Exploring Gender Identity: The Role of Clothing and Fashion Trends

This essay delves into the significant role of clothing and fashion in shaping gender identity, drawing upon historical, sociological, and anthropological perspectives. It examines how clothing serves as a communication tool, reflecting and reinforcing societal norms and power relations. The essay traces the evolution of gendered dressing from the Elizabethan era to modern times, highlighting instances of cross-dressing, the impact of historical events like the World Wars, and the influence of fashion trends on both men and women. It also addresses the social pressures and inequalities perpetuated by clothing standards, concluding that clothing is both a means of self-expression and a reflection of the complex interplay between gender and society. The essay emphasizes how Desklib can be a valuable resource for students seeking similar essays and study materials.

Running head: CLOTHES REPRESENTING GENDER
CLOTHES REPRESENTING GENDER
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This essay discusses the importance of garment for gender identity. Fashion clothes is
a matter of intense historical, sociological, anthropological as well as semiotic analysis in the
contemporary social theories. This phenomenon in fashion, the influence of which is
predictable from the famous cliché that the man is what the man wears, offers an intense, rich
and opulent set of garment options. It reveals multiple as well as unexpected ways through
which the concept of fashion becomes the part of tangible, tangible complicated, profound as
well as symbolic process of building a modern self, body, identity as well as the social
relations. The development of gender identity has been always a social construct where the
fashion or garment bear two factors of this specific configuration (Hollander, pp.139).
Fashion and clothes have become the part of social procedures of discrimination, the
production of the position of hierarchy as well as prestige in this deeply unequal society. The
aim of this essay is to sense various types pf human thoughts on the development of gender
through the fashion and clothing and define female alone with male appearance in the
evolution of different dress styles.
In his book ‘Clothes’, John Harvey has deployed his considerable scholarships along
with his intelligence on the topic which concerns all- that is the clothes one wears. He writes,
“clothes may help us to possess our soul, and we may place our soul within the clothes”
(Harvey, p. 11). The issue of clothes can be the question of life and death as the introductory
part of the book discloses that two young goths were beaten up due to their outlandishly
distinctive appearance and cloths. The clothes represent metaphor of either interpretation or
misinterpretation. With the progress of the society, science, economy and politics, people
started to look for a kind of blatant individual beauty. In the modern world, the refinement of
the highlighted personality is regarded by the people greatly. Therefore, sex in the designing
of garment has always been the complete factor with in the deliberation of the fashion
designers since the ancient time. Despite the fact in today’s world, the clothing fashion has

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become more neutral, in some cases the gap is more wide. In this modern western society, the
men’s clothes and the women’s clothes have become more alike but in the ancient time the
pattern style and the choices of colors were completely different from men to women
(Rokison, pp. 360). From the ancient times, the slandered of the traditional clothing have
emphasized the roles played by the men and worm. It was the identifying factor for both of
the gender. In the Elizabethan period, the idea of disguise was prevalent where most of the
comedies of Shakespeare have recorded the idea of cross dressing where the women used
man’s attire to change their identity in order to execute particular tasks only allowed for men
at that time.
Clothes have always been used as communication tool to present one’s status and
gender. Clothing of a human being is closely aligned with the gender and seen to be a part of
cultural constriction. The change in clothes can change the perspective, for example when a
Victorian woman wears trousers at home, she is seen to be very aggressive and dominating
especially going against the accepted norms of the society (Campbell, pp.405). This woman
is seen to be more masculine than her passive counterpart. Trousers has been considered to be
an attire of men therefore, comes with more masculine features. Therefore, it can be said that
the clothes themselves do not have any gender connotations but the society has put
definitions on them. Gendered dressing has been more complementary in role playing. The
trouser has masculinity and skirts denotes femininity. In addition to this, power relations are
more inextricably involved in clothing (Lindsey, pp.354). The women’s espousal of male
clothes represents an important readjustment of description of femininity. However, it is not
essentially a change in the current balance of power. The feminine males are often associated
with transgenderism or homosexuality. These assumptions by the society show to what extent
the cross-gendered dressing has been accepted and highlighted gender differences.

