I do want to note that the whole "women are allowed to dress masculine and wear trousers" thing needs to be viewed in its historical context:
People fought for generations to be allowed to dress that way. They fought hard to be allowed to wear pants. Blue jeans were a symbol of feminist revolution. Women were barred from workplaces and schools for wearing them.
This is not some a natural fact that women dressing masculine is less shocking and humiliating. That normalization was fought for and hard-won.
And yet so many people erase the struggles of those people who fought to make that happen and pretend that it's just normal and natural that people don't see women "dressed like men" as ridiculous.
The Marriage of Figaro has what's called a "breeches role" which is a woman wearing men's clothes playing am ale role. This was done partly due to the vocal range requirements, but in many cases it was done comedically. It was risque and sexualized or comic relief that a woman was dressed as a man.
Anti-suffragette posters mock women wearing pants - well they were bloomers and split skirts back then - and mocking more masculine cut styles of clothes. This was meant to portray this as ridiculous.
They mocked the "new woman" in Weimar Germany, lamenting that they were too masculine.
This is a political cartoon from the 1920s depicting a woman in masculine dress deciding which bathroom to use:
Sorry but you're erasing these struggles and flattening history when you say this shit.
Women were killed and institutionalized in the struggle to make this happen. It really fucking bothers me the way it's framed as "people just don't find it as weird when women dress masculine."
Yes they fucking did. Until women and transmasculine people fought for their right to wear what they want. It's normalized because people struggled to normalize it.
And it's not normal everywhere. There are many countries where it's still illegal for women to wear pants. Sudan, Saudi Arabia, The Maldives.
Even in the US, it's forbidden and considered ridiculous in groups like the FLDS, the Amish, and the Hutterites.
We are flattening and erasing the struggles of women when we say these things. I know we're trying to build theory here but you can't build solid theory on a foundation of lies.
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