Clothing & Gender: Marked vs. Unmarked
Deborah Tannen claims that “there is no unmarked woman,” and that men, unlike women, have “the option of being unmarked.” I’ve been thinking about Tannen’s words lately and I can surely say I agree with her wholeheartedly.
When walking down the street, or in the halls at school,
most people can say that they pay more attention to women than men. Women’s
fashion tends to stand out more than men’s. Honestly, women make a statement
about themselves no matter what they wear – assumptions are automatically made
about them based on their appearance and they can further be classified. I
mean, we even have stereotypical names like “the basic white girl” for females,
but why isn’t their “the basic white guy” for males’ appearance?
Men can choose whether
or not they are marked. They can choose
to wear everyday ordinary clothes like sweats, jeans, plain shirts, etc. or
business attire like a suit, slacks, etc. Most of the time, people don’t think
twice when they see a male in passing, because their clothing doesn’t make a
statement. They choose to not make a
statement. They can also choose to mark
themselves. They can choose to wear cowboy
attire, designer-loyal outfits like the “Supreme god” look, latest runway
trends, neon, etc. However, their main state is one that draws no attention.
It’s the opposite for us females. We wear sweatpants and we’re
bums who don’t care about how we look. We wear pencil skirts and suddenly we’re
sluts seeking attention in the business environment. We wear high-waisted jeans
and we’re wannabe hipster girls. We wear leggings and boots and we’re the “ultimate
white girl.” We wear a dress and we get more glances than on the average day. As Tannen says, we are all marked.
There’s a lot more stigma surrounding girls' looks rather than guys – notably clothing. I feel like this is a result of the clothing
brands across the world that create more designs and types of attire for women
than for men. There’s SO many kinds of shirts for women – crop tops, hi-lo
shirts, “eagle-armed” shirts that fit looser the closer you move to the wrist, etc.
and within each category is another vast range of colors, cuts, patterns, and
more. There’s a dozen types of long sleeve shirts alone! But for men it’s more
like one shirt, multiple patterns/materials. A t-shirt is a t-shirt. Gosh, so
simple… I envy them.
This is so relatable! For women no matter what we choose we're marked in some way and I think you did a really good job on highlighting that. with your specific examples. Every word used to describe a style like "basic white girl" or "wannabe hipster" seems to have a negative connotation. Is there even a style that we can dress that is positive? I wish.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with this. In my opinion there definitely is as strong of a "basic white boy" look, or any others as there is for girls, so boys are pretty much just as marked. I think it is relatively easy for girls to go unmarked as well. With how often girls wear sweats to school, I don't think people really care or think it's because she doesn't care about her appearance. It's become an acceptable norm. For girls and boys alike, you have to be trying to be marked to actually be marked, because I think there is a pretty wide range of unremarkable clothing choices for either gender.
ReplyDeleteThere's no need to envy us, Rima; there must be plenty of guys out there who wish they had more options in how they dress. I like how you mention Supreme in your blog post, since there was a meme about that brand a few months ago. Although I'm not sure if your argument applies in all contexts, I think your examples are great and persuasively show that Tannen's points on women being marked are often true. Once again, thoughtful post!
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