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As mentioned before, the definition of being men and women is strictly connected to
the appearances. This however changes with the change of region also. The clothes which are
accepted for the women in the western world, often worn traditionally by the men in different
countries. For example, ‘skirts’ is seen to be a feminine garment but worn by the men in West
Africa, Indonesia and Scotland. A tube form of clothes fitted in the waist is seen to be worn
by the men in West Africa, the Scottish skirt is worn in the social events for creating a social
as well as cultural identity stands for identification of masculinity. On the other hand, the
skirts mainly codpiece used to be worn by the Elizabethan and Jacobean men. In this context,
the portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger can be discussed. The king of
Scotland and England in this portrait has worn stockings, shirt, doublets, breeches, hat and
jerkin. The use of ruff was prevalent in higher class men and women.

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Figure 1. Portrait of Henry VIII
(source: Npg.org.uk)
In the eighteenth century Europe, the enlightenment philosophies had a great impact
on the lifestyles of the people which indirectly affected the clothing of men and women. The
‘portrait of Mr. and Mrs. William Hallett’ namely ‘The Morning Walk’ by Thomas
Gainsborough, the garments of William and Elizabeth represents the fashion of that time.
Here, William s in black, which is the color dominated by the male of the time. He has worn
a silk velvet frock suit. His jacket is undone and one hand is a stance that can be seen in many
of the fashionable 18th century informal portraits. On the other hand, Elizabeth is in an ivory
silk dress appears like her wedding dress. It is caught with a black silk band in the waist. Her
breast is covered with a frilled muslin with a knot of grape green ribbon in it.

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Figure 2. The Morning Walk
(source: Prodger)
The studies by Harvey in ‘Clothes’ reveal the fact of formidable style of clothing
accepted by the society. The women in the Victorian age was much careful of their dresses as
the orthodoxy had increased at its heist level. On ‘issue of shoulders’, the author has
discussed that the fashions of men towards the end of nineteenth century, tended to bulk them
out as well as cover them completely (Monden, pp.245). On the contrary, the fashion of the
women had growing sensitive issues for different reasons. In this context, he has pointed out
the famous portrait by John Singer Sargent, ‘Madame X’. in this case the portrait had to be
published in 1900 century long after its creation. This is because the portrait seemed to have a
sensuous connotation in it which was seen to be obscene by the people of that time. Harvey
writes, “The strap was scarcely more than a thread, but loosening it was a step too far,
and Sargent was required to mend the portrait, and replace the strap. Only later still
could shoulders be wholly naked” (Harvey, pp.87).

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Figure 3. Madame X
(source: Art, and Art)
According to the psychologists, when the people first meet, they distinct others on the
basis of gender. Now in defining so, there are various factors like physicality and clothing,
based on which the people tend to identify the gender. Dresses for both men and women has
two different functions, one is to modify of body in order to protect it from the external
environment for example cold, another as a medium of communication. From the perspective
of the children who do not differentiate men and women on the basis of physicality, can do so
by seeing their appearance (Connell, pp.346). Therefore, the socially accepted codes of
wearing clothes has ability to create an implicit differed among the men and women. It is the
most visible form of consumption and a specific executor of power relations. The difference
between the male and female body is obvious and it is accentuated through the ways the

