Female Appearance: Accentuating the Differences From the Male

Graceful Backhand in a Victorian Garden

by Ellen H. Clapsaddle, United States, (1865-1934)

(Even in sports, women and men dressed very differently)

I was served at a store by someone that could not be identified as male or female.A hundred years ago, the person at the cash register would have been identified as a young boy.

  Every woman or man working at the store would have been identified as "male", if this were the Victorian era. In this store, the employees, both male and female, all wore low-cut, black jeans, with a zip-front.( We have discussed this before: women's pants used to have zippers on the side or the back, to distinguish them from the men's. ) They all wore manly type shirts with pointed collars and broad shoulders, covered by a plain, butchers apron. Their feet were shod with black, thick-soled,flat shoes.  Each employee had the short, razor-cut, feathered hairstyle. Though they all wore jewelry, it was impossible to distinguish male from female. 

From the Victorian viewpoint, it would have looked like an all-male staff.

A Picnic, by Harry Nelson O'Neill

Can you tell the difference between the male and female hairstyles and clothing, in this 18th century painting?

 We have seen the gradual decline of women's clothing for the last 50 years, making the woman's form unrecognizable from a man's.   It was not always so.  A hundred years ago, if someone was dressed like a man, it probably was a man.

It was the voice saying, "Will this be cash?" that revealed the cashier as a man. To be fair, the poor thing probably didn't have a clue that his appearance was confusing.His hairstyle was very much like the women's. His mannerisms and posture were feminine.  He probably did not even know that it was good to show his distinct maleness by his clothing and his demeanor. He might have felt that he was not supposed to show any maleness.

Good News From Abroad

by George Smith, English (1714-1776)

Is there a difference between the boys and girls clothing in this 18th century painting?

 The women working there probably didnt  know that it was beneficial to them and to the rest of the world to show their female differences by dressing differently than the men. So I am not saying they are deliberately being contrary. I am saying they have been gradually conditioned to dress this way.

Evening Market Scene

by P. Van Schendel

The  18th century market at night still did not hide differences in male and female appearances.

We have grown so accustomed to seeing women who look like men, that we find it necessary to look a little more closely at a person's body than would have been required in the past.

The person who waited on us had the feathered, razor-cut hair style that is most commonly identified with females today. 

Pilgrims Going to Church

Is there a difference between the men and women's clothing in this painting portraying the Pilgrims in one of New England's coldest winters?

 Clothing is something that can be worn to show the differences between male and female.  While it will take time to learn other differences in male and female behaviour, clothes are the easiest way to change things, and that is what I wish to address.

Here is the dockers ad that you have been sending to me
http://www.us.dockers.com/season/landing.aspx

Read the comments after this article http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2009/12/09/2009-12-09_new_dockers_ad_campaign_for_soft_khakis_brings_charges_of_sexism_over_.html
The comments are so colorfully expressed and so true.

and here is my female counterpart:

There was a time when women wore long skirts with hems that touched their ankles, and were content to let the men wear the pants in the family;


Whose appearance inspired artists and authors,


And  poets penned words comparing the swish of ladies skirts to the wonderful wind:- "All around I heard you pass, like ladies skirts across the grass"*


 When the very appearance of women in a long skirt inspired men to step back and let them go first in line;


 When women protected their own  delicate skin with shady hats and lacey umbrellas and carried reticules (purses attached to the waists of their skirts and hidden in their pockets);


 When women's hair was their glory and they would never have shaved their heads,


Women's clothing did not have to reveal their flesh to prove they were female, and when a mere glance at them would inform you of whether they were male or female,


They  had waistlines that were different than men, and their clothing emphasized it,


When women did not have it in their vocabulary to utter a curse word, and men delighted to be in their presence because their refining nature and feminine appearance;


When women cared enough about their influence that they would never enter a bar or drinking establishment,


When a woman preferred to hold knitting needles with yarn, in her hands, instead of a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other,


When women enjoyed buying pretty cloth,


Caring for the home gave her intense happiness, and did not even want to go out in the working world and compete for men's jobs,


When women's highest aim was to have an enduring marriage, raise a well-mannered and well-disciplined batch of children, and keep house to perfection;

When women won people's admiration through their good works, and could sew and cook and care for their homes in poverty as well as prosperity.


Women were proud of being women and were different than men and liked it that way.  They did not want to enter a man's world or wear clothing that resembled them.

We do not have to just remember-when.  Women everywhere have realized they are getting a raw deal, a double burden, and a never ending cycle of exhaustion when they try to follow a man's course. They are coming home. They are home schooling their children. They are guiding the home and doing it wonderfully.  If you are invited to one of the Tea or any extended hospitality from such a woman, you have been able to peek in on a glorious event: the homemaker showing her faith by the work of her hands. There has been a quiet revolution, out of the slavery of the work-place into the freedom , free enterprise, and creativity of the home.

The Pride of Dijon

by William John Hennessy

English, 1839-1917

Is there a contrast between the man's clothing and the woman's in this painting?

(This has to be one of the best paintings of a man looking at a woman, with an interest that says "What is your opinion?")

Evening Market Scene

by P. Van Schendel, Holland, 1806-1870

Out shopping, the people were still recognizeable as male or female.

* Robert Louis Stevenson, "The Wind"

From Child's Garden of Verses


I saw you toss the kites on high

And blow the birds about the sky;

And all around I heard you pass,

Like ladies' skirts across the grass--
From "A Child's Garden of Verses"

How will children today describe the clothing of the women that influence them?  Can they compare it to the beauty of the creation around them, or will they perceive it as trend-following?  Will they, like the artists and poets of old, look upon their mothers and grandmothers aprons and dresses as something beautiful and sentimental, feminine and elegant, modestly covered in a lovely way?

How to accucentuate the differences in female dress:

(coming)

Please leave a suggestion for anything you want added to this commentary on women's appearance and if I like it, I will include it.