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Feminism and Fashion

Fear for Females

By Maya ConroyPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Fashion should make you feel brave and empowered

As a teenage girl, I strive for the greatest outfit with my hair on point and my makeup ready for a runway, but I can’t always do that. Society tells girls that we must dress nicely and it’s become the trend to always have your outfit perfect and ready for a photoshoot for your Instagram page. Not only is this stressful for teenage girls but it also plays a big part for women in politics.

Fashion is not only fun, but it can be a tool. A tool to broadcast a message on your t-shirt or a tool to show that you are ready for anything. Not only are women in politics expected to dress nicely in business suits and such like their male counterparts, but they are also more closely scrutinized for their outfits. This is true in the media as well, but in politics for someone who wants to get their message across and create change it is hard because the news is only focusing on what color pantsuit you wore and how your hair looked.

It has come to a point where “women’s fashion has become glorified so much that it distracts from what the politician is saying or doing” (Drace 1). This needs to be addressed, and we are finally seeing it, even in shows like The Bold Type. In the first season of this show, Jane wants to be a journalist, and when a female politician comes to town she jumps at the chance for an interview. Sadly, working for a “woman’s magazine,” she is denied the chance until she claims it’s to discuss her fashion. After a sneaky interview, she discovers that the politician has been using the fact that people only pay attention to her outfit to her advantage. She dresses in the most outrageous outfit possible in order to distract from the utter nonsense she spouts out in speeches and rallies. At first I found this slightly comical, but then I realised the sad truth that this woman, who was supposed to enact change and improve the country, was being reduced to the clothes on her back.

This seems to happen everywhere; when women or girls get involved in anything, they are focused on their outfits. If I participate in speech and debate, they scrutinize my suit and how neat my hair is or if I’m wearing makeup whereas the boys I compete against have their words focused on. When David Beckham once showed up in a leather Gucci suit it was mocked but mostly forgotten, unlike Selena Gomez’s pale pink dress and the contrast on her tanned skin at the 2018 Met Gala. It’s the same in politics, but it isn’t discussed enough.

Fashion has always been used against women to judge their intellect or status, and it’s time they stopped. If I show up to class in a t-shirt, jeans, and vans, I’d like to not be called lazy or say my outfit is ugly for wanting to be comfortable at school, yet it feels like I have to dress perfectly every day. Luckily, I know I don’t have to, but others don’t.

It’s the 21st century, and it's utterly ridiculous that a politician’s suit only matters if they’re female and that somehow is more important than their ideas and political strategy. Fashion is supposed to be fun. Something you can experiment with yourself because it goes on your body. It can be a tool to send a message and it can be fun but it should never be used as a weapon against women or a blockade against their career and voice. If anything, fashion should be empowering and creative.

Drace, Claudia. “Content Is More Important than Clothes: Women in Politics.” The Daily Wildcat, 17 Sept. 2016, www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2016/09/content-is-more-important-than-clothes women-in-politics.

The Met Gala Meme

She dressed up like everybody else and rather than focusing on the event or anything important, it was once again focused on fashion. Specifically, Selena Gomez's outfit to skin tone contrast which was made into a joke and she was ridiculed for. On the star's instagram she posted a video of her running away captioned (in I believe an attempt at a joke) "me when I saw my Met gala photos".

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About the Creator

Maya Conroy

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