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individual is attired and how they hold, control, move and maintain their physical presence.
Harvey writes, “When we put on clothes we sheathe ourselves in a social shadow: an
ethos, an ethic, that guides and limits” (Harvey, pp.51). The gender roles have become so
naturalized that the people do not realize that they are producing their gender roles rather
notice when someone does not do same. Clothing is therefore the tool for communication that
helps to define the male and female.
As discussed before, till 20th century there was a wide gap between the clothes of the
male and the females. Even in the western culture, the women were prohibited of wearing
trousers however in 1900, the trousers gained place in the wardrobe of the women. As the
women in the era of first world war women participated in the works with the men hence they
wanted to have the freedom to were trousers as this was the most convenient cloth for
working menial tasks. The fashion designers of 1930s started to produce pants for women for
horse riding and other works which were limited only for men. This is the reason, the
conservatives never supported the women wearing trousers and termed them to be unnatural
as well as masculine. By avoiding such criticisms, the women started to wear typical clothes
usually worn by the men in sports. There were various movements which aimed to break the
taboo of gender identification. These movements protested against capitalism and
materialism so that they can conceal the gender differences thus reduce inequality and
discrimination in the future.
As mentioned before, the fashion trends as well as clothing style creates social
contractions of gender, which details what a woman and man should wear and how she or he
look like. This presence of the standard for the conclusion of beauty automatically labels
some groups to be under the control of the other (Rokison, pp.362). This is how the
individuals constantly judge one another as well as themselves so that they can fit into the set
norms of the gender classification. Since the Elizabethan age, both males and females have

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been suffering due to this reason. Throughout the history of western fashion trend the women
have been out-of-the-way from men by their fashions. These women used to risk spinal cord
disorders, from their corsets, suffered from chronic foot pain as well as arch trauma due to
high-heels and subjugated to a constant anxiety of worry over the approval of men of their
clothing appropriateness. Now a day, the situation has a more far reaching effect on the
adolescents that they feel pressure to fit in the contemporary styles of dressings hence starve
(Campbell, pp.410).
Therefore, it can be concluded that the clothes have a vital part in the history of
human being. Since the ancient time, the clothes are the modifiers for the people and used for
safeguarding the body from external nature. On the other hand, clothes are the medium of
identifying the gender. Hence gender and clothes have a very important relation which cannot
be avoided. Clothes are the primary factor which distinguishes man from women. With the
change of time and place, the method of identification of gender has been changed. In the
western culture, from the Elizabethan age to the Victorian period, the dress code of women
was much strict. This aspect however, reveals the fact of power relation between the men and
women in the society as well as domination. However, towards the beginning of twentieth
century, the gap in the cloths of men and women however reduced greatly. The women
participated in the works done by men, sports and army which needed special attention for
making more comfortable clothes for women. The art of every period captures these changes
through the portraits of men and women.

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References:
Art, and Art. "John Singer Sargent : Portrait Of Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau) (1884)
- Giclee Fine Art Print". Renfield's Fine Art, 2018,
https://www.renfields.org/listing/179708953/john-singer-sargent-portrait-of-madame-x.
Accessed 11 Apr 2018.
Campbell, Jane MacRae. "Dress, Ideology, and Control: The Regulation of Clothing in Early
Modern English Utopian Texts, 1516–1656." Utopian Studies 28.3 (2018): 398-427.
Connell, R. W. "Masculinity politics on a world scale." Women in culture: An intersectional
anthology for gender and women’s studies (2016): 234-38.
Harvey, John. Clothes. Taylor And Francis, 2014.
Hollander, Anne. Sex and suits: The evolution of modern dress. Bloomsbury Publishing,
2016.
Lindsey, Linda L. Gender roles: A sociological perspective. Routledge, 2015.
Monden, Masafumi. Japanese fashion cultures: Dress and gender in contemporary Japan.
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014.
Npg.org.uk. "King Henry VIII - National Portrait Gallery". Npg.Org.Uk, 2018,
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw03082/King-Henry-VIII. Accessed 11
Apr 2018
Prodger, Michael. "Review: Gainsborough: A Portrait By James Hamilton". Thetimes.Co.Uk,
2018, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/review-gainsborough-a-portrait-by-james-hamilton-
df82frdfb. Accessed 11 Apr 2018.

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Rokison, Abigail. "Special issue on Shakespeare, performance and authenticity: an
introduction." Shakespeare10.4 (2014): 359-362.