Fashion Speaks for Women in Politics
Since women get too much judgement on what they wear, they use this excess attention to do something
Fashion speaks for politics, especially for women. It is how we present ourselves to the others, therefore it tells a lot about us: what we want ourselves to be and how we want people to think about us. Nowadays, massive media dominate people’s life, and therefore, politicians carefully set their images when they come in front of people. For female politicians, it seems to be unfair that people pay a lot more attention on what they wear than those male politicians. However, some female politicians and activists often use fashion as a tool to speak for political campaigns, and fight back to the gender discrimination. They not only use fashion statements to announce their political position, but also use fashion trends to help them pursue their goals.
First of all, some female politicians may choose a specific fashion style to represent their ideologies on political stage. Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Prime Minister of Ukraine, had an iconic hairstyle during the Orange Revolution, the political campaign to protest the corruption during the presidential election. Tymoshenko identified herself as Ukrainian nationalist, who supported her country to join the European Union, and opposed the post-Soviet government of Ukraine at the time, which had a close relationship with Russia. Her crown-liked braid around her head helped her to make the claim:
Also, some people believe that her hairstyle resembles the halo in Orthodox Christianity. Obviously, there is a strong tie between Tymoshenko’s hairstyle and her political opinions. The source of the hairstyle comes from the cultural and religious background of Ukraine, which reflects Thmoshenko’s opinion on getting rid of Soviet Union’s influence over Ukraine. Thmoshenko kept this signature hairstyle for over a decade. The image of her with the crown-liked hair is so strong that it strengthened her nationalist belief to the public.
Besides, Thmoshenko is not the only female politician who fight with her fashion style. The rising star in the American political stage, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who became the representative for the New York’s 14th congressional district by an upset victory, is using her make-up to reshape the imagery of female politicians. Before Ocasio-Cortez came to the people’s attention, most female politicians tend to not wear obvious make-up in front of the public. When Hilary Clinton had the 2016 presidential debates with Donald Trump, or when Theresa May announced that her resignation as the British Prime Minister, we hardly see any of them wearing any highly defined eyeline or lip colour. Most of the female politicians seem to always have some light make-up to create a kind of close-to-natural look. They probably aim to look formal in the important occasions, but none of them seem to want their make-up to draw too much attention.
Compared to other types of cosmetic products that women put on their face, lipstick is the one more visually aggressive, and often associated with feminine sexuality. Maybe this is why many female politicians choose their lip colour cautiously: they are trying to direct people’s attention to the political matters they are working on and avoid themselves being sexualized.
However, Ocasio-Cortez pursues her political career with an opposite fashion approach. She makes a remarkable feature of her public image: she always appears with bright red lips. Although Ocasio-Cortez admits the pressure for women to dress up for work, she chooses to not only break the underlying rules of women’s working dress code, but also share her make-up routine over social network. Ocasio-Cortez tweets, “Lip+hoops were inspired by Sonia Sotomayor, who was advised to wear neutral-colored nail polish to her confirmation hearings to avoid scrutiny. She kept her red. Next time someone tells Bronx girls to take off their hoops, they can just say they’re dressing like a Congresswoman.”
Indeed, Ocasio-Cortez demonstrate her courage to embrace female liberty with her make-up choice, which echoes her political opinions. Coming from the working class, Ocasio-Cortez appeals to the attention on the division between the rich and the poor in the American society, and asks for the cancellation of the 1.6 trillion student loan. Recognizing herself as a democratic socialist, Ocasio-Cortez expresses her ideology with her iconic lip colour. Her striking lipstick embraces her identity as a young female Latino American and breaks the stereotype of female politicians’ look, at the same time as she asks for the elimination of the gender inequality and the wealth gap between social classes. To summarize, the fashion styles adopted in the female politicians’ public imagery declare the political identities for them.
Furthermore, fashion plays a significant role in political campaigns, serving as a visual slogan. The history of the fashion use in the feminist movements could be traced back from the early days: in the beginning of the 20th century, the suffragettes who fought for women’s right to vote, promote a colour scheme of purple, white and green to stand for royalty, purity and hope. Today, after over a hundred years from the days of the suffragettes, women are still using this strategy to claim the manifesto for the social movements they initiate. On February 5, 2019, female members dressed in white to attend the State of the Union address. Alexander Carsio-Cortez, who was one of the members in white, says, “I wore all-white today to honor the women who paved the path before me, and for all the women yet to come. From suffragettes to Shirley Chisholm, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the mothers of the movement.”
On one side, the white colour roots from the suffragettes’ colour scheme, so it reminds of the history of feminist movements. On the other hand, it is visually effective that the group is dressed in all white because the white colour stands out among the crowd of the people. The white dress code helps the female members stating their continuous effort on women’s right.
Moreover, fashion could speak for women in a humorous, but quite successful way. In 2016, 170 dancers did a pantsuit power flashmob on the street of New York to support Hilary Clinton in the presidential election. Clinton is the first major female nominee for the president of the United States. During the election campaign, pantsuit was her uniform when she was giving speeches to her audience. Clinton’s choice of fashion was overly discussed: “Hillary Clinton was endlessly nitpicked in the press for her sensible pantsuits, while her male counterparts’ sartorial choices were limited to the selection of a red or blue necktie.” In contrast of the little comments that Donald Trump got about what he wore, Clinton was treated unfairly when she chose to wear pantsuit, a traditional men’s wear, when she was competing for the job that no women had ever acquired.
However, Clinton’s supporters decided to confront this gender discrimination with amusement. The dancers put on pantsuits like Clinton did, and danced along the Justin Timberlake’s song “Cant’s Stop the Feeling”. Later on, they spread the video of this flashmod over the internet, and received millions of viewers. Pantsuit is the reason why Clinton was treated unfairly, but the dancers showed their support to her by wearing massively in the public. Wearing pantsuits in the pro-Clinton campaign is adopted as a weapon to fight back the gender inequity that Clinton received. In short, fashion helps informing the purpose of the political activities to the people.
In conclusion, the use of fashion gives the feminist social movements a higher profile, and help women to pursue their political target. The visual impacts of their fashion choices occupy people’s attention, combining with the historical, cultural, and social content, and they send messages that people cannot ignore. Maybe people talk too much about what female politicians wear, but isn’t it giving them a chance to speak with their fashion? No matter what, the results of using fashion in politics is very successful for women.
