Topic: The evolution of women’s clothing from unpractical and traditional to more practical and androgynous styles

Purpose: To highlight the past and continuing struggles women have to face, with stigmas and stereotypes, in the fight to wear clothing that makes them feel more comfortable and explain the effects of the engraved traditional views most of us were taught as children and how it’s playing into children’s clothing today.

Thesis Statement:

Women had to fight for the acceptance to wear more practical, “masculine”, or androgynous styles of clothing, however, traditional views concerning gender roles and expectations have and continue to factor into many stigmas and stereotypes women face. Today, we can see how even in children’s clothing these traditional expectations prevail and can lead to confusion or conformity to such norms, so we should push to get children’s clothing up to speed with the more progressive mindset in adult apparel.

Introduction

Attention Strategy/Orienting Material:

I will never forget this story my mom told me of a time when we went to a retail store like Walmart around Christmas time and she said I could pick out a pajama set to take home. Instead of fighting over which pink princess set I wanted my mom to buy, she told me I insisted on getting the one with Lightning McQueen on it that was from the boys section. Thankfully, she let me get the one I wanted, however, I know a part of her wishes I chose the more girly option because she always comments on how she misses when she was able to pick out my outfits and dress me up in cute dresses or skirts. Even now I sometimes find myself choosing to brows through the men isles in clothing stores and catch myself wearing less feminine style clothing, which my mom will still comment on and even sometimes say I should wear something “a bit more girly”. (THESIS)

Body 

1. Main Idea: Children clothing only recently became more defined by gender.
   • Support- Before around War World I children’s apparel in the United States did NOT have gender, many male and female infants would wear identical white dresses and until the ages of around five or six, both boys and girls were consistently put into loose fitting dresses or skirts. These styles bore strong resemblance to adult women’s fashion/dress of the time.
     • In the past it seems as though it was very important for them to distinguish between children and adults rather than boys versus girls.
     • No definite reason as to why children wore same style of clothing, but some speculate it was due to practicality/easiness of when changing toddlers and their diapers or how it allowed for those clothes to be easily passed down since they grew out of them quickly anyway.
   • Support- As women’s clothing started gaining more traction for including more “masculine”, androgynous styles, in the 1920s children’s clothing took the opposite approach and became more gender defined as sex “color coding” (in the form of pink and blue) was not at all until this time.
     • Today we can walk into most retail stores and see distinct differences in design and color for children’s clothing, most girl option are pink or contain lighter colors and a majority of their options are dresses, skirts, or cute, tight shirts. While boys distinctly have darker color options with almost all clothes being practical and looser fitting.

1. Main Idea: Traditional views continue to affect women of younger generations as they get older, which we can see in things such as dress code policies.
   • Support- Some could argue that parents could still choose to put their children in opposite or gender neutral clothing, but traditional views in school continue to feed these expectations which leads to anger and confusion
     • Pennsylvania highschool senior had to fight for her right to wear pants to her graduation after their school guidelines come out specifying girls could not wear pants, but could only wear :light colored dress or skirt”.
     • 2019 court case, Charter Day School vs. Peltier, parents and students sued the institutions dress code policy that expressed how girls were only allowed to wear skirts to school. Court ruled against the school’s policy claiming it violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
   • Support- We have made progressive change, but most dress code polices continue to enforce rules and expectations on how girls should dress.
     • Most dress code polices lean toward unfair, sometimes excessive and unpractical rules toward girls while boys do not have to deal with the same repercussions. Many schools highlight that fact girls need to cover up so they do not “distract” boys, our skirts and shorts can’t be too short but at the same time some are told they can not wear leggings or certain styles of jeans. (90% of dress codes prohibit at least one item of clothing typically worn by girls)
     • Long list of rules makes it difficult for younger girls to find ways to express themselves while also live up to the dress code and traditional expectations they are taught and enforced throughout their childhood. Also, being dress coded can affect one’s education and mental well-being as children are forced out of class, and taken away from their knowledge to simply go change. (In Saint John’s County in Florida, among their schools 83% of dress code violations were for girls)

1. Main Idea: Since many children today grow up being taught or treated like these gender expectations, it can feed into confusions of who they want to be versus how they feel society wants them to be, and also how they view others around them.
   • I really enjoy wearing cargo pants because I love how they make me feel about myself and they are honestly very comfortable. At least three separate times when I was a senior in highschool, I went to bathroom during lunch and I would be minding my own business until some other girl would ask my if I was a lesbian. Each time I asked them why they felt the need to make me such a question and every time they replied it was due to what I was wearing. Considering I am not lesbian, this shocked me a bit as I knew this styles was only just starting to become more typical for women, but because I did not think it had any implications as to what gender I liked.
   • Support- As girls get older, they start to struggle with the idea of conforming to the gender roles and expectations they were consciously or subconsciously taught as a child while also navigating ways to expresses themselves that make them feel good and comfortable
     • Continuing to enforce these gender differences in clothing from infancy to young adulthood can lead to various mental health and identify issues. Some people how an internal fight within themselves to conform to the roles they have learned even if they feel it them or not what will make them happy.
     • It can also feed into stigmas and stereotypes that they form and will eventually use when observing or judging others as they age, which can make the other people around them feel uncomfortable.

Conclusion

History shows continues to show us the impact that adult fashion can hold on children’s clothing. We have shifted society toward a more progressive way of thinking when it comes to adult clothes, so much so that 36% of American already bought clothes outside of their gender identify and 73% plan and are considering to do so. If we are starting to see this acceptance bloom in the adult fashion world, how come we are stuck in such traditional ways when it comes to children’s fashion? It’s important that people are aware of the consequences gender roles and expectations can have on people as they age. If we do our best to eliminate and reduce gender-typing in children clothing we can provide current youth with more opportunities to explore their own self-expression and hopefully eliminate stigmas and stereotypes that form and prevail as they become adults to ensure a more respectful and comfortable society for all.

References

Slides Outline

Slide 1: Picture of me as child wearing more feminine type clothing that my mom picked for me to wear and a picture of me and my mom now as I am dressed in more masculine styles of clothing.

Slide 2: One or various pictures of infants in non gender-typed clothing (wearing the white dresses) and a few others of toddlers of both genders wearing the same clothing.

Slide 3: Show images of retail stores today and how their sections for boys and girls are clearly defined by the colors they choose and the styles of clothes out out to buy.

Slide 4: Image of private/charter school uniforms as they pertain to both girls and boys.

Slide 5: Picture of a generic list of school dress code polices for both boys and girls to showcase the biases and unfairness in most of these polices.

Slide 6: “Gender expectations lead to confusion, which feeds into stigmas and stereotypes”

Slide 7: Show image of data on countries and the percentage of their residents that have and/or plan to purchase clothing outside of their gender identity.