Breaking Stereotypes: How To Challenge Gender Norms Through Fashion

Choose yourself and love yourself as you are. Gender norms and harmful stereotypes are best ignored. Fashion has no gender and gender is a social construct.

The content below was originally paywalled.

There are so many gender norms and they are not helpful to any of us. Whether we may be able to stick to them or not. Do this, don’t do that, and then all of a sudden society and the industries switch it all around just to keep us on our toes.

Did you know that pink was originally a colour used exclusively for boys, and blue was used exclusively for girls? Red was seen as a strong, vital and courageous colour which at the time was deemed to be suitable for men only. They didn’t want women thinking they were capable because they knew just how capable and strong they truly were. And are. Thus, the slightly muted version – pink – was seen as the ideal for young boys. Blue on the other hand, was seen as a calm, soft and quiet colour, which suited the gender norms for women at the time.

And everyone who didn’t fall into either category… well, history sometimes try to make us believe there weren’t any people like that, but that’s a lie. Trans people, and LGBTQIA in general, have always existed. It has simply not been safe for us to express ourselves or voice our identities out loud.

Makeup, heels and wigs were all created for men originally, but somehow today people deem them all to be “women’s wear” and utterly inappropriate for anyone else to wear. Which quite frankly is ridiculous. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that there is no use following any of those thoughtless norms. The norms are a certain way now, and they can be changed at the flick of a hand to whatever suits the industries and the system.

Ignore the labels

When you are looking for things to wear, and you are creating- or rather, finding your personal style, there is no need to pay any heed to the sizes or the labels. Those aren’t important. What is important is that you are wearing something that feels good to wear, that makes you feel like yourself and gives you confidence.

Colours and fabrics have no gender

Colours can actually make or break us. There is a reason why colour therapy exists. Certain colours make us feel certain things. That means that you can actually use colours and the clothes you wear to help yourself heal, to make yourself more confident and to become more mindful in your everyday life. Finding out which colours suit you, your personality and your state of mind is important. Far more important than simply trying to settle for whichever colours others deem to be for appropriate for your gender.

And as far as fabrics go, your senses are important. What fabrics feel good to one body may feel very unpleasant to another. So rather than worrying about if something is feminine, masculine or what it may or may not make other people think about you, think about your own senses. Go to a fabric shop and feel the fabrics. Look at the colours. Go with your intuition. Make a note of which colours you are drawn to, which materials make you light up and so forth. This will be your basis for your own wardrobe.

All bodies are different

All bodies are different, and all people are different. We aren’t meant to be able to buy some massproduced item that’ll hardly last a season. We’d all be much better off either making our own clothes, having them made for us, or having our own clothes altered. There are many courses, free and paid, and even videos on YouTube that can teach you how to alter your own clothes, and how to make your own.

Before you tense up and say you can’t do that, just think of how people used to live not that long ago. Everyone lived like that. Everyone knew how to make things, and how to provide for themselves and their families.

I am not in any way, shape or form saying it was or is easy. I imagine many families thought it quite tiring back then. But we all have talents and things we do better than some. All we need to do is create a community where we help each other. That will make things more manageble for as all.

If you cannot sew, and have tried to learn but still can’t manage, I am sure there are other things you can do well. And there are likely people close by who do sew well, and might benefit from help with the things you do well.

Humans are not “One-size”

There is nothing that suits every person out there. We all need to adjust and tweak things to make them perfect for ourselves. But that doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with us, or that we should feel ashamed. We are not meant to be the same. Look at nature. No two leaves are alike. There are all shapes, colours, and textures in nature, and no one is going around telling nature it needs to be changed or edited.

Body positivity matters

Our differences are important to consider when it comes to our clothes and shoes as well. An industry that condemns all bodies, and tells each person they need to change their body, is not an industry worth supporting.

You are beautiful and so is your body. Sizes do not matter and neither do the labels. The important thing is that your clothes fit, that they are truly yours in terms of style and design, and that they make your life easier, more manageable as well as happier and more exciting.

All bodies are beautiful and deserve to be treated with respect and dressed with care. The rest… it simply doesn’t matter. I am not saying that there aren’t any genders, because that would invalidate anyone who identifies with a gender. I am merely saying that what it means to be a certain gender, is up to each person individually.

Gender should not be a cross we bear. We should freely act and dress as ourselves without restriction regardless of how we identify ourselves and who we love. A person will break if they go on thinking about what others might think or feel about their every decision. And it’s not worth it. You do you and let the chips fall where they may.