Gender Roles and Gendered Clothing
A teen boy struggling with gender dysphoria walks into a clothing store, he is met by a sign. One arrow pointing to the right “Men's Section” and another pointing to the left “Women's Section.” Does he go to the right and purchase clothes that will cause him to be accepted in society but make him hate himself. Or does he go to the left, and purchase clothes that make him feel good, but will cause him to be yelled at in the street? He thinks to himself, I was born a male, and I feel comfortable being a male, but sometimes I want to dress in clothes that aren't seen as traditionally masculine. He wonders:
What does masculine and feminine even mean and why are we so defined by the labels?
Why does society's culture of toxic masculinity cause me to be afraid of not being uber-masculine, even if that is not true to who I am?
Why does something as simple as the fabric we wear on our bodies hold so much power over the way people view gender?
In today's Op-Ed, I am going to be answering those questions.
But before I can do that, I need to break down what gender roles are.
Gender roles are a range of societal ideals that decide what is acceptable and unacceptable for Men and Women to be interested in, say, wear, and do.
The most basic example of this is women being expected to stay home, cook, clean, and take care of children. In this example, men are expected to go to work and make money (be the ‘breadwinner.’) I have noticed my own biases that involve these ideals. When I see a family that has a stay at home dad and a working mom it takes me a minute to become accustomed to that dynamic, even though it's a completely normal and acceptable thing.
Gender roles also perpetuate the idea that there are only 2 genders. When really, gender expression and identity are two different things that both live on a spectrum, where people can identify on the two extreme sides and everywhere in the middle.
Gender roles make it difficult for someone who identifies as agender, genderqueer, non-binary and all of the other valid gender identities to be accepted in society because they don’t fit into the two boxes that everyone is supposed to somehow fit in.
Gender Roles also represent and promote the idea that everything has to revolve around men and specifically powerful men. This is because men are the ones working and getting the credit for success, where a woman's role is to serve the man in any way she can.
Clothing and the bond it holds to gender ideals is unnecessary. The way someone identifies in terms of their gender does not have to hold relation to the way that they choose to dress. “Gendered” clothing is just another aspect of gender roles, the patriarchy, and suppression of those whose gender identity isn’t male or female. Gendered Clothing must come to an end.
