Fashion and Gender Identity

Discuss about the Clothes Representing Gender and Authenticity.

This essay discusses the importance of garment for gender identity. Fashion  clothes is a matter of intense historical, sociological, anthropological as well as semiotic analysis in the contemporary social theories. This phenomenon in fashion, the influence of which is predictable from the famous cliché that the man is what the man wears, offers an intense, rich and opulent set of garment options. It reveals multiple as well as unexpected ways through which the concept of fashion becomes the part of tangible, tangible complicated, profound as well as symbolic process of building a modern self, body, identity as well as the social relations. The development of gender identity has been always a social construct where the fashion or garment bear two factors of this specific configuration (Hollander, pp.139). Fashion and clothes have become the part of social procedures of discrimination, the production of the position of hierarchy as well as prestige in this deeply unequal society. The aim of this essay is to sense various types pf human thoughts on the development of gender through the fashion and clothing and define female alone with male appearance in the evolution of different dress styles managament.

In his book ‘Clothes’, John Harvey has deployed his considerable scholarships along with his intelligence on the topic which concerns all- that is the clothes one wears. He writes, “clothes may help us to possess our soul, and we may place our soul within the clothes” (Harvey, p. 11). The issue of clothes can be the question of life and death as the introductory part of the book discloses that two young goths were beaten up due to their outlandishly distinctive appearance and cloths. The clothes represent metaphor of either interpretation or misinterpretation. With the progress of the society, science, economy and politics, people started to look for a kind of blatant individual beauty. In the modern world, the refinement of the highlighted personality is regarded by the people greatly. Therefore, sex in the designing of garment has always been the complete factor with in the deliberation of the fashion designers since the ancient time. Despite the fact in today’s world, the clothing fashion has become more neutral, in some cases the gap is more wide. In this modern western society, the men’s clothes and the women’s clothes have become more alike but in the ancient time the pattern style and the choices of colors were completely different from men to women (Rokison, pp. 360). From the ancient times, the slandered of the traditional clothing have emphasized the roles played by the men and worm. It was the identifying factor for both of the gender. In the Elizabethan period, the idea of disguise was prevalent where most of the comedies of Shakespeare have recorded the idea of cross dressing where the women used man’s attire to change their identity in order to execute particular tasks only allowed for men at that time.

Historical Significance of Clothing

Clothes have always been used as communication tool to present one’s status and gender. Clothing of a human being is closely aligned with the gender and seen to be a part of cultural constriction. The change in clothes can change the perspective, for example when a Victorian woman wears trousers at home, she is seen to be very aggressive and dominating especially going against the accepted norms of the society (Campbell, pp.405). This woman is seen to be more masculine than her passive counterpart. Trousers has been considered to be an attire of men therefore, comes with more masculine features. Therefore, it can be said that the clothes themselves do not have any gender connotations but the society has put definitions on them. Gendered dressing has been more complementary in role playing. The trouser has masculinity and skirts denotes femininity. In addition to this, power relations are more inextricably involved in clothing (Lindsey, pp.354). The women’s espousal of male clothes represents an important readjustment of description of femininity. However, it is not essentially a change in the current balance of power. The feminine males are often associated with transgenderism or homosexuality. These assumptions by the society show to what extent the cross-gendered dressing has been accepted and highlighted gender differences.

As mentioned before, the definition of being men and women is strictly connected to the appearances. This however changes with the change of region also. The clothes which are accepted for the women in the western world, often worn traditionally by the men in different countries. For example, ‘skirts’ is seen to be a feminine garment but worn by the men in West Africa, Indonesia and Scotland. A tube form of clothes fitted in the waist is seen to be worn by the men in West Africa, the Scottish skirt is worn in the social events for creating a social as well as cultural identity stands for identification of masculinity. On the other hand, the skirts mainly codpiece used to be worn by the Elizabethan and Jacobean men. In this context, the portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger can be discussed. The king of Scotland and England in this portrait has worn stockings, shirt, doublets, breeches, hat and jerkin. The use of ruff was prevalent in higher class men and women.

In the eighteenth century Europe, the enlightenment philosophies had a great impact on the lifestyles of the people which indirectly affected the clothing of men and women. The ‘portrait of Mr. and Mrs. William Hallett’ namely ‘The Morning Walk’ by Thomas Gainsborough, the garments of William and Elizabeth represents the fashion of that time. Here, William s in black, which is the color dominated by the male of the time. He has worn a silk velvet frock suit. His jacket is undone and one hand is a stance that can be seen in many of the fashionable 18^th century informal portraits. On the other hand, Elizabeth is in an ivory silk dress appears like her wedding dress. It is caught with a black silk band in the waist. Her breast is covered with a frilled muslin with a knot of grape green ribbon in it.

Clothing as a Communication Tool

The studies by Harvey in ‘Clothes’ reveal the fact of formidable style of clothing accepted by the society. The women in the Victorian age was much careful of their dresses as the orthodoxy had increased at its heist level. On ‘issue of shoulders’, the author has discussed that the fashions of men towards the end of nineteenth century, tended to bulk them out as well as cover them completely (Monden, pp.245).  On the contrary, the fashion of the women had growing sensitive issues for different reasons. In this context, he has pointed out the famous portrait by John Singer Sargent, ‘Madame X’. in this case the portrait had to be published in 1900 century long after its creation. This is because the portrait seemed to have a sensuous connotation in it which was seen to be obscene by the people of that time. Harvey writes, “The strap was scarcely more than a thread, but loosening it was a step too far, and Sargent was required to mend the portrait, and replace the strap. Only later still could shoulders be wholly naked” (Harvey, pp.87).

