In an earlier issue of In Plainspeak<\/em> on Attire and Sexuality, Kristin Francoeur and Surabhi Srivastava wrote a brilliant and thought-provoking piece that considers what pockets have to do with fashion, identity, gender justice and equality. Here’s the article, in Hindi<\/a>, in English<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Laterally, if not literally speaking, do your pockets speak Hindi or English? Kannada? What does language have to do with fashion or sexuality? The things we do not have a vocabulary for, are not just worth a lifetime, but are of generational worth. Textbooks need updating. Entire identities could fall through language gaps, like keys through a hole in your Hindi, English, patchwork, perhaps non-existent, pockets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A recent article<\/a> available online presents aspects of the connection between fashion and expressions of the queer experience in India. Fashion is a language that expresses survival, rebellion, freedom, visibility and invisibility, identity, representation and inclusion. One of the individuals quoted in the article speaks of fashion as being \u201ca survival skill. My language of rebellion is not asking people for acceptance, but about showing them that I am queer and so is my fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So could fashion help bridge language gaps? Could fashion effectively support the communication of identity, gender expression and sexuality as life experiences of a complex and extraordinary diversity?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n While we\u2019re asking questions, here are some more. Is your bra showing through the tee? Where is your secret tattoo? Do you admire body art and piercings? Do you have any? Would you like one? Eww? Yes? No? Perhaps?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What \u2018type\u2019 of person sports piercings, through eyebrows, nipples and scrotum? Scrotum piercings<\/a> have specific names, hafada, lorum, guiche. Did you know this? Did you know headgear is of different types and has different names, cap, hat, beret, helmet? That some sweaters are pullovers, others turtlenecks and then there are also cardigans and vests? The things we know and the things we don\u2019t may be a function of what we are permitted to include in the text books of our lives. Excuse me while I repeat scrotum and lorum in my head all day long because it\u2019s fun but saying either word aloud is tough shit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The assumptions we make, the shallow breathing, stomach-knotted reactions some people sometimes have to another person\u2019s self-expression through clothes and accessories, or even just to a vocabulary for genitalia, are indicative of the inseparable, intertwining of fashion, sexuality and identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pockets as an element, as a symbol in the world of fashion, are just one amongst many other such elements. Pockets, like those other elements, speak tradition, rebellion, explorer, collector, keeper, juggler, parent, trekker, and secrets, amongst other languages. That\u2019s life experience talk. And sexuality is central to the ways in which we experience life, as individuals, as communities, in our relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n (1) A post-gender world<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2018, at London Fashion Week men’s, models strutted down the catwalk as part of a choreographed show called ‘Tantrum’, heckling the audience, some of whom looked a bit wary, others stupefied, as they proceeded after that to sit at tables drinking wine! Take a look here<\/a>, it\u2019s on YouTube. About two to three minutes in, it’s time for wine \u2013 some of the members of the audience, visibly shaken, look like they could do with some strong pick-me-ups! Designer Charles Jeffrey, as described in this article<\/a>, explains that \u201cthe collection was partly inspired by Alan Downs\u2019 2005 book The Velvet Rage, about growing up gay. “It\u2019s about accepting anger and utilising it,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the first time I wanted to explore that particular emotion. It\u2019s always been so joyous and fancy-free but there is a dark side to that, too, so I think it\u2019s good to explore that.\u201d \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The article describing these events focuses on concepts of fashion in a post-gender world. This combination of concepts, fashion and post-gender, is an exploration of intergalactic scale. Say fashion<\/em> \u2013 think history, anthropology, bodies, oppression, trends, obscenity, politics, society, culture, religion, health, wealth, class, country, media, industry, deep thoughts and powerful emotions. Say post-gender<\/em> \u2013 think rights, sexuality, sex, stereotypes, and all the other words attached to fashion in the previous sentence. Just a different lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is a post-gender world? There is quite a bit written about this and available online. This article says<\/a>, \u201cLiving in a post-gender society means that one\u2019s gender identity will be a casual topic of conversation with a friend\u2014and not something that tears one apart from their family. Living in a post-gender society means we\u2019ll do away with toxic gender reveal parties. Living in a post-gender society means all employees will use pronouns in their email signatures without second thought.