I wanted to compare stereotypical clothing for males and females from the past to now, so I spoke with my grandma about this subject. My grandma said that back in the day when you could see a double movie at the theater for a nickel, girls were only allowed to wear skirts, they were by no means be allowed to wear pants. Women also in that time were only wearing makeup, not males. The other major fashion thing that was separated by the sexes was hair length. When my grandma was younger, girls had long hair and guys had short hair. There were no exceptions. Comparing that to now females generally wear skirts if they are dressing up, and for the most part girls wear blue jeans just like the guys. Shorts were a “no no” back then too. The whole male and female separation from clothing and fashion has become very skewed over the past few years. Usually females only wear make up, but this is not the case anymore. If you walk into a high school now a days and just look for five minutes there are males wearing black lipstick with long hair and earrings. This fashion statement that is worn by the guys is usually attributed to “gothic” or “emo”. Another main skewing of the male/female fashion line that there has been for a while, is jeans. When females wear jeans they are always tight fit, and male style jeans are always loose and baggy. In the past several years some males have been wearing tight “girl” style pants. In high school this was much more noticeable than in college, there is the crowd of guys that has long black hair with earrings in both ears (usually attributed to females) and wears the tight pants. This is a newer created group of people classified as the “Emo” kids. This is a type of music that has screaming and complaining about how sad they are and how bad their life is. I feel that if that genre of music had never surfaced, which was brought forth by the media, this group of people wouldn’t be around. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it is just showing how different times are, and how the lines between males and females have become skewed.
Chris Hawkins

4 comments
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March 30, 2008 at UTC:32 pm
131blog
Scott this is a very good thing that i didnt know about. it was very informational. I agree that it is a great sign that the military isnt doing things based on gender.
Jen Crockett
March 31, 2008 at UTC:29 pm
Jenna G.
Nice post, Chris. I’m glad you asked around about it. I wonder what would happen to the person who deviated from the norm in your grandmother’s day? I will definitely agree with you that the emo genre has had an impact on gender and dressing. However, I think it is important to remember that music and clothing have been here before. Glam rock had guys in makeup and spandex; heavy metal did, too. Punk girls and punk guys pretty much have identical hair and clothing. All you have to do is google pictures of The Cure and their fans from the 80s to find out how goth kids have one up on the emo kids.
March 31, 2008 at UTC:37 pm
131blog
Hey great post, man. Dude, I remember those days in high school. Those gothic kids hanging outside the classrooms black pants, shoes, shirts, and nail polish and all. But there has been quite a change over the years. Its cool to talk to your grandma about this, I wondered what she said when you first asked her about this topic? Anyway great post.
-Suraj Patel.
April 8, 2008 at UTC:28 pm
131blog
I find this blog interesting. I do know that back in time women were only allowed to wear certain clothing and I couldn’t imagine being limited to only wearing skirts or dresses. I enjoy wearing pants and shorts or whatever I please. I am glad that these rules no longer apply in society. Well, not in most places anyway.
–Nafisah McClendon