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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Women's dress choices

53 replies

begonyabampot · 26/09/2011 23:34

not posted much on this board but seen a few threads recently that have got me thinking. We don't like that women generally aren't treated equally or with the same seriousness as men. That often we are judged by appearance so why do we choose to dress often the way we do. Why often wear clothes that are more uncomfortable or even hamper our movement etc as in high heels and tight clothing. We don't want to be judged on appearance but go out of our way often to make an effort in time and money to get noticed. Men OTOH generally wear more comfortable, practical clothing, don't spend as much time and money on say hair and makeup. I know it's cultural and learned behaviours and expectations to what women should look like but are we doing ourselves any favours by continuing to dress this way and then taking umbridge when men notice the differences we are exaggerating between the sexes. I know that women should be able to dress and look anyway we want without the judgements that are usually made. I generally go for practicality and comfort but still like to dress up and use makeup for certain occasions, i' just curious as to what others think. I really can't wear high heels any more and never did much - why do we do it to ourselves and what do others think?

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swallowedAfly · 29/09/2011 06:54

scrubs are great - that sort of shapeless, easy, neutral clothing must be really liberating i think. can't see them going down well in offices though Grin

one of my jobs when i was young was as a trainee accountant in a company still run by it's original partners who were all in their 60's by that point. it was company rules that women had to wear skirts. what was the point of that rule? it wasn't that skirts were smarter or that they wanted to see women's legs (it was a conservative place and i think i was risque with my mid calf skirts). it could only be that they wanted women to look very clearly different to men.

same with school uniform when we were younger. they wanted us to look different from boys. why?

irritatingly my years of campaigning for girls to wear skirts did succeed and they told me i'd be pleased to know it was going ahead from the next year - i was leaving at that point. but why did they resist?

it's really clicking into place now that it was about creating marked differences between girls and boys, men and women. trying to work out exactly what is to be gained for them from that?

Hullygully · 29/09/2011 08:58

We need Mao pjs.

begonyabampot · 29/09/2011 13:05

ha, ha - I lived on a kibbutz for a little while and that's what it was like. Imagine everyone wearing second hand, whatever size was available, blue prison like uniforms (think of Cell block H). We revelled in our slobbery -suited me down to the ground! Swore when I came home i'd never get sucked back into the materialistic whirl and revert to overtly feminine crap - my resolve didn't last long...

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