In the world of fashion, fluidity has always been a concept. Yet, when exercised in day to day life, both men and women, face social scrutiny when wearing clothing designed for the other sex.
Like many other aspects of one’s personal life, clothing is often used as both a creative and expressive tool. Curating and developing a sense of personal style allows us to remain individual and unique from one another.
For a long time wearing clothing traditional to one’s own sex was the only acceptable option.
In a world constantly influenced by growing culture, history, and globalization, these standards have begun to shift. A new era of creatives are creating, resulting in changes that reflect in our music, art and fashion.
While it has become more commonplace for women to wear “men’s” clothing and more masculine silhouettes, the same cannot be said for the reverse. Men in today’s society still face a social pressure to maintain a strong masculine presence, which often starts in their appearance.
As various men attempt to break this mold, they are subjected to scrutiny. One of the first examples of this occurred in 2011 when Kanye West wore a skirt on stage. Something as trivial as clothing he wore resulted in a media frenzy. By the end of the week, the news had spread that Kanye West, a human being with feelings and individual thoughts, had worn women’s clothing, and that there was some sort of problem with that.
Other artists have followed his lead, including fellow artists Young Thug, Jaden Smith and Lil Uzi Vert, both of which have worn feminine clothing on multiple occasions.
Nearly every time they do, they also face criticism.
A lot of this negativity stems from a few weak arguments that in reality, don’t concern clothing at all.
First, many often cite that, by wearing feminine clothing that the individual is not heterosexual or that in some way, their sexuality is must be questioned.
While someone else’s sexuality should not even matter to other people, it still remains irrelevant when discussed simultaneously with fashion. If a man wears a dress or a blouse it means nothing besides the fact that they like how that item of clothing looks. Assuming that one thing correlates to another when there simply is no connection is harmful and leads to unnecessary, illegitimate remarks.
The most important thing to take away from this understanding is that even if, one’s clothing choice determined their sexuality, it wouldn’t matter anyway.
Outside of sexuality, men who decide to wear feminine clothing are accused of not being “manly” by both their male counterparts and by women. This argument simply cannot stand for the same reasons as the last.
Men, like women, should be free to express themselves in any way possible. Recently for some, that expression has included the addition of feminine clothing into their lifestyle.
Just because someone wears something that you don’t agree with doesn’t mean that you are entitled to critique them. Fashion is a constantly evolving sphere of creativity, often-times years ahead of its time.
For all the men out there, do whatever you want. Fashion is supposed to be fun anyway.
