The New Craze: Modern Fashion and the Male Gaze
The male gaze – we’ve all heard it before. The omnipresent heterosexual standards we hold ourselves to when it comes to fashion, beauty, and day-to-day living. The constricting, never-satisfied inspection from straight men, the constant barrage of judgment and criticism when our clothing, makeup, and style are not up to par. Cue record scratch – it seems like the days of appealing to the standards of straight men are behind us, at least when it comes to fashion.
Courtesy: Sybillekle Agency
Historically speaking, our fashion industry has always been rooted in the concept of the “male gaze”. The idea that clothes, whether it be for men or women, focus on traditional gender roles and the standard of attractiveness men hold to both women and themselves. This emphasis on male appreciation and attraction has stunted the fashion industry’s ability to push towards a more modern, androgynous approach to fashion-until now, that is. More often than not I’ve noticed, while scrolling through Instagram and Tik Tok, women are choosing to wear things that could carry more “queer” connotations. The obsession with the male gaze and male approval is diminishing. In a way, this new wave of fashion – labeled things like “indie”, “hippie”, “gay”-- is really a simple realization you don’t need to dress in a way that heterosexual men find attractive. The pressure to abide by societal standards of beauty are faltering, and finally, we’re seeing the consumers, you and I, influencers, and random individuals on our social media pushing the bounds of fashion, unfazed at whether it seems “unconventional”.
Courtesy: DAZED Digital
This new-wave of fashion has allowed a breakthrough for many non-gender conforming individuals. Masculine presenting women , or women who choose to dress and appear in a more masculine sense, have always had it hard when it comes to fashion choices. In an industry that’s dominated by the male gaze, these women walk into stores that only carry dresses, skirts, and feminine apparel for women; no androgynous or masculine choices can be found. There’s always the men’s section, but men’s dimensions are different and more often than not, these women sacrifice fashion for comfort: baggy blazers, trousers, and shirts. This fashion rebellion we’ve seen ourselves engaging in, even if not directly, is allowing people to finally find fashion that’s marketed towards their individuality, not their gender.
And this isn’t a phenomenon I’ve been untouched by. Sometimes, when looking through old photos, I find myself in awe at the clothes I used to wear when I valued male approval much more than I do now – my fashion choices weren’t about what I thought looked good on me, or what expressed my own individuality. My fashion choices were strictly a performance, the things I thought would garner me the most compliments from men, the most longing glances from my female counterparts. It was a subconscious engrainment of heterosexual standards, this voice in the back of my head always reminding me of my audience.
Courtesy: Style Caster
For some, their fashion metamorphosis was brought on by age, by social media. My fashion revolution was inspired by coming out. After my girlfriend and I began dating, my style took a full turn. It wasn’t that I was dressing in a way I thought women would find attractive, or even my girlfriend. Instead, because I no longer felt this subliminal pressure to appeal to heteresexual standards, I started experimenting with my own fashion and noticed that my choices were being swayed not by what I thought would make me attractive, but rather, what made me feel attractive.
Cue the “new-wave” fashion we’ve all been seeing, but perhaps this wave of fashion is less new, and more honest. With the male gaze becoming a backburner thought in the minds of designers and consumers alike, we’ve begun to see a decrease in gender-specific wear and a larger appeal to an androgynous look – the idea that men and women can wear the same things without gender connotations. Dresses for men, blazer sets for women, skirts marketed towards both – and it’s not just the queer community engaging in this fashion revolution. Straight men and women alike, now having gained access to these new methods of expression, are beginning to normalize them. Seeing a man in a skirt on my For You Page doesn’t startle me like it did when I was twelve or thirteen, and my immediate assumption doesn’t tie his fashion choices to his sexuality. We’re beginning to separate the two, and it’s changing the face of fashion.
Despite this, unlearning societal expectations for beauty and fashion is hard, and so I urge you, readers, to truly embrace yourself when it comes to your fashion choices. Experiment, go beyond the bounds of heteronormative wear and explore what makes you feel attractive, not what you think will make you look attractive. Fashion is all about expression, about message-so what do you want to express? What message do you want to send? The future of fashion is here, it’s queer, and it’s all about you.
Strike Out,
Writer: Farah Shah
Editor: Theo Skinner and Peyton Boudreaux
Orlando