Springtime - time to put on a dress and be objectified without your consent
Feministing points out this awful NY Times story about how much this author enjoys seeing women in dresses out and about. He’s concerned that the fashion powers that be are announcing that pants are back in for fall.
I’m so glad that I can make random straight men happy when I go out in a skirt or dress. I’m really happy to be brightening up the landscape for them. As a woman, after all, my first priority is to make men happy.
Since the author of the article has probably never worn a dress, he doesn’t realize that dresses can be the most comfortable option in hot weather. He probably thinks that pants are most practical and comfortable for everyone, so if we choose dresses we’re doing it for the male attention.
What does spring or summer dressing mean for how you’re seen in public? How do you handle being femme or visibly queer or both in the streets?
April 26th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I have not read the article - so I can’t comment on it specifically. But I will say objectifying others is not limited to straight men ogling women. Woman objectify, men objectify…straight, gay, bi-sexual. Frankly I have been equally objectified by men and lesbian women. And I’m not that feminine so where do we go?
How do we get to consideration of each of us as unique and human - not different and something to label/objectify?
janet
April 28th, 2008 at 10:45 am
I have struggled a lot with this, the attention I get from straight men on the street. In fact I swore off wearing dresses for quite a few years because of it making me feel so vulnerable. Recently though, my gf has been reconnecting with her masculinity, and oddly it makes me more comfortable expressing my own femininity (maybe because for me, gender=sex? perhaps this needs its own post…). So now I’m wearing dresses again, and let me tell you shopping is way more fun than it used to be!
April 28th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Janet, I know that I like being objectified by certain people very much. In fact, it’s a big part of my sexuality. But not all queers do it in a respectful or ok way.
And I am guilty of objectifying at times - I don’t see a lot of the sort of eye candy I like walking around all that often, so when I do, I appreciate it. (Sometimes it does appear on the tennis courts across from my house:))But discreetly.