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Choosing what to wear

101 replies

Seachangeshell · 01/09/2017 09:36

Something I have been pondering recently is the choices we make about what we wear and how this relates to feminism. Sorry, not going to make much sense as I have a slight hangover and three small boys making a wild racket in the next room!
In a way it's a bit frivolous because fashion doesn't seem to matter all that much, but women have been controlled through what they are expected to wear. We have been told what we should and shouldn't wear. Women breaking out of these expectations can be seen as making a feminist choice. But then I've seen a lot on here about we can make a choice about what we wear but it's not a feminist choice.
For example, early in the 20th century women were expected to wear crippling corsets. A woman daring not to would be making a feminist choice.
A woman choosing to wear trousers in the 1920s was going against the grain. Trousers were for men, she shouldn't wear them. They made her feel free to be more active to take control of her space.
So now we have wearing makeup, shaving legs etc. as a feminist issue. Because it's society's expectation that we should look groomed then to go hairy and not wear makeup would be the feminist choice. Would it?
Or would it be that a woman should be able to do whatever she damn well likes with her clothing and body and that is feminist because she can choose? Because we have been controlled through rules about clothing in the past.
There, I haven't put that well but I know what I mean at least!

OP posts:
SpaghettiAndMeatballs · 01/09/2017 09:42

In a free society, rather than the one we have now, a woman could do whatever she chose, and be sure that it was a free decision.

Right now, women are expected to be hair free. I was just on a bus to an aeroplane, and most people were in shorts. Every man had hairy legs, and every woman had hair free (removed, not even short, blond hair). In that environment, how can a woman be freely making a decision to go hair free (or a man to shave his legs come to that)?

So in this society, right now, going with hairy legs is a feminist decision - it's making the call that your natural body is just fine, and you don't have to do what patriarchal society dictates.

Shaving your legs is going along with the patriarchy - it's not a decision that a woman who's been raised in this society is really freely making, although it is a completely understandable one.

That being said, if you want to shave your legs, shave them - the really important feminist act is to not shame other women who choose not to in my opinion.