Rise of the New Fashion Era
Anything is possible, only thing that’s stopping you isn’t the society, It’s only your conceptual thoughts.
We are living in 2019, which one is the most modernized era in our generation. However, it is beyond comprehension that there is a discussion to what is right to wear and what is not caused from generalized gender issues and strict rules of the society that is watching all over us. Advancing to the future, the fine line of masculinity and femininity will fade away as more people will focus on more expressing themselves with their unique tastes and backgrounds. What people must understand is that being more feminine, or masculine is a concept considered outdated. It is more important that all the boundaries of genders must be broken free for people to express themselves freely without judgements, by becoming more of that, it will eventually lead us to a limitless creativeness in the fashion industry.
Too masculine or feminine?
Historically, fashion industry always regulated the ideas of masculinity and femininity. However, the industry is currently evolving through reinterpreting the understandings of gender perceptions. Masculinity and femininity are not inherent from birth. These qualities are both constructed with spectrum of acceptable behaviours and attributes for males and females. Therefore, one must believe that they are not limited to social standards created from genders and pursue their own individuality. A famous example is the rapper Young thug who is famously known for unique fashion sense. He always challenges the society with his styles that often-other people could judge him as too feminine.
Recently, he released his new album called So Much Fun, he expressed how his style of “too feminine” is being accepted to the audiences and the society and how he enjoy his unique life style (Pompey, 2018). He is now forcing hip hop, and society in general to reevaluate the definition of masculine. It takes tremendous courage especially for a rapper to fully express femininity as his style while the culture of hip hop is known for dominant masculinity. This did not discourage him to stop as he is now one of the biggest fashion icons in the world. As Young Thug showed, it is important to pursue one’s characteristics despite any adversity that society presents because eventually the world will understand and acknowledge that person.
Is it easy to be ourselves?
Often, being ourselves can be challenging as it depends on our surroundings such as backgrounds and the cultures. A new study investigating gender expression and victimization of youth ages 13-18 found that the most gender nonconforming students reported higher levels of being bullied (Dowd 2018). There is a high chance of them missing because they felt unsafe from the gender conforming peers. A case study that confirms the importance of this issue is where Dowd listed Highly conforming students (e.g., girls who thought they were seen as very feminine and boys who thought they were seen as very masculine) are also at increased risk of being in a fight compared to moderately conforming students (Dowd 2018). The likelihood of being in a fight is the highest among the most gender nonconforming students. It is challenging to trust that there exist discriminations towards the people who are simply expressing themselves by choosing what they love wear. Therefore, it is not only important for that individual to be brave and express themselves, but the society must be shaped to respect these individuals who cannot be categorized with social standards around genders.
Unfortunately, society’s perceptions cannot be changed easily. Multiple fashion brands made creative designs to break the social standards, but it met many adversities historically. For instance, Yves Saint Laurent: the best designer of the 2nd half of the 20th century, overturned the artificial lines of Dior at the end of the 1950s. Yves Saint Laurent made women’s body free from corsets. He invented the rebellious trench coats from the memories of the world wars, and the first women tuxedo, Le Smoking by criticizing gender discriminations in fashion (YSL, n.d.). However, the tuxedo was not an exact design of the men’s tuxedo. He used the same codes but adapted it to the female body. This example further illustrates that the fashion industry is struggling to fix the gender discriminations. Since men and women have different body shapes and since brands must make profits, they will always have the modify and compromise their creative designs to public’s need to certain level. It is difficult to disregard the influence of the customers since even when brands design gender norm clothing lines, if customers are not willing to purchase them, brands eventually must bend and meet the demand.
Understanding that there are different standards of gender norms in different cultures
In order to appreciate other people’s freedom of expressing themselves, one must acquire knowledges in different cultures. In fashion industry, the designers often get inspired by other cultures such as western culture which expresses the wildness and rebelling vibes as how Virgil Abloh interpreted the western inspired boots in his brand OFF-WHITE in PF19. There are countless other cultures that are being recognized until nowadays and it is undeniable that K-Pop is one of the most recently recognized cultures in the world. The industry has been key in redefining what South Koreans consider as male. However, some other cultures see K-Pop culture as more feminine because of their make ups and different philosophy of beauty that men need. K- Pop celebrities need to have a sharp jawline, moist skin and wear make ups to have striking eyes and colors on the lips (BBC, 2018). They usually dye hair to stand out and are very underweighted to have defined abs. However, not every man in South Korea supports this culture as well. Recently, video introducing a make-up routine from 16 years old Youtuber in South Korea was posted on Facebook and the reactions ranged from intrigued to downright vitriolic. The Youtuber himself, Kim Seung-hwan said that he received numerous comments of “gay” by people on his videos for as long as he’s been doing make up tutorials. It is unfortunate that what is socially acceptable in his culture is not accepted elsewhere in the world and people’s lack of understanding on gender norms in different cultures limit each other from expressing themselves. To prevent this harassment in future, one needs to learn, understand and respect different cultures around the world and how it can differentiate from culture that one lives in.
Mukbang is a Youtube trend from South Korea that started around in 2010. In a mukbang video usually eats a loads of food while narrating and interacting with their audience.
Conclusion
World change constantly, and outdated ideologies fade away with new ideas filling in as a empower and innovate. Gender norms are principles existed in human history for a long time but in this modern era, these principles are starting to limit, restrict and bind people to express themselves fully. However, one must not feel constrained to this environment, and proceed to express their individuality fully. It is indeed very challenging as the society presents many adversities to overcome but fashion brands are slowly changing and breaking the gender perceptions; therefore, it will be matter to time to see these standards end. Lastly, one must also need to educate themselves the different gender norms shaped by cultures around the world to properly respect each other. The world will be a better place if people become more open minded to understand and appreciate the others’ characteristics without any discrimination.
