Few days ago I
went to the Art Gallery at Ny Adelgade 7 to see the joint exhibition by fashion
photographer Karina Jønson and designer BARBARA I GONGINI. Those pictures
helped me come up with the idea for this post - how fashion blurs gender boundaries.
Just have a look:
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| "Dark and Secretive Universe" Karina Jonson/ Barbara i Gongini |
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| "Dark and Secretive Universe" Karina Jonson/ Barbara i Gongini |
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| "Dark and Secretive Universe" Karina Jonson/ Barbara i Gongini |
They show that
gender can be irrelevant to fashion. And the case of sexual ambiguity in
fashion is nothing unusual in the 21 century. The male model of the moment is
Andrej Pejic, who - and there's no other way to put it - looks like a woman.
Pejic is part of a movement in fashion to blur gender boundaries. And it's not
just about boys who look like girls. Lea T is a transsexual model booking all
the best campaigns fashion has to offer right now. The idea is not to care
about gender as long as you look great in clothes. In this context of working
in fashion, role conflict is not that important (if you look great in those clothes).
The contemporary study of gender pay attention
to the fact, that gender is not something we are, but something we do – we do
it through socialization, interaction and we do it every day - even during the
conversation. I would like to describe and discuss the case of fashion and an
idea of gender which is judged according to what is demand appropriate feminine
or masculine way of dressing. Did we not have a set of modeled way of dressing
differ for girls – pink outfit and boys – blue outfits? This means that the
conventional approach to the process of becoming girls and boys has been shaped
by many processes, such as socialization, relationships, interactions and
environment. And the concept of men and women is different across the time,
social situation, role paid in society due to fashion differentiation.
We can say that, men
“does” being masculine by wearing trousers, jacket, tie, polo shirt. We can
also say that, women “does” being feminine by wearing dress, high-heels and
make-up However, today, there isn’t a clear divide between male and female
fashion. During the past five years, designers have created collections for
both men and women. And it is nothing new: gender norms and fashion haven’t
remained constant through time. What used to be considered masculine in the
time of King Henry VIII is now considered feminine (necklace, trousers, and
high-heels).
If doing gender is
possible, undoing it is likely as well. And we can do it of course through
fashion. In the postmodernism style fashion blurs gender boundaries. A
distinctive feature of postmodern celebrity is its freedom with regard to
gender norms (icons of gender-bending: Annie Lennox – dyed her hair into bright
orange and wear men’s suit, Lady Gaga and her alter ego, Florence Welch, singer
in the cover of Japanese Vogue). Maybe it is a way to play with gender? In
those cases, display – representation fails to provide grounds for
categeoralization – gender is elastic.
Observing fashion in Copenhagen, I noticed that
Scandinavian fashion can be analyzing as way to undoing gender. Analyzing men’s
outfit – their style refers less to man – tight yellow, orange, red trousers,
pink shirts. Analyzing women’s outfit – their style refers less to woman – loose
sweaters, flat shoes. It leads us to defamiliarization of “men” and “women” and
in case of fashion – universality and unisex – and by this unitary logic, where
only one option is offered gender could be undone.
Doing, undoing
and non-doing gender are very complex approaches, but at least paying attention
to how we can undo gender may keep us focused on changing stereotypes, which
are created by us.
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