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n (2) The location of the \u2018world\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n What does it mean, moving beyond gendered identities? Are we there yet, and still discussing pockets? Also, who is \u2018we\u2019 and what is the location, geographically, politically, socio-culturally of this post-genderism? A focused search for a post-gendered corner of the world, using for example, the words Asia and South East Asia, or the Global South, does not throw up equally useful search results. Kallol Datta, in an interview<\/a> for this issue of In Plainspeak<\/em> says, \u201cThere are however a new generation of designers who are operating on their own terms, using social media effectively to disseminate information, and are making clothes for people living in a post-gender world. These designers need to become the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n (3) The world in your head<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Radam Ridwan, as described<\/a> on their website, is a \u201ca queer non-binary model and writer\u2014 from indonesian and australian origins, has landed in london\u201d. Speaking of skirts, they say in an Instagram post<\/a>, \u201cwearing a skirt shouldn\u2019t mean anything other than a cute, comfy bit of fabric wrapped around your legs. yet the street harassment when a queer person puts one on is constant !\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This expands the conversation from designer to wearer of clothing, and, yes, as always, society\u2019s gatekeeping of who should wear what and why. Actually, more than gatekeeping, the identity, moral and social policing, because that\u2019s what\u2019s happening, it\u2019s not the skirt, but the person, who is taught their place in the world. This could lead us to another conversation. Clothing, fashion, and what it suggests, invites, or the safety it is erroneously seen to provide<\/a> from violence and abuse. A subject of vast debate<\/a> already, not just in India, or Asia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n (4) The world of your body<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are more than physical ways by which fashion and clothing can free or constrict identity, expand or reduce acceptance, and turn life into an obsessive exercise of adding and subtracting time, heartbeat, pulse, steps, calories on a fitness tracker, fragmenting and fracturing one\u2019s image of one\u2019s body into parts that must be measured in fractions of an inch. Finally conforming to S\/M\/L\/XL etc. Who calibrates those alphabets to what is still a bit of an unknown. Alphabets far more consistently threatening of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, to far more individuals than, say, LGBTQIA is threatening to the biased, prejudiced, anti-queer, anti-rights lobby. It is no surprise that eating disorders are still primarily seen as some form of individual, mental and physical health issue, through a medicalised lens. But as this writer<\/a> points out, \u201cThe emphasis that the fashion industry puts on thinness perpetuates eating disorders and the toxic culture surrounding them. Women are conditioned from a young age to value being \u201cskinny\u201d over anything. Our society tells women that it\u2019s okay to put themselves through physical and emotional turmoil to go down a size or to fit into that one dress that used to fit 10 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n An Internet search shows very little content and information on the impact of society in this context, but it is there \u2013 and it points us to look at a different direction for understanding and solutions. Beyond therapy and treatment of the individual, at issues of social justice and patriarchal constructs of body. In this article, the author speaks to parents about children and eating disorders<\/a>, saying, \u201cSociety is a contributor, even a cause of eating disorders. The more you can identify and understand areas where you can counterbalance social messages, the better your chances of helping your child recover. This is hard because so much of society\u2019s messages are hidden and hard to find within ourselves, but learning about societal untruths can help you create an environment that fosters recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trijita, who identifies as a queer woman with disability, writes in this article<\/a>, \u201cManufacturing companies and designers seem to think that increasing width is the only difference between \u201cnormal\u201d clothing and plus-size wear. Most clothes are cut and stitched as may befit large sacks of flour, not the diversity in women\u2019s bodies.