Gendered clothing - grrr.

[RobinsAreTerritorialFuckers]

Not a new subject, I know, but I've been suffering delayed irritation due to listening to a professional mansplainer on the subject (I was a at a party full of women. He seemed to imagine we would all gather round to hear his views, and it was Very Tedious). However, his basic point was that women have it so much better than men, as men's clothing is so very boring, whereas women can wear whatever they like and no one minds.

A youngish woman pointed out, quite politely, that women's clothing is generally more expensive and poorer quality, and obviously knew what she was talking about as she makes her own clothes. And she pointed out that this also applies to so-called 'gender neutral' clothing that women wear, such as jeans or shirts - so it isn't, in fact, gender neutral at all.

I've just thought about that again as a friend posted about seeing small girls dressed in skirts struggling to enjoy soft play.

Now, I know these things are choices. You can certainly dress girl children in 'boy' clothes. You can also be an adult woman who wears men's clothing, and I know plenty of women who do. There were several women in the room at this party who were patently doing so. But it got me wondering why this bloke just assumed that it was 'easy' for women to wear men's clothes, but totally unthinkable for him to do the same? I know that a man wearing a skirt will probably get funny looks - but actually, so will a woman in a suit and tie.

We seem to have accepted that it is shockingly transgressive for a man to wear anything belonging to the other gender, and I wonder if that actually belittles the amount of flack I think women and girls do still get for doing exactly the same?

Kilts are traditionally male clothing, too. There must be some men who will be able to compare and contrast with wearing trousers. Still, it could be like wearing a bra - fine if you are just sat around, but if physical activity is likely, it might be better to feel supported than swing free. At least, it's uncomfortable running without a bra, and I'm speaking as an A-cup.

Wasn''t there a fashion for footballers men to wear sarongs a while back?
I used to know a guy who wore a kilt quite regularly on nights out. He wasn't Scottish, either. Just did it to be different.

There have been several instances here in the States of high school boys of Scottish descent wanting to wear highland dress to prom. Evidently some principals do not know that the kilt is, in fact, traditionally menswear and not a skirt.

Looking outside Europe - men wear robes of various sorts, like Arab distashas. Or loose trousers that might be coded feminine in the UK. In central Asia the men wear what look like badly-fitting loose suits to my eyes, but it's because the men are obeying the same rule of Islam of not showing body shape as the women.

This discussion is timely as last night my daughter was crying because her nursery friends were saying she's not a girl because girls like pink and dresses, and she only wants to wear trousers and her favourite colour is blue. Her teachers are working hard to get the message out that while lots of girls like pink, lots of girls like blue and other colours and boys and girls can like pink and play football etc. Poor thing. She's adamant she doesn't want a summer dress and I'm sure will sort it out, but in a culture where boys and girls tend to play different games, it's going to be tough for her. At least ds has a small gang of boys who don't like football plus some of the more boisterous imaginative girls.

I was just wondering if it's more comfortable to wear stuff that's looser round the relevant body parts.