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.

Music to my ears

Music is an escape mechanism for some individuals. It's a place where true self-expression can be expressed and loved by others. It's a place to tell stories about heartache and pain to rape. Music is a universal language that everyone speaks. The focus on this post is hip-hop.

In the hip-hop culture, there are bothersome aspects. I am not trying to place blame on any of the musicians or any contributor to hip-hop. I am just trying to be awareness to the problems that intertwined with hip-hop. The "normal" hip-hop video consists of a rapper, bling-bling, cars, money, and the biggest aspect women.

All over the video are women, women, and more women. There isn't just one type of woman in these video; there is a variety; however, what they are wearing is usual the same. Rappers present the women in outfits that barely cover their bodies.

Hip-hop contributors (directors, musicians, producers) use the women's body in pornographic ways. (The lyrics aren't any better but the focus of this blog is gender and clothing). When I look at hip-hop videos, the notion "sex sales" constantly pops into my mind. When these videos have open calls for "models" to put into their videos girls come with their thongs in hand.

Women who go in to the music industry  have to sale sex. They have to be sexy or attractive. This highlights the differences between a men and a women. Men are rarely told that they have to be sexy in the music industry. 

Hip-hop is a culture that is bigger than its supporters. In this culture lays misogyny, and black male testosterone. There are many factors in this culture that set men and women a part. The first clue is at the fashion being worn. It’s the way the women are fashioned to sell the video.

What can we say about the women, the supporters? 

What can we say about this culture? 

How does this apply to gender polarization and the construction of gender?

What is sexy?

Feel free to explore the aspects of other musical cultures...

Women and Fashion in politics

There are a lot of female players involved in politics in this day and age. In the primaries there was Hillary Clinton, next to our now president-elect is Michelle Obama, and the old running mate of John McCain was Sarah Palin. These three woman have played the part, but have looked it as well. Which leads me to, how should you dress as a woman in politics? To some politicians, in that arena what you wear is just as important as what you say. Supposedly, what you wear serves as an image of what you stand for and what you represent, not necessarily who you are as an individual. What does America really pay attention to though? According to a Trinity News article entitled Fashion Power, the standard woman in politics wears clothing that is more "demure, elegant, non-threatening, and certainly not individual" (McCarthy 2008). The article tries to breakdown fashion in poitics and how it translates to power. It touches on the fact that Michelle Obama faced criticism from the press for her choice in clothing. Some people considered her fashion sense to be "too fierce and too independent" all because of the color or brand name of the clothing she chooses to wear. In the Obama's campaign they talk about their homegrown working class roots yet Michelle Obama's style reflects that of a "glitzy and expensive" lifestyle (McCarthy 2008). It touches on Sarah Palin's wardrobe and how boring and safe it is because she wears dark colors and no trendy labels, pretty much nothing that will draw criticism from people. Last, but not least they bring up Hillary Clinton's sense of style. Hillary Clinton has years of experience in politics, not only as a first lady, but also as a senator of New York. Her wardrobe has been the typical standard 'female in politics' wardrobe, but all of a sudden in the primaries her dress changed. The American people started seeing her in brighter colors and aparently showing more emotion. Why did she feel the need to change her style at that particular time? The author states that there is an aparent need to dress the part, despite the loss of individual personality within politics for women.
My quetsion to the bloggers is:
- so are you going to pay attention to a candidate that dresses that part or has sound ideals and good leadership qualities?
- Who set the standard for female fashion in politics?
- What does wearing darker colors do for a women in politics
- What does eliminating any aspect of femininity do for a female in politics?
- There doesn't seem to be a standard for men in politics, why is this?
- Does the lack of female representatives in politics allow this 'standard' to exist in politics?
- Does the construction of this 'standard' in politics for women reflect on the oppression of women in this great nation of ours?


1. McCarthy, Ann-Maria. "Fashion Power". Trinity News. 2008. http://www.trinitynews.ie/index.php/culture/fashion/283-fashion-power

beauty defined by 18 inches...

This item might seem like an interesting piece to your wardrobe; however, the corset was an instrument of women's oppression. "Historians argue that especially during the the Victorian era, corsetry functioned as a coercive apparatus through which patriarchal society controlled women and exploited their sexuality" (Steele 2007). Women of this era would tight-lace their corsets to 18inches crushing their internal insides. This is when the ideal that pain is beauty came about. Corsetry was a way for women to be beauty because it concealed the "problems" that were considered not to be "beautiful." Women believed that corsets gave them a better shape. Slender waists were associated with youth and beauty. Most people believed that the the corset exaggerated a natural difference between men and women that is women have a more pronounced waistlines" (2007). In the advertisement during this time, beauty ideal propaganda was perpetuated to women. Advertisement pieces would show that women looked unattractive if they didn't wear a corset.(Look at the emphasize of today's society one being young and beauty). The English began to link morality to tight-lacing. Women whose dress was loose represented loose morals. "Moralist declared if you want a girl to grow up gentle and womanly in her ways lance her up tight"(2007). The corset began to stand for beauty, youth, respectability, self discipline, and morality. Women were being defined by an entrapment that tortured their bodies. Women would typically measure 27-29 inches around the waist but would not grow themselves beyond 24 inches. Thousands of women were laced at 21 inches or 20 inches. The medical consequences for this was a weaken back or lower back pains,women would faint, deformities, or death.

How would you feel to be defined by an 18in waistline?

How do you feel about the idea of beauty being correlated with pain?

how does this make you feel?

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

Steele, Valorie. The Corset; a Cultural history. Yale university Press, London

Welcome!

• Do you ever think about why men can walk around without shirts on and women can't?
• Do you ever think about the diminishing waistline of female models every where?
• Have you ever seen a man wearing a skirt?
• 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?

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 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. How does ones style and fashion sense express their gender or gender role in society?

A goal is to get you thinking about the way you dress, do your hair, walk, and talk. What makes girls want to wear pink or things that are sparkly? 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? What makes people think that is what their gender is supposed to look like?

Let's explore!

This is an Intergroup Collaboratory Project of SOC/WPS 230.