Guardian article by Hadley Freeman, 'You want to dress up in a cute animal hat? Oh, please, just grow up!' Should women be told what to wear if it's a feminist doing the telling?

[RM76]

I know this isn't a very serious article, but it does seem to be a trend.

www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/2013/feb/04/cute-animal-hat-grow-up?commentpage=2

You see women doing this type of thing to other women all the time.
I have read countless articles in which the author (normally a woman) throws up their hands in despair at the stupidity of other women, demanding that they stop doing X,Y and Z or they, and by extension women, will not be taken seriously.

Surely everybody has the right to be taken seriously. Do we really want equality for women that is dependent on another list of things they must do in order to obtain it, and if so is that really equality?

Just wondered what other people thought and was wondering if I'm missing something. Hope I'm making sense, not slept much. How do you end these bits?
Now I'm talking to myself, I don't know, Byeeee...

Hadley's column isn't meant to be taken completely seriously. That seems to be her whole take on fashion - it isn't life or death, it's just a form of entertainment. Obviously, there is the odd contradiction, but that's the nature of the beast too. Although she is sometimes a bit blunt, you don't get the annoying thou-shalt-nots of the likes of Liz Jones in her work.

She can be a bit scathing in her answers, but Hadley's feminist credentials are pretty sound. She writes about fashion, but has written passionately about various feminist issues in her other columns, including rape victim-blaming.

Just had to laugh at this. My DH has the same hat as Personal Clown, although I don't think I'd ever wear one myself. Had never thought of animal hats as gendered to be honest!

The article began as a light parody of the kind of fashion columns that throw down Thou Shalts and Thou Mustn'ts from on high so it is a bit wide of the mark to feel annoyed by its tongue-in-cheek prescriptiveness. There are plenty of daft similar prohibitions from her on, I dunno, men wearing hats etc etc.

RE the hammering that she is getting on Twitter, I think that the animal hat wearers there must be the fashion equivalent of the green ink brigade -- full of eccentric complaining wrath.

I like childish and silly things. I would go as far as to say that if somebody declares they don't like childish and silly things, we have nothing really in common. In general, men are equally (if not more) childish. Most Lego is bought by adults for themselves; I suspect this is mainly men. Men love, talk out, have key rings/car stickers/mugs/ tshirts of kids' things like Star Wars, Spider Man, Batman etc all the time. There is nothing wrong or sexist about being childish.

That seems to be her whole take on fashion - it isn't life or death, it's just a form of entertainment.

I like that.