"Clothes with frills or flowers or flounces or lace or anything girlie made me miserable." There is no flower/flounce/lace DNA code on the XX chromosome. Clothing standards are completely arbitrary. This would be like saying men who don't like to wear a suit and tie must have been exposed to something in utero. Then there's the man that …
"Clothes with frills or flowers or flounces or lace or anything girlie made me miserable." There is no flower/flounce/lace DNA code on the XX chromosome. Clothing standards are completely arbitrary. This would be like saying men who don't like to wear a suit and tie must have been exposed to something in utero. Then there's the man that supposedly was unhappy for not having more "masculine behaviors." While there's no doubt behavior differences between males and females that we can generally observe, it' not a recipe. We're not bees or ants in a hive with assigned roles. Accepting oneself seems to be the problem, no matter whether the cause of variations amongst us is environmentally induced or something else.
Throughout history plenty of men wore "flouncy" clothes, I think of the French nobility and really any other European nobility back in the day. Also, really, flowers? Has the author never seen men in Miami? She should also google the flower men of Saudi Arabia. This is an incredibly sexist article and the author seems to be 1) looking for a way to uphold sex stereotypes and 2) ignoring studies that show there really isn't a clear cut male-female brian. Now, there are behavioral patterns, which mainly involve level and violence and altruism, which can be witnessed at the sex class level. But it seems as a girl she related certain clothing characteristics to social coding and thus refused to wear anything associated with Western, modern femininity as that equated to weakness. I was like this too as I was an athlete. Then I decided it was stupid. Now I wear whatever I want.
Excellent points. I wear mostly t-shirts and loose, comfortable slacks, but I will dress in more "feminine" attire for my husband when we go out. I have zero interest in clothing fashion, but like comfort, and I don't mind sometimes wearing something that pleases my husband.
I am switching to skirts and dresses for work because although I can find comfortable jeans, I have always found dress slacks troublesome. Dresses and skirts and now easier and it has nothing to do with my brain or chromosomes!
Women throughout history and across cultures dress differently than men, and the patterns of dress show commonalities (accentuation of hips, breasts, etc). This is not a coincidence or a social construction but likely reflects the evolutionary imperative to compete with other females for the attention of high-status men. Just because you think you're an exception isn't really relevant.
As for the accentuation of the hips and breast's, also not universal clover cultures or time. Plenty of traditional female outfits were flowing due to heat (Berbers, etc) or the breasts were just not as accentuated. A lot of African clothing was very similar in terms of male and female wraps. I don't even get me started on ancient Japan throwing that out the window. The Tail of Genji was very revealing. Many traditional Native American outfits also were practical and not meant to sexualize.
For much of history, men were also as adorned as women unless they were in the labor class. It was a class thing. And long hair among men was very common. You also have cultures where women traditionally have short hair. African cultures, Amazon cultures, etc. I wasn't talking about myself I am talking about the anthropological record.
But wait! We (females) have it beaten into our heads like a religious mantra that men are overwhelmed with their sex drive and easy, so no need to compete. They're just simple creatures who don't even pay attention to clothing and grooming. There's the old joke that all he wants from a woman is to show up naked with a pack of beer. Which is it? I've never "competed" for a male, and I didn't spend my day revolving around what clothing/hair/makeup would attract a male. I dressed for MY comfort. From my experience I find all this crap makes young women low on self-esteem and that's where the "compete" garbage comes from.
Although dress is indeed culture-specific, that doesn't mean all sex-based stereotypes are wrong. Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason.
The decades-long feminist attempt to call these stereotypes "sexist social constructs" is based on a denial of biology and genetics (not to mention ignorance of cross-cultural norms, history, the behavior male and female toddlers, and even primatology).
"We're not bees or ants in a hive with assigned roles."
Sure, but failing to recognize our shared evolutionary history with other animals is also incorrect. As they say, evolution does not stop at the neck.
"Clothes with frills or flowers or flounces or lace or anything girlie made me miserable." There is no flower/flounce/lace DNA code on the XX chromosome. Clothing standards are completely arbitrary. This would be like saying men who don't like to wear a suit and tie must have been exposed to something in utero. Then there's the man that supposedly was unhappy for not having more "masculine behaviors." While there's no doubt behavior differences between males and females that we can generally observe, it' not a recipe. We're not bees or ants in a hive with assigned roles. Accepting oneself seems to be the problem, no matter whether the cause of variations amongst us is environmentally induced or something else.
Throughout history plenty of men wore "flouncy" clothes, I think of the French nobility and really any other European nobility back in the day. Also, really, flowers? Has the author never seen men in Miami? She should also google the flower men of Saudi Arabia. This is an incredibly sexist article and the author seems to be 1) looking for a way to uphold sex stereotypes and 2) ignoring studies that show there really isn't a clear cut male-female brian. Now, there are behavioral patterns, which mainly involve level and violence and altruism, which can be witnessed at the sex class level. But it seems as a girl she related certain clothing characteristics to social coding and thus refused to wear anything associated with Western, modern femininity as that equated to weakness. I was like this too as I was an athlete. Then I decided it was stupid. Now I wear whatever I want.
Excellent points. I wear mostly t-shirts and loose, comfortable slacks, but I will dress in more "feminine" attire for my husband when we go out. I have zero interest in clothing fashion, but like comfort, and I don't mind sometimes wearing something that pleases my husband.
I am switching to skirts and dresses for work because although I can find comfortable jeans, I have always found dress slacks troublesome. Dresses and skirts and now easier and it has nothing to do with my brain or chromosomes!
Women throughout history and across cultures dress differently than men, and the patterns of dress show commonalities (accentuation of hips, breasts, etc). This is not a coincidence or a social construction but likely reflects the evolutionary imperative to compete with other females for the attention of high-status men. Just because you think you're an exception isn't really relevant.
Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason.
As for the accentuation of the hips and breast's, also not universal clover cultures or time. Plenty of traditional female outfits were flowing due to heat (Berbers, etc) or the breasts were just not as accentuated. A lot of African clothing was very similar in terms of male and female wraps. I don't even get me started on ancient Japan throwing that out the window. The Tail of Genji was very revealing. Many traditional Native American outfits also were practical and not meant to sexualize.
For much of history, men were also as adorned as women unless they were in the labor class. It was a class thing. And long hair among men was very common. You also have cultures where women traditionally have short hair. African cultures, Amazon cultures, etc. I wasn't talking about myself I am talking about the anthropological record.
But wait! We (females) have it beaten into our heads like a religious mantra that men are overwhelmed with their sex drive and easy, so no need to compete. They're just simple creatures who don't even pay attention to clothing and grooming. There's the old joke that all he wants from a woman is to show up naked with a pack of beer. Which is it? I've never "competed" for a male, and I didn't spend my day revolving around what clothing/hair/makeup would attract a male. I dressed for MY comfort. From my experience I find all this crap makes young women low on self-esteem and that's where the "compete" garbage comes from.
Although dress is indeed culture-specific, that doesn't mean all sex-based stereotypes are wrong. Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason.
The decades-long feminist attempt to call these stereotypes "sexist social constructs" is based on a denial of biology and genetics (not to mention ignorance of cross-cultural norms, history, the behavior male and female toddlers, and even primatology).
"We're not bees or ants in a hive with assigned roles."
Sure, but failing to recognize our shared evolutionary history with other animals is also incorrect. As they say, evolution does not stop at the neck.
Clothing fashion is absolutely a social construct and has zero to do with behavior.