Who Really Wears the Trousers and What Happened to the skirt?
Year 2, Term 1
I am who I am because of the
childhood I had. My scarred knees and chipped teeth are just some of the
souvenirs of the many fumbles and tumbles I took. Unfortunately for my mum, I
would always much rather have worn football kits to functions than the beautiful
dress she’d have spent hours shopping for. I was happiest playing with my boy
friends in ‘boys clothes’ but my subconscious knew it wasn’t okay. Now, many
years later, I’m still struggling to understand why there are so many dos and
don’ts when it comes to dressing for your gender.
Kay Deane, Assistant nursery teacher spoke about how the children
she is in contact with are constantly breaking gender ideals and the reaction
it receives, “I’ve seen some of the younger boys carrying princess lunch boxes
in to nursery in the mornings, but you’d be surprised that it isn’t the other
children that comment or tease, because they don’t really care. It’s the
parents and some parents say the nastiest things.”
Although what Kay had to say didn’t come as much of a surprise to me, I was
eager to find more statistics and information on parents and their gender intolerant
children. After a quick Internet search my browser was imploding with ‘parental
advisory’ websites, some of which had live threads and open chat rooms, which
were parents simply giving other parents advice and sharing stories. It didn’t
take long until I was in the depths of parenthood. At this point I had read it
all, but one thread in particular caught my eye, “My little boy, aged 5 wants
to go as Elsa from Frozen to a fancy dress party!!! HELP!!!” Comments from
other parents where flying in thick and fast with only 2 of the 6 parents commenting
encouraging the child to dress in a girls costume. Experts say it is not
unusual for children under the age of 5 to want to wear clothes or dress in
costumes that are designated to the opposite sex, so why do parents freak out
so much?
I got in contact with one of the parents that where
talking in the chat room, Amelia Lodge-Smith is a young mum of two and informed
me that her youngest boy likes to dress like a girl. “It started when he was
four when he wanted to start dressing himself. He didn’t have a dress on, it
wasn’t that dramatic but he’d love to wear coloured or patterned tights. I
thought it was hilarious but my husband hated it, obviously.” – obliviously?
I’m still finding it hard to understand the problem with children wanting to
wear clothes that are for the opposite sex. Children experiment and as adults
we shouldn’t suppress our children from something as simple as clothing. In a
previous issue of Vanity Fair, Angelina Jolie said that Shiloh, her 4-year-old
daughter “likes to dress as a boy. She wants to be a boy. So we [her and
ex-husband Brat Pitt] had to cut her hair. She likes to wear boys’ everything.”
Oh, Angelina, what a saint.
The issue doesn’t just rest at children
and the way they handle their gender flipping fashion trends. Us adults have
been stirring the fashion pot for decades. It wasn’t until the late 20th
century that trousers for women became an acceptable piece of clothing. To see
a woman in trousers would have been scandalous and the woman often would have
her wealth and sexuality questioned, imagining that now seems strange doesn’t
it
Although we’re apparently are living in a
‘mans world’, it seems that women have been making the rules for many years
when it comes to fashion. Unfortunately for men in today’s society, a long time
ago fashion was a woman’s sport and because of that women’s fashion has come on
in leaps and bounds compared to men’s fashion. Explaining the complexity of the
way women’s wear has developed could take a very long time but understanding
the trouser evolution will only take a second. - During the Second World War because of the rationing of clothing, women took to wearing their
husbands' clothes to work whilst they were away. Makes sense right? Well
because women of the time were so cunning and money savvy with their clothes,
when their husbands’ returned and wanted their clothes back women’s trousers
became the newest trend and by the summer of 1944 it was reported that sales of
women's trousers were five times more than in the previous year. Trousers for
everyone!
Although some brands such as
Rick Owens, Jeremy Scott and Comme de Garçons have been breaking the mould for
a while now, fashion houses such as Prada, Gucci and now retail giant Zara have
introduced ‘clothes for all. ‘High-end London department store Selfridges
released an “A-gender” campaign in 2015. The store uploaded a fashion forward
picture onto Instagram with the caption “in the 21st century we’re
increasingly aware that gender is not binary.” Although all of these brands are
trying there hardest to encourage consumers to just wear clothes and drop the
‘men’ and ‘women’ label. But it seems like the only gender that is getting away
with this are the females.
With the help of social media
the feminist movement has rise again. Celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Cara
Delevign and first lady Michelle Obama are all flying the flag for women’s rights
amongst other celebrities. Young women are being flooded with good vibes and
reassurance that they can be whoever and do whatever they want. Karl Lagerfeld
even staged a feminist march for his SS15 collection, with his models carrying
banners and looking fabulous. Not only are the new wave feminists reassuring
young women all over the world that they can be whoever they want, it is also
telling them that they can wear whatever they want. The popular campaign ‘free
the nipple’ is the perfect example of how women are changing the face of
equality. Although women have taken the big leap into lad land, the men are yet
to break through. Harry Beaven, Stylist, expressed his views on gender fluid
fashion. “I’m so used to seeing girls in boyish clothes, you do, you see it all
the time and you don’t think twice but when you see a bloke wearing women’s
clothes you just stop and look. You have to.” It’s time that men get the same
reaction as women!
Its evident that there is still
a long way to go when it comes to making A-gendered clothing a regular thing,
but I hope that in the near future there will be more outlets for people to go
to that just sell clothes, especially for children. I spoke to Fashion
Journalist Lucy Bates, to see what her views where on stores opening, or
excising stores introducing a ‘clothes for all’ section. “When we’re a lot
older it will be okay, but at the moment, in the foreseeable future. I don’t
see any change.” Fashion is evolving around us and has a quick turn over, one
day something is hot, the next day it could be dropped. So here’s hoping that
one day and one day soon there will be an option for us, our children and our
children’s children to be able to express themselves and feel comfortable in
clothes without them feeling like its wrong.
