Masculinity and Femininity: What happens when a man dresses like a woman

My friend recently sent me a link to a blog post about masculinity vs. femininity. The post is brief and informal; however, the content is strongly applicable to our class.

This blog post discusses the manner in which our society reacts to men whom dress “like women” and women who dress “like men”. The author makes the brilliant observation that the condemnation that a man receives when he dresses like a woman is strikingly different than when a woman dresses like a man.

“This pattern — women can dress like men, but men don’t dress like women — suggests that there is, in fact, something demeaning, ridiculous, or subordinating about presenting oneself to the male gaze.  Most men feel stupid, gross, or vulnerable when they do it.  This isn’t just about conformity to different gendered expectations.  If it were just about difference women would feel equally weird dressing in men’s clothes.  Instead, when women adopt masculine ways of dressing and moving, they often feel empowered.

So, when men do femininity they feel ridiculous and when women do masculinity they feel awesome. This is what gender inequality looks like.” 

( http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/10/29/sexy-femininity-and-gender-inequality/ )

As we have been discussing in class, masculinity is enforced throughout our culture. Society has created an unrealistic standard of hyper-masculinity to which all men are held to and bound by. When a man fails to conform to this definition, he is viewed as being inferior or somehow less of a man.  And when he has the 'audacity' to not only fail to epitomize manliness but to also display some form of femininity, he is declared ‘abnormal’ or ‘unnatural’. As Simone DeBouvir argues, women are the ‘lesser sex’, the ‘second sex’, and the ‘absence of maleness’.  Thus, if a man dresses a woman, he is placing himself into the category of the lesser sex, and for that he is humiliated, belittled, and attacked. Due to the undesirable status of ‘women’ in our society, a man who decides to dress like a woman is stripped of the social advantages granted to men.

                  Another component of this article that I found fascinating, though somewhat flawed, is the author’s declaration that women who “adopt masculine ways of dressing and moving…often feel empowered”. While I do agree that men are viewed more harshly, I think it’s a bit of a naïve argument to claim that women are not mistreated. Women who appear masculine are looked down on as well. They are often criticized for not being womanly and are often charged with being confused about their gender identity and that they somehow want to be men. Women are held to unrealistic standards of femininity, just as men are held to masculinity ideals.

This is not to say that I disagree entirely with the author. One could argue that society is less harsh on women who dress like men because they are to some degree reflecting male superiority. Society may not look down on them quite as much because they are reflecting that men are dominant. Yet when a man dresses like a woman, he is rejecting male dominance and embracing femininity. This is pretty much a social sin. On a side note, this reminds me of Freud’s theory of “penis envy”. It plays into the idea that women are envious of male genitalia and want to be men.