According to the psychologists, when the people first meet, they distinct others on the basis of gender. Now in defining so, there are various factors like physicality and clothing, based on which the people tend to identify the gender. Dresses for both men and women has two different functions, one is to modify of body in order to protect it from the external environment for example cold, another as a medium of communication. From the perspective of the children who do not differentiate men and women on the basis of physicality, can do so by seeing their appearance (Connell, pp.346). Therefore, the socially accepted codes of wearing clothes has ability to create an implicit differed among the men and women. It is the most visible form of consumption and a specific executor of power relations. The difference between the male and female body is obvious and it is accentuated through the ways the individual is attired and how they hold, control, move and maintain their physical presence. Harvey writes, “When we put on clothes we sheathe ourselves in a social shadow: an ethos, an ethic, that guides and limits” (Harvey, pp.51). The gender roles have become so naturalized that the people do not realize that they are producing their gender roles rather notice when someone does not do same. Clothing is therefore the tool for communication that helps to define the male and female.

Gender Stereotypes and Clothing

As discussed before, till 20^th century there was a wide gap between the clothes of the male and the females. Even in the western culture, the women were prohibited of wearing trousers however in 1900, the trousers gained place in the wardrobe of the women. As the women in the era of first world war women participated in the works with the men hence they wanted to have the freedom to were trousers as this was the most convenient cloth for working menial tasks. The fashion designers of 1930s started to produce pants for women for horse riding and other works which were limited only for men. This is the reason, the conservatives never supported the women wearing trousers and termed them to be unnatural as well as masculine. By avoiding such criticisms, the women started to wear typical clothes usually worn by the men in sports. There were various movements which aimed to break the taboo of gender identification. These movements protested against capitalism and materialism so that they can conceal the gender differences thus reduce inequality and discrimination in the future management.  

As mentioned before, the fashion trends as well as clothing style creates social contractions of gender, which details what a woman and man should wear and how she or he look like. This presence of the standard for the conclusion of beauty automatically labels some groups to be under the control of the other (Rokison, pp.362). This is how the individuals constantly judge one another as well as themselves so that they can fit into the set norms of the gender classification. Since the Elizabethan age, both males and females have been suffering due to this reason. Throughout the history of western fashion trend the women have been out-of-the-way from men by their fashions. These women used to risk spinal cord disorders, from their corsets, suffered from chronic foot pain as well as arch trauma due to high-heels and subjugated to a constant anxiety of worry over the approval of men of their clothing appropriateness. Now a day, the situation has a more far reaching effect on the adolescents that they feel pressure to fit in the contemporary styles of dressings hence starve (Campbell, pp.410).

Therefore, it can be concluded that the clothes have a vital part in the history of human being. Since the ancient time, the clothes are the modifiers for the people and used for safeguarding the body from external nature. On the other hand, clothes are the medium of identifying the gender. Hence gender and clothes have a very important relation which cannot be avoided. Clothes are the primary factor which distinguishes man from women. With the change of time and place, the method of identification of gender has been changed. In the western culture, from the Elizabethan age to the Victorian period, the dress code of women was much strict. This aspect however, reveals the fact of power relation between the men and women in the society as well as domination.  However, towards the beginning of twentieth century, the gap in the cloths of men and women however reduced greatly. The women participated in the works done by men, sports and army which needed special attention for making more comfortable clothes for women. The art of every period captures these changes through the portraits of men and women.

References:

Art, and Art. “John Singer Sargent : Portrait Of Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau) (1884) – Giclee Fine Art Print”. Renfield’s Fine Art, 2018, https://www.renfields.org/listing/179708953/john-singer-sargent-portrait-of-madame-x. Accessed 11 Apr 2018.

Campbell, Jane MacRae. “Dress, Ideology, and Control: The Regulation of Clothing in Early Modern English Utopian Texts, 1516–1656.” Utopian Studies 28.3 (2018): 398-427.

Connell, R. W. “Masculinity politics on a world scale.” Women in culture: An intersectional anthology for gender and women’s studies (2016): 234-38.

Harvey, John. Clothes. Taylor And Francis, 2014.

Hollander, Anne. Sex and suits: The evolution of modern dress. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.

Lindsey, Linda L. Gender roles: A sociological perspective. Routledge, 2015.

Monden, Masafumi. Japanese fashion cultures: Dress and gender in contemporary Japan. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014.

Npg.org.uk. “King Henry VIII – National Portrait Gallery”. Npg.Org.Uk, 2018, https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw03082/King-Henry-VIII. Accessed 11 Apr 2018

Prodger, Michael. “Review: Gainsborough: A Portrait By James Hamilton”. Thetimes.Co.Uk, 2018, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/review-gainsborough-a-portrait-by-james-hamilton-df82frdfb. Accessed 11 Apr 2018.

Rokison, Abigail. “Special issue on Shakespeare, performance and authenticity: an introduction.” Shakespeare10.4 (2014): 359-362.