\u201d She also says, \u201cUnder the garb of inclusivity and body positivity, the Indian fashion industry continues to play to society\u2019s rules of feminine beauty by offering a portion of fabric leftovers. Designers and companies are selling products that make shopping a humiliating experience without taking responsibility for furthering a violent cycle of patriarchal conformity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n (5) The patriarchal world of politics and industry<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a hydra-headed feeling to this, as clothes and fashion are also backed by the force of industry and economics. Both of which are historically highly gendered, and remain the stronghold of patriarchal livelihood and workspace politics. This article on women weavers<\/a> in Uttar Pradesh points out for example, “Patriarchy plays a vital role in maintaining the inequality in wage distribution and power position among the weavers and allied workers. ” And as this writer<\/a> says, \u201cMost of us don’t know that the embroidery or sequins on our favourite t-shirt were sewn by a woman in her own home, working without a contract or social protection. Yet in South Asia, 50 million women work at home in the textile industry. These invisible homeworkers are the lowest paid and most precarious workers in the sector: they earn on average 40 percent less than factory workers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Change is here, both as relief and as challenge. The right questions must be asked if the right answers are to emerge, questions such as<\/a>: \u201cIs aid and \u2018raising awareness\u2019 a long-term solution, or a band-aid driven in some instances by a \u2018savior complex\u2019?\u201d and “What really needs to change so that workers receive a living wage and job security, and why hasn\u2019t this happened already?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Audiences at India Couture Week a few months ago saw Rabanne Victor in what is described here<\/a> as a golden fishtail <\/em>lehenga. As the writer comments, \u201cInclusivity is not just a fleeting trend; it is a powerful force that drives positive change. Rabanne Victor’s bold walk demonstrated that fashion has the potential to dismantle barriers and pave the way for acceptance and understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Media plays a big role in visibility and conversation. This means responsibility, a subject that is much debated and increasingly complex, since everyone can use media to influence anything. Here\u2019s a quick peek at some good things! Earlier this year a zine called Queer Labour Behind the Label<\/a> was launched as \u201ca collection of stories from LGBTQI+ garment workers in Cambodia and Indonesia.\u201d Then there\u2019s this article in Tatler Asia<\/a>, a gem, as it speaks to six Asian models who are \u201cbreaking boundaries and refusing to be limited by gender, race, sexuality, size, age, religion or ability\u201d. For example, Sonya Danita Charles, described in the article as \u2018freelance model, marketer and founder of Vitiligo Association Malaysia\u2019, who says<\/a> \u201cI decided that it was time for me to start doing the things that I was always too afraid to do, and to embrace every part of me, despite the outcome. I decided that if the world around me wasn’t going to see me for who I am, then I need to start showing them exactly who I am, and what I am made of \u2013 a stronger substance, with a voice of my own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many good things are already around us. To end with the words of another writer, who says<\/a>, \u201cGeneration Z and Millennials play a big part in blurring these gender roles. They are much more open-minded when it comes to gender and sexuality, and they\u2019re also more body-positive than previous generations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what’ve you got in your pockets today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have you got pockets today? Happy with your life and being, kicking up your heels, or flats as the case may be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cover Image: Photo by Hermes Rivera<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fashion is a language that expresses survival, rebellion, freedom, visibility and invisibility, identity, representation and inclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":25707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4211,5],"tags":[4334,692,3536,794,121,511,26,367,1563,1867,1079,25,1986],"class_list":{"0":"post-25705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fashion-and-sexuality","8":"category-issueinfocus","9":"tag-clothes","10":"tag-clothing","11":"tag-expression","12":"tag-fashion","13":"tag-feminism","14":"tag-freedom","15":"tag-gender","16":"tag-identity","17":"tag-language","18":"tag-liberation","19":"tag-representation","20":"tag-sexualities","21":"tag-visibility"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25705"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26102,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25705\/revisions\/26102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/IIF-Shikha-1-1-700x233.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nOf fashion and the intricate connectedness of life<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/IIF-Shikha-2-700x233.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nHurry up and change, it\u2019s time for something new somewhere!<\/h6>\n\n\n\n