A look into the gendered divide of men’s fashion written by Baker McNamara
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hink back to men’s fashion 10 years ago. The closest we would get as a society to men showing their feminine side was them wearing a pink shirt that read “real men wear pink” or “don’t laugh, it’s your girlfriend’s shirt.” While these catchphrases could be a subtle push for men who wear them to feel more secure with themselves, it could have also been a second push for men to begin embracing their feminine side when it comes to fashion. The journey of femininity within men’s fashion begins in the 80s. Long hair and dark makeup ruled fashion within rock bands. Extreme short shorts and long hair was a norm for men, but now if a man were to walk the streets with any of these looks it would be considered abnormal. So, where is this drop off coming from? How did we, as a society, end up on this hyper-masculine fashion track? In the 80s, men were not afraid to wear tighter pants, more patterns and colors or clothes that were more revealing—all of which is a rarity now. Self expression for men was more than just the clothing. Men would experience with makeup (think about the band KISS). It was completely normalized for the whole band to wear makeup and no one batted an eye. But now if a straight male were to be doing so, most people would treat him like an alien. However, times changed and the era of male selfexpression faded away as the 1990s and 2000s arrived. “Within the past 20 years, we as a society have married the idea of gender,” said Daniel Brewster, a sociology instructor at West Virginia University. This means that we have set concrete examples for what men and women should and should not be doing, and anything outside of these set boxes for the genders would be seen as a homosexual which was the fear for most.
“Masculinity looks one way and this includes at the most basic level a complete aversion to fashion,” Brewster said. So, if any man is seen caring about fashion they are automatically seen as less of a man. Society has trained men to fear being more feminine with themselves and it has also trained us to shame men who show their feminine side for doing so. Trying to look like you don’t try too hard is the standard now set for what men should achieve. This comes from society’s heteronormative idea where men should not just be straight but look straight, which has put an intense pressure on men to worry about how they are perceived. For the past 20 years, men have hidden behind a very basic sense of style because of how strongly they fear stepping outside their comfort zone. The changes in men’s fashion over the past few decades comes from societal changes, according to Brewster. The needs and wants of men in their clothing changes throughout the times as different fads come about and change. But as looking to the future to see how men’s fashion will change, Brewster said he is “hopeful that we are headed to a more progressive time for men’s fashion.” If you look around at what men are wearing, clothes for them are indeed becoming more slim fitting or shorter lengths in shorts. The perspective on masculinity in society is constantly changing, and maybe we are headed towards a more open future for men’s fashion, but as it seems “culture itself is about time and place.” As clothes are ‘gendered’ to be male or female based on what we are used to seeing the sexes wear in history, there are designers, such as Charles Jeffrey and Alessandro Michele, that are battling those norms, sparking a new era for men’s fashion. An era that focuses no longer on gender, but on creativity and fluidity.
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