I’m currently writing about the
reasons young women today choose a sexualized aesthetic (crop tops with tight
leggings, sexy selfies on Snapchat and Instagram) and the backlash they face
from parents and others. Dressed For Freedom showed me that women have
long been criticized for wearing clothes that make them feel independent—and
that clothes are a way for women to assert their autonomy.
Who knew that
flapper fashion a century ago was so scandalous? Anyone criticized for wearing
tight leggings in public should read this fascinating and entertaining history book
because it will help them understand that today’s battle over women’s
clothes—and bodies—is just a continuation of longstanding attempts to curb
women’s political rights.
Often condemned as a form of oppression, fashion could and did allow women to express modern gender identities and promote feminist ideas. Einav Rabinovitch-Fox examines how clothes empowered women, and particularly women barred from positions of influence due to race or class. Moving from 1890s shirtwaists through the miniskirts and unisex styles of the 1970s, Rabinovitch-Fox shows how the rise of mass media culture made fashion a vehicle for women to assert claims over their bodies, femininity, and social roles. She also highlights how trends in women's sartorial practices expressed ideas of independence and equality. As women employed new clothing…
I track instances on Instagram of dress-coding—when girls and women are disciplined for wearing clothes
considered “too” revealing. This occurs in schools with rules, for example,
forbidding tank tops or crop tops, and on airplanes (for some reason, the sight
of a woman wearing comfortable clothes is a trigger for many travelers). Black women
are singled out as sexualized most often.
To find out why, I turned to this
eye-opening book. Strings demonstrates a connection between racism and anxiety
over fatness. She traces how Black and white
women’s bodies came to be seen as essentially different from each other. Fatness became stigmatized to make the
case that white women’s bodies were superior.
This book showed me how to regard
health concerns from a racial and gendered lens.
Winner, 2020 Body and Embodiment Best Publication Award, given by the American Sociological Association
Honorable Mention, 2020 Sociology of Sex and Gender Distinguished Book Award, given by the American Sociological Association
How the female body has been racialized for over two hundred years
There is an obesity epidemic in this country and poor black women are particularly stigmatized as "diseased" and a burden on the public health care system. This is only the most recent incarnation of the fear of fat black women, which Sabrina Strings shows took root more than two hundred years ago.
Strings weaves together an eye-opening…
You know the expression “True beauty is on the inside”? When I have felt
insecure about my appearance, hearing from a well-intentioned friend that “true
beauty is on the inside” has not consoled me. It is a beautiful idea… in
theory.
In practice, this way of thinking can be harmful because it shifts
focus away from systemic and cultural beauty ideals that privilege particular
identities and body types and suggests that if I don’t feel good about myself, the
true problem is my attitude.
Orgad and Gill skillfully show that this kind of thinking
props up a “confidence culture” that lets organizations and institutions off
the hook for devaluing women. I finished the book more confident than
ever—showing that smart feminist analysis is more empowering than any diet or
mascara.
In Confidence Culture, Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill argue that imperatives directed at women to "love your body" and "believe in yourself" imply that psychological blocks rather than entrenched social injustices hold women back. Interrogating the prominence of confidence in contemporary discourse about body image, workplace, relationships, motherhood, and international development, Orgad and Gill draw on Foucault's notion of technologies of self to demonstrate how "confidence culture" demands of women near-constant introspection and vigilance in the service of self-improvement. They argue that while confidence messaging may feel good, it does not address structural and systemic oppression. Rather, confidence culture suggests…
Young women are
encouraged to express themselves sexually. Yet when they do, they are derided
as "sluts."
Caught in a double bind of mixed sexual messages, they're
confused. To fulfill the contradictory roles of being sexy but not slutty, they
create an "experienced" identity on social media—even if they are not
sexually active—while ironically referring to themselves and their friends as
"sluts." But this strategy can become a weapon used against young women in
the hands of peers who circulate rumors and innuendo.
Leora Tanenbaum discusses
the coping mechanisms young women currently use and points them in a new
direction to eradicate slut-shaming for good.
