For years, society has told us what is appropriate for men and women to wear. Since birth, the message is wired into our brains: Baby girls are swaddled in pink and baby boys in blue. This environment has created an invisible barrier between the women’s and men’s clothing sections, defining the limits of gender in fashion. The fashion industry promotes and enforces the gender binary, turning a blind eye to the genderqueer experience.
In a society where following gender norms is expected, some gender non-conforming individuals feel the need to dress in stereotypically men’s or women’s clothes.
“When I’m shopping, I have to ask myself if people will perceive me as masculine enough with a certain piece of clothing,” Kallie Hansel-Tennes, a UO student, said. “The other day, I was thinking of buying a Taylor Swift T-Shirt, but I realized people would probably see me as a woman for wearing it. So, I didn’t.”
To avoid people misgendering them, Hansel-Tennes prefers wearing garments that conform to masculine clothing stereotypes. Their experience reflects the toxic environment gendered fashion has created.
The idea that people are either women or men and therefore must wear either women’s or men’s clothing is deeply ingrained in our society. For many years, fashion has both contributed to and been confined by social norms.
“Maybe if I were able to feel more comfortable in my body, I would feel more comfortable in other clothing,” Hansel-Tennes said. “But right now, I’m misgendered all the time. I don’t want to make it worse.”
Although Hansel-Tennes is neither a woman nor a man, gendered fashion pressures them into avoiding certain styles and clothing that associate them with femininity. The clothes Hansel-Tennes wears are a vital factor in how others interpret their identity. However, access to such garments is not always guaranteed.
The lack of sizing options within the fashion industry is another factor that affects gender non-conforming individuals. A study published in the academic journal Fashion Studies on clothing fit issues for transgender people found that mass-manufactured attire does not meet the needs of transgender and genderqueer people. Many companies produce clothes in certain sizes and certain cuts to accentuate traditionally masculine features. Those clothes are then marketed to cisgender men, implicitly, becasue trans men might not have the wide shoulders and broad chests the fashion industry associates with manliness. The same is true of women’s clothes, with cuts that accentuate the breasts and hips.
“I can’t just go out and get clothes that match my gender identity very easily,” Ramona, a UO student, said. “I am more comfortable dressing in female clothes, but I don’t have that many opportunities to acquire them, especially due to my size.”
Finding women’s clothes that fit Ramona’s body type is quite tricky as a 6-foot-8 individual. The fast fashion world caters to the binary, and genderqueer people who challenge those norms find it much harder to acquire their desired clothes.
Although gender identity is independent of one’s clothes, specific garments can trigger gender dysphoria.
“The clothes that I wear don’t help with my dysphoria. It’s the clothes that I don’t wear that actively work against it,” Hansel-Tennes said. “I have this shirt because it is comfortable, and I like it. I also have this shirt because I don’t feel like shit when I wear it.”
Gender dysphoria can severely impact one’s mental health, leading to depression, self-harm and, in severe cases, even suicide. The role of body image is instrumental in the interaction between the body and apparel. It can generate an incongruent message about one’s gender presentation. Consequently, it is essential that fashion companies cater to all sizes and body types.
The more room fashion creates for products outside the gender binary, the more trans and genderqueer people become accepted by society. Changing the idea of gendered fashion could ultimately lead to a change in social views about trans bodies and their representation in our everyday life.