{"id":9624,"date":"2016-08-02T10:46:39","date_gmt":"2016-08-02T05:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak?page_id=9624"},"modified":"2016-08-05T12:20:58","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T06:50:58","slug":"faqs-snippets-history-dressing-and-sexuality","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/faqs-snippets-history-dressing-and-sexuality\/","title":{"rendered":"FAQs: Snippets from History about Dressing and Sexuality"},"content":{"rendered":"

FAQs: Snippets from History about Dressing and Sexuality<\/h2>\n
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Has pink always been associated with femininity and blue with masculinity?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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A copy of the Ralph Lauren suit made for Robert Redford in the 1974 film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. | Credit: NPR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unlike in contemporary Western culture, it was\u00a0not always<\/a>\u00a0so.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 17th and 18th century, both men and women wore pink.\u00a0Parents used to dress their children in white clothes because those could be bleached.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pastels for children came into being when a 1918\u00a0retail trade publication<\/a>\u00a0tried setting new rules:\u00a0pink for boys and blue for girls. “Being a more decided and stronger color, [pink] is more\u00a0suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl,” the article said. So pink came to be considered strong and manly in England and America in 1920s.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The tipping-point came in the years following World War II (1939-1945).\u00a0\u00a0In the post-war ideal, men reclaimed the workplace, and women stayed home with babies and shiny appliances. Femininity got wrapped in pink, and so did products \u2013 from shampoos to fancy fashion.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Have only women worn skirts in history?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Ancient Egyptian clothing | Credit: Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The skirt is actually the second\u00a0earliest unisex garment that was worn by both men and women. (The first was a loin cloth wrapped around the lower body.)<\/p>\n

Since the primary form of clothing in ancient times was simply a rectangular piece of dress with a hole for the wearer’s head and stitched sides, both men and women wore tunics<\/a> from the time of\u00a0ancient Rome until the\u00a0French Revolution<\/a>. The differences between them were minimal: a woman\u2019s tunic would reach her ankles, while a man\u2019s would come to his knees.<\/p>\n

Wrapped garments are still worn by men in various cultures, like the lungi<\/em> in India or the kilt of the Scots.\u00a0Fijian men wear a\u00a0sulu vakataga<\/em>, a length of material that is wrapped around the waist and falls between the knee and ankle.<\/p>\n

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Charles IX of France, 1566 | Credit: Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Two Fijian men wearing the \u2018sulu vakataga\u2019. | Credit: fromseattletosuva.wordpress.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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What about heels, then?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Louis XIV wearing his trademark heels in a 1701 portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Did you know heels have been first worn by men? For centuries, Persian soldiers\u00a0wore<\/a> heels as a necessary accessory because the heels helped them secure their stance on horseback to use their bows and arrows better.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 17th century, the European elite adopted the\u00a0horsemen’s masculine footwear for their own use. The \u2018lower\u2019 class followed suit, and so the elites made their heels even higher!<\/span><\/p>\n

But when women began adopting the style as well, men’s shoe heels became stockier and shorter, while women’s became thinner and higher.<\/span><\/p>\n

The accessory that was once a show of status then began to be seen as silly and \u2018effeminate\u2019, devoid of its practical use and\u00a0original function.\u00a0Hence,\u00a0by 1740, men stopped wearing them altogether.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Did you know that lace was once used commonly in men’s suits?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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1560s fashion: Dudley, Earl of Leicester in a ruff. | Credit: Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lace was used in clothing for men in\u00a016th century Europe<\/a>. Lace collars and cuffs\u00a0historically formed some of the most expensive elements in men’s dress, and it became famous as a status marker.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ruff,\u00a0which began as a modest ruffle attached to the neckband of a shirt or smock, grew into a separate garment of fine linen, trimmed with lace, and cutwork\u00a0with embroidery.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was acceptable for men to wear lace until the 18th century, but the style went out of fashion around the 19th century. A lot of decoration and opulence in clothing, which was appreciated until then, began to be interpreted as upper-class and aristocratic, and was being redefined as feminine in 1800s.<\/span><\/p>\n

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English opulence, Italian reticella lace ruff, The \u2018Ermine Portrait\u2019 of Elizabeth I | Credit: Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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How much has what constitutes obscenity changed over time?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Basalt statue of Cleopatra VII Ptolemaic times | Credit: Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nudity was the norm<\/a> in early civilisations, especially the Egyptian, Greek, and Indus Valley civilisations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Men as well as women proudly sported their naked bodies. It was only after the Islamic and Christian invasions that gender-specific nudity started to be considered obscene.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2014, a \u2018Free the Nipple\u2019 campaign<\/a>\u00a0is ongoing in New York, encouraging women to be shirtless in public in protest of social media policies banning images of women\u2019s nipples and not those of men.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Women entertainers perform at a celebration in Ancient Egypt; the dancers are naked. Thebes tomb c. 1400 B.C. | Credit: Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Why do men’s and women’s clothes have buttons on opposite sides?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Buttons in men’s clothing are on the\u00a0right side<\/a>, and in women’s clothing are on the left.<\/p>\n

In the Victorian era, while most men used to dress themselves, most upper-class women had servants to help them dress.\u00a0To make it easier for maids to button up their employer\u2019s dresses right, clothiers started sewing buttons on the opposite side.<\/p>\n

Also,\u00a0because male soldiers often drew their weapons with their right hand, having buttons on the right would have made it a lot easier to adjust and unbutton with their free left hand.<\/p>\n

As clothes started to be mass-produced, those upper class women and male soldiers set the trend that is followed even today.<\/p>\n

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Women’s jacket with buttons on the left side | Credit: Fotolia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Men’s jacket with buttons on the right side | Credit: Fotolia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Are women ‘asking for it’ when they wear \u2018suggestive\u2019 clothing?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A woman’s dress is routinely and wrongly cited as an incitement to rape. A woman is often blamed for her clothing preference, when in reality, it can never be an excuse for rape. The blame lies wholly and squarely on the rapist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Testimonials in the form of outfits that survivors of sexual assualt were wearing<\/a> at the time show how clothing choice does not contribute to the assault.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Has pink always been associated with femininity and blue with masculinity? Have only women worn skirts in history? What about heels, then? Did you know that lace was once used commonly in men’s suits? How much has what constitutes obscenity changed over time? Why do men’s and women’s clothes have buttons on opposite sides? Are women ‘asking for it’ when they wear \u2018suggestive\u2019 clothing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9624","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9624"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9675,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9624\/revisions\/9675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}