Title: Clothing Has No Gender – Cerebral Sexuality
Headings: Clothing Has No Gender
Clothing Has No Gender
Content: In a culture where men wear things that we could call dresses, they’re not presenting in a feminine manner. We might think that they are, but that’s our external view imposing our values and expectations on them, even if it’s kept in our own heads.) Now that we’re all on the same page that gender identity isn’t the same thing as gender presentation, let’s talk nuance. Everything I’ve just laid out is a fairly binary explanation of masculinity/femininity and man/woman. So how does this work when we think about people with non-binary gender identities? Well to start off, clothing *still* has no gender. If an agender person wears button downs and trousers, they may be presenting in a masculine fashion, but they still have no gender. If a genderqueer person wears a dress and heels, they’re not a woman. Some non-binary people dress in masculine or feminine presenting ways, and that doesn’t change their gender. They may present in a specific way because it’s socially easier to dress in a way that matches people’s expectations (assigned female people presenting feminine, assigned male people presenting masculine), or because it’s comfortable (someone enjoys skirts because they feel nice on their legs, someone else enjoys wearing baggy jeans while doing manual labor), or because it looks and feels special to them (things like make-up and dapper outfits).