Fashion and gender have always been strongly connected. Back in ancient times, clothes started indicating the sex of a person, adding therefore to the cultural interpretation of sex, which is what we call gender.

Being assigned a certain gender through clothes let you and others know what your traits, features and roles are. For example, while many Native American tribes did not have strong conceptions about gender, those that did also had the concept of “Two Spirit”, which was referred to a person that existed in two worlds and that had both male and female features. People who were considered “Two Spirits” were dressed in garments that mixed elements of the traditional masculine clothes with elements of the traditional female roles. This goes to show how strongly interwoven clothes and our existence have always been. Moreover, it goes to show that clothing, if treated with seriousness, is and can be a strong indicator of who one is; even their personality does not fit in an archetype or a wide category.

 

 

Modern times, modern genders

Fashion has always followed culture, and once fashion was reinvented in the 20^th century, due to the technical and electronic advances this era brought, culture has also started following fashion. What this means is basically that while fashion’s main purpose is to be a reflection of life, a movement or certain aspects of life can be taken one step further with the help of fashion, making the fashion – culture relationship a two-way street.

We can see this in the feminist movement, when, in the spirit of male-female equality that skyrocketed in the 1960s and 70s, clothes also became rather androgynous, blurring (but not breaking) the lines between what a male looks like and what a female looks like.

In the 1980s and 90s, when a male-dominated corporate culture took over, women’s clothes became more masculine, with shoulder pads that would make them broader and pants suits becoming stylish. For a woman to be successful in those times, she needed to resemble a man and one of the ways a woman could do that was to resemble a man physically.

Until the 21^st century, even though the 1960s and 70s blurred the lines between male and female, the gender bending happened almost exclusively in the favor of men, meaning that women were incorporating masculine clothes in their wardrobes and never the other way around.

After the year 2001, and even more so after 2011, the balance started to go in the other part as well. More and more people started wondering why is a woman dressed as a man seen as strong, while a man dressed as woman, especially if he takes it to an extreme and goes full drag queen,  is seen as degrading. The answer to that question was not a pleasant or comfortable one. In our society, a society based on an old patriarchal system, where people are divided so that a small group can lead, it is considered degrading to be a woman and everything that is culturally feminine (flowers, the color pink, dresses) is seen as weak and bad. In other words, people are disgusted by men wearing elements that are associated with femininity (from simple floral prints to accessories) because unconsciously they think “who would want to degrade themselves so much and look like a woman?”

To prove that women are no less worth than men, many activists have started to push the boundaries of visual masculinity and femininity and feminize men. It is in this spirit that more and more fashion designers have released collections that featured feminine clothes for men and sometimes even dresses and gowns for men. Drag celebrities such as Austrian singer Conchita Wurst, who won the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest have entered the mainstream in Western society and the idea of the feminized man has entered the culture, pushing the boundaries of human existence one step further.

 

 

Bringing criticism to the feminization of men

The phenomenon of men becoming more like cultural woman, while it needs to receive credit for giving a voice to those who were silent for so long, can be subjected to a few questions as well.

First and foremost, the feminization of men seems to have happened a little forced. While women started wearing pants and cut their hair short happened naturally, as they were needed in factories and other work fields, and because women wanted to break out of their cultural corsets, the men’s move towards a more feminine aesthetic seems to have happened more artificially. On one hand, it is amazing and beyond what many could have imagined 100 years ago, that men can wear and be whatever they want and look whatever they want to and not have to fear or apologize. On the other hand, the influx of feminized men’s clothes doesn’t seem to be supported by such a big mass of men. The number of feminine clothes we see today doesn’t seem to be proportionate to the number of men who want to actually wear them. In part, of course, that is due to men feeling that if they go feminine, they will be emasculated and, again, disregarded, but that’s a whole other chapter.

Making an empiric statistic, one can notice that many men don’t identify with the feminine aesthetic proposed by so many. The disadvantage of this is not only that it draws men away from fashion, after it was so hard to connect men and fashion again, as after the 1890s, there has been a disconnect between men and their appearance in mainstream culture that has lasted for more than 100 years, but what happens is that we tend to go back to the thing from which we fled in the first place, which is having a minority dictate what a majority should be, without the majority’s approval, as it happened in the case of women for so many years. And, if men are becoming more feminine just to give women the equality they want and not because they men feel this way, it means that women are still the weaker sex, and, as they can’t meet men half way, they need to be given what they want.

 

Men wearing feminine clothes could be a trend or could be here to stay.

However, this is not what the main issue is. The main issue is that egalitarians, while they are amazing at promoting human rights, equality and providing a voice for all, which are things every human being should adhere to, should remember that equality means respect for every type of lifestyle and style, as long as it does not hurt anyone, and not bringing everyone to the same denominator.

 

A culture can exist without a counter-culture. What this means is that a man can be masculine and strong, but he can also be feminine and strong. A man can wear a dress and still be strong (have you seen Scottish highlanders throwing logs?) and he can even wear an evening gown a still be strong. On the same note, women can be extremely feminine and still be strong and they can be extremely masculine as well and still be strong. Being equal does not mean meeting half way, it means being respectful for every form of manifestation. Being equal to one another does not mean toning yourself down because you feel guilty or pumping yourself up to match someone, it just means being confident.

 

Fraquoh and Franchomme

 

 

 

 

 

Further reading:

Women wearing men’s clothes: What do you think?

P.S. We want to hear from you! What is your take on men wearing feminine clothes? What is your opinion on the “meeting half way to be equal” theory? Share your feedback, questions or thoughts in the comments below! For more articles on style, fashion tips and cultural insights, you can subscribe to Attire Club via e-mail or follow us on Facebook or Twitter!