Fearless Friday on a Sunday
Today's Washington Post carried a fascinating article parsing the tuxedo, as worn by Constance McMillen, the 18-year-old whose desire to a) wear a tuxedo to the prom and b) take another girl to the prom caused her school in Fulton, Mississippi to cancel the prom.
McMillen, who was bullied by her fellow students, took her cause to the ACLU, prevailed in court, and was honored by Glamour magazine as one of their Women of the Year. What did she wear? An Isaac Mizrahi tux. Talk about doing it with style!
Here's the link to the whole Washington Post article. I'm not sure I agree completely with Robin Givhan's conclusion that pants are a signal of authority--that understanding seems a bit 1970s to me personally--but clearly that view still holds in certain parts of the country, including Fulton, Mississippi. Here in Vermont, I don't think students would look twice if a girl wore a tux to the prom, or if she wore a very feminine pants outfit. Well, they might look twice, but a big deal would not be made.
But when it comes to the question of a man swaggering into the room in a skirt or heels or eyeshadow, I think we would be hard put to know how to react, an opinion that will be no surprise to anyone who has been reading this blog for a while.
I do want to thank Robin Givhan for pointing out something that grew to conscious thought in my mind only as I was working on StT, and that's this: Women are expected to fit pre-sized clothing, while men's clothing is tailored to fit the man. Givhan doesn't point out that it goes beyond tailoring, but it does. Men's pants come in a variety of combinations of waists and inseams, shirts in a various neck sizes. This spectrum conveys the message that it is acceptable for men to be of different proportions and heights.
Women's clothes come in very few size variations, most of which serve women who are either smaller (petite), or much larger (women's), none of which take into account the variety of proportion we all have. Speaking from personal experience, the only way to find clothing that fits well is to try on designer after designer until you find the two or three who design for your particular proportions. Alterations can be made, but they aren't considered the norm for women that they are for men (not to mention that if you are a tall or large woman, you need to find something that is long enough or large enough before it can be altered, because you can't work with fabric that isn't there).
I'm not sure how we go about addressing this inequality in the system, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.