Mira Kolenc
Do you know what's amusing? Back then, when I accidentally bought my first coat from the 60 years at age sixteen and decided to go with the right styling, people called me "Marilyn Monroe" on the street. She was apparently the only thing that connected her with this kind of appearance. That she wore her hair white-blond and I stood for my brown natural hair color, apparently did nothing to matter.
Sixteen years later, if it just somehow allows the situation, I'll be asked if I'm actually a man or was once a man. It may be that I imagine that, but I think that tells something about the current mood in our society.
The assessment of the external, like sexism, accompanies women from their early childhood. And even if you are very sheltered and grow up far away from the fashion industry, as I did. I do not want to deny that boys are not even referred to the strange flowers that adolescence can do in terms of styling, yet there is always a lot more worry about the girls. And the imbalance remains. I suppose, until the end of the working life.
Nevertheless, I found the comment by Barbara Kuchler (DIE ZEIT), which recently appeared in the #metoo debate, more than questionable. In a nutshell, she urges women to fashionably conform to the man, to wear body-unclothed clothing, and to use the energy not for appearances but for career and education. And also to escape the sexism - without stimulus, no (grapsch-) reaction - so their opinion.
"The uniformed man as a symbol of reason and efficiency is as much a hollow stereotype as that of a woman whose mental powers are already exhausted in the application of lipstick."
It's interesting that the staging of femininity is becoming suspicious these days. Whatever the case, it is certain that those who want to be heard as a woman have to give up femininity. Angela Merkel is an example here that is imposing itself. She represents a state, but as a woman she is unrecognizable.
The spirit is masculine in our society. The man underlines the beginning of the 20. Century, that he does not attach importance to externality and has more important things to do. While the woman is quasi to this day as the eternally backward who has nothing else in mind than to wrap her appearance sexy and darzubieten. Femininity, as fashion theorist Barbara Vinken notes, is always suspected of stupidity and frivolity.
Such an approach to collectivizing the sexes through clothing is more like a senseless adaptation to the patriarchal world. And the men in suits did not do the earth any good, did they? The uniformed man as a symbol of reason and efficiency is as much a hollow cliché as that of a woman whose mental powers are already exhausted in the application of lipstick.
Lookism, discrimination on the basis of appearance, has happened to me regularly since the beginning of my professional career. But I've never wondered what's wrong with me, but what's actually going wrong in this society, that the style of clothing so decides on the assessment of competence. And there is a lot in the wrong. We should free the man from his obligation to wear uniforms and allow him to engage in his new "nudity". He has been able to hide for far too long, believing that he can afford to do without charm and elegance. In the meantime, it is still true that you should consider femininity as an act of rebellion and let nothing persuade you.
Photo / Video: Oskar Schmidt.
I think that what we rarely see attracts more attention. For many indigenous peoples nudity is normal, nobody cares if naked body parts are visible. It is like it is.
Applied to this our world, it makes sense that many more women simply dare to flaunt their femininity. To trust many more women to wear their style. So that the viewers would finally be saturated and then once and for all put an end to the compulsion.
Ha, it's not that easy. Because like an onion, the next one comes to light under one layer:
Let the women wear what they want.
But why do we need this dress code at all? Why do performance and appearance in our society count more than inner values? Why do we think we have to hide behind all this? What if we were all really "naked" in the sense of authentic - as we are, sometimes vulnerable, sometimes strong, sometimes insane, sometimes only ... would show? Would there be more true encounters then? Could we then learn more easily from the experiences of others? Would the community of humans then grow together in love? Would there be no more wars, but more tender hugs? Did we really feel connected to everything then? Also or especially with nature? ... where is the core, where is the end?
It's basically easy. Everyone starts with themselves. But ideally all in the same era. -D