To different people, fashion signifies different things. Fashion has been utilized by elements of society to separate themselves apart from others throughout history as a way to display their personality, culture, or inventiveness. We can learn a lot about a person's personality, taste, and financial or social status just by looking at what they're wearing. Fashion can represent individual expression and have artistic merit, yet it has relied on extreme exploitation of enslaved people and then wage labor since the industrial revolution. It's a business that preys on people of all classes, races, genders, and species for the sake of profit.
Until the late 1980s, the majority of feminists' attitudes regarding fashion were primarily unfavorable. Fashion was primarily seen as an agent of oppression, transforming women into passive objects of the male gaze. Feminists such as Amelia Bloomer and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were already criticizing female dress in the late 1800s, claiming that it hampered women's physical mobility and was harmful to their health. They saw women's extravagant and unsuitable clothing as a needless and wasteful pleasure, emblematic of women's economic reliance on males. Simone de Beauvoir expanded on these points in the 1940s, and they became the foundation for criticisms of female fashion.
Feminists supported more functional ways of dressing in the 1970s to show their opposition to fashion, eschewing decoration aimed to improve the wearer's sexual attractiveness. Bras, corsets, skirts, and high heels were replaced with jeans, dungarees, T-shirts, or loose shirts, and flat shoes. "Naturalness" was preferred over artificiality.
The rejection of fashion for its impracticality and irrationality shows a puritanical asceticism that fails to recognize the legitimacy of utilitarian demands such as beauty and sensual pleasure. Dress, they argue, has never been particularly useful, and much of its attractiveness stems from its independence from practical necessity. Those feminists who argue against fashion in favor of more functional modes of dress, in their opinion, betray an unwitting alliance with Christian denunciations of fashion as too overtly erotic as well as being complicit with the patriarchal devaluation of traditionally female activities like self-beautification.
Body shaming isn't limited to models; it's widespread and oppressive for many fashion shoppers. The fashion industry has a big problem with size inclusivity, often failing to cater to a substantial section of the world's women because they are larger than what is arbitrarily defined as a "standard size." While model diversity is increasing, larger models are still not regarded as attractive in the same manner as slimmer ones.
Models are said to be chosen because they are "aspirational," meaning that everyone aspires to be a young, slim, white woman. This beauty ideal has been whitewashed, making it unrealistic and unfair for many people.
Fast fashion is a feminist issue, yet one that is difficult. According to the campaign Labor Behind the Label, almost 80% of garment workers are women between the ages of 18 and 35, with many of them being the primary breadwinners for their families and children. Rather than addressing how their own firms have disproportionately detrimental effects on women of color, many fashion brands exploit political and feminist movements for commercial gain. While you can fight for feminism and yet buy these things since there aren't any other options, keep in mind that the firms that make them don't appear to share your ideals.
Fashion can promote feminist movements by symbolizing the need for social change, but it can also be exploited to discredit this message.
Author - Mizol
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