Bornstein’s book Gender Outlaw discusses a variety of subjects within the scope of gender nonconformity and gender presentation. But the one that stood out to me immediately was the chapter entitled “Transgender Style.” While it’s certainly smaller than some of the other chapters. They reveal in this chapter that fashion is a really important part of their gender fluidity. Going beyond that, Bornstein says that accessorizing (both literally and figuratively) is central part to figuring out one’s life. But I was drawn to this section for a different reason. I think we don’t talk enough about androgynous fashion choices and how difficult it can be to dress in a non-binary way.
One thing I’ve noted about this subject is the way in which “masculine” clothing and styles have become the stand-in choice for women or AFAB (assigned female at birth) people to present more neutrally and “feminine” clothing and styles as the way for male or AMAB (Assigned male at birth) people to present neutrally. It seems like such a strange concept to me when I try to understand fashion choices. It’s as if people have to “balance” out their perceived gender by choosing the “opposite” presentation. I guess this is a part of the way in which American culture perceives gender. Gender only exists within the binary, and gender presentation is tied to clothing is tied to the binary. So I guess I understand why neutrality is something that just doesn’t exist within American clothing stores. And when we do label something as “gender neutral” it’s often just a piece of men’s clothing that has been shifted over to sell to both men and women.
The way we read gender presentation is really important to developing our understandings of gender fluid and/or androgynous gender presentation. As I’ve already said, I think most of the time people are expected to present as the “opposite” gender if they are to present more androgynous or fluidly. But from there I think we need to shift the discussion and consider the ways in which non-normative gender presentation is received in dominant culture. The first thing I’ve noted is that there is generally more acceptance of women and AFAB people dressing in men’s clothing. Initially I think there is the perception that women are buying men’s clothing because it’s more practical. There are better pockets, better sizing charts and other conveniences when you go to men’s clothing. But I feel like there’s more to it. I think something about it ties into the way we privilege maleness in dominant narratives. Like, in my hypothetical brain I keep thinking that the privileged story goes something like “Oh of course they want to wear men’s clothes and be like men! Men are just so much better than AFAB people. They just want to aspire to improve themselves.” In my mind it wouldn’t be anything to do with AFAB people wanting to dress in a more masculine or even androgynous way. But the end result is that women and AFAB people who dress in “masculine” clothing are often just labeled as tomboys and left to their business beyond the criticisms of not being feminine enough. This, while an erasure of identity and intent, doesn’t mirror the sometimes violent backlash that men and AMAB people face when dressing in feminine or androgynous fashions.
The first form of backlash comes from privileged groups and oppressors. The violent suppression and silencing of trans women’s voices is very real and very much a part of the problems that must be addressed. And fashion is central to this oppression. Feminine clothing is very often demeaned when worn by all variety of people. AFAB people are called shallow and vapid and looked down upon as being less intelligent, and AMAB people are whispered about, abused and murdered simply for wearing dresses. I think transmisogyny is very much connected to misogyny, but I’m honestly not sure how to articulate the reasoning for it. It’s connected to how we view womanhood and femininity as a weakness, I’m sure. And there’s the belief that trans women are “lying” or “deceiving” cisgender men. But I’m not sure what else there is to it. Readers will have to fill me in if they have more insights into the topic. In addition to cisgender men’s violence, feminine presenting AMAB people face exclusion from other feminine presenting AMAB people simply because they don’t “pass” well enough. I think that’s another very real problem that needs to be addressed.
But I think that all of these issues would be easily solved while upholding the binary structure of gender on some levels. I think it’s much harder to critically deconstruct and analyze the ways in which gender neutrality and fluidity is suppressed by the binary gender structure. Unless we can create some sort of openness to gender neutral clothing that isn’t just re-branded and pockets-free men’s clothing, I don’t feel like we can fairly and adequately provide for genderqueer and genderfluid and androgynous and other non-binary identified individuals.
One of the first goals I had when I set out to work on this post was to find ways in which people have been able to bend gender and actively fuse gender presentations to create gender neutrality in overall work. So I looked for a series of blogs and forums that addressed the subjects! One that I found was a reddit forum chain on trying to find more feminine presentations for an AMAB person looking to change their presentation despite a fairly “masculine” physique.
I thought this one was really fantastic because it showed a community helping somebody and developing a resource list for genderqueer and genderfluid individuals. Things like this can be really empowering to people just starting to come into their identities. Another blog I found was Androstyle, which is devoted to androgynous-presenting individuals and their fashion choices. I thought this one was really great because it combined the aesthetics of fashion and modeling with gender expression that isn’t based in the gender binary.
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