundaries. It's like a double standard (giving men the okay to mingle inbetween and not be stigmatized but not giving females the same option). It's okay but not widely accepted if men are metrosexual but it's not okay at all if women are more masculine in the way they perform gender.

Gender is comstructed so that there is not a gray area between sexes (Gender polarization). There has to be a difference between male and female. But why does it have to be that way? Why is it wrong for a man to shower longer than a female or take longer to get ready?

Why is it a problem for men to care more for there appearance, hygiene, or fashion a little more than usual? But what is the usual?

Where are the lines drawn?

Why is there a need for the term metrosexual?

Why do individuals have to hide under a label?

Is there anything really wrong with trangressing gender boundaries?
Why are there boundaries? How do we know when we've crossed them?

Feel free to comment on whatever you want these are just some questions to get you thinkING!!!

Terminology

I work with pre-school children and the other day I was telling one of the teachers that I assist about this blog/ project. She responded by saying that the school was extremely gendered and she wanted me to experience this. I was convinced that this was one of the school that were completely different from others. I thought that this school was a great outlet for self-expression for the children because they allowed the children to be what they wanted and rarely to never applied social constructions to their teachings. So we took the children outside to play after putting on their coats and the sight I saw blew me away. There were pale pink and lavender everywhere with a few spots of blues and greens. I'm quite sure you can picture who was wearing what. This is where I saw it becomes teachers vs parents. Even if teachers taught outside of constructionism, these ideas still get taught at home.

But when did this all start?

When was gender associated with color?

How can we end this 

Can there be change?

The difference between a man and women is..........(WATCH THE WHOLE VIDEO)

Is there really a difference between a man and a woman besides physical traits?
As Americans, we are quick to use labels. It seems that without them our lives will be total chaos. It feels like we are walking around with labels attached to forehead that read, "HI, I'm a Woman! Here are the reasons why..."

It is as if society is this big puzzle and everything fits perfectly in its space. RIGHT! This is impossible to achieve. Everyone is their own creed not one person is generic. Hopefully, this video will show that.

How does this make you feel about labels and gender polarization?

Does it really exist?

Feel free to comment on whatever you want these are just some questions to get you thinkING!!!

Gender Bending Fall Fashions

Suits and bowties for women? Pink and purple hues for men?

Oversized leather bags for men? Oversized expensive watches for women?

Forbes.com recently published an article featuring new fashion trends for the Fall of 08 and how they blurred the lines between genders. Giving a little history, the article mentions "while women's clothing began adopting masculine undertones in the 1920s, such details are at the forefront of many designers' fall lines. [Karl] Lagerfeld and Carolina Herrera incorporated bow ties into their womenswear collections, while Smith, Gianfranco Ferre and Costume National created women's suits with flat-front pants, stiff, white, collared shirts and pinstripes."

They also mention how men can mix it up. The trends "include bags, and not just the over-the-shoulder messenger styles, says Mercedes Gonzalez, director at Global Purchasing Companies, a full-service buying office that plans and implements retail strategies for merchants and designers."

Something that really interested me was a caption underneath a photo of a woman wearing a suit. The caption read: "A classic crisp, white collared shirt and pleated pants scream menswear. As more women climb the corporate ladder, they need a wardrobe that matches their success."

• What does this mean? Why does menswear = success?

Another caption bothered me as well. It was under a photo of a watch: "Even when it comes to accessories such as watches, women are attracted to more masculine styles. Men's watches reflect a bold style and exude confidence," he says. "It's like wearing an oversized handbag. It's a reflection of her style."

• How does men's style = boldness and confidence?
• What can women do to exude confidence and boldness without being "masculine"?

The Power of Clothing

Clothing can be a political issue. It serves a great number of purposes, all of which are social, but many of which are also political. I want you to think about what we know, or what we assume about someone from their clothes.

The first thing that comes to my mind is gender. But clothes are not always safe gender signals in every context. I am a college student, and as often as not, the young men and women here generally wear the same thing. Jeans, t-shirt and sneakers are fairly casual and common.

As a woman dressing like that, I can be stating many things. For example, I am not in a romantic space, nor trying to socialize, and I am focusing on classes and academics. On campus there are identifiable groups of students. Some groups wear black and have shocking hair colors, some groups wear spandex and have the legs to prove it, another can look as if they stepped out of a J.Crew catalog, and another appears as if they have left or are going to hit the gym.

Looks and styles can vary from businesslike appearance to quite grungy; some attire is ethnic, some plain and ordinary or some just strange. But in each case, personal attire establishes who a person is and who they wants to be.

1. Does the dresser establish group connections?
2. Does the dresser tell the world how to react and what to expect from them?

Bottom line is: the diversity of dress, especially on some place like a campus without a dress code, allows you to establish your identity and membership very easily.