Bethany Si Yue Mong's Final Project

     Through learning about how men and women are portrayed in media, I noticed that both genders are influenced by gender role physically and mentally. Because media is part of our society, gender role becomes an important element for people to classify themselves. Moreover, gender role becomes part of people’s lives and they are influenced by the media unconsciously. Although a lot of people believe the ideal image of men are masculine and women are feminine, many of them do not fit in either category. As a result, gender role becomes a restriction which prohibits individuals to present their true selves in the society. I believe one of the most influential materials which affect men and women physically and mentally is fashion magazine, because it portrays the ideal images of them.

     In my project, I decided to portray a different image of genders unlike the mainstream fashion portrayal. I designed an outfit for people who do not fit in either femininity or masculinity. I drew a male and a female model. In the poster, the male model looks into a mirror and sees a female model wears the same outfit like he does. I have this idea because I want the viewers to see the harmony while both men and women wear the same kind of clothes. They both look at each other through the mirror, which shows that they are the same. This conveys a sense that being feminine is not the priority of women and being masculine is not what only male does.  However, there are differences between the male and female clothes due to their body shape differences. I want the clothes that I design does not either promote femininity or masculinity but femininity and masculinity both blended in together. At the same time, I want to show the differences between male and female’s bodies so women will not “look” masculine, and men will not look “gay.”

     On the fashion template, I designed a pair of baggy pants (pants looking at the back view and skirt looking at the front view). Because most people would think of women wearing laces instead of men, I chose to design a pair of lacy pants which men can wear too. Also, I designed a top made with wires which attached but can be detected from the pants. The top matches with the shoes and they are both transparent. Although I know it is hard for people generally to wear an outfit like this on the street. I want to convey an insight which makes people think of the relationship between gender and clothes. Also, I want the poster to portray the comparison between non feminine female and non masculine male. Next to the sketch, there are a few quotes on the poster that I want to remind people about gender role nowadays. These quotes not only help people to think of why they think choices of clothes would go against their gender roles, but also help us to criticize things that we normally will not accept due to gender norms.

     Through making this poster, I want the viewers to realize that women who are not feminine do not mean they are not beautiful. Similarly, men not being masculine do not mean they are gay or weak. I hope this poster helps viewers to criticize people nowadays who think others dress abnormally or do things against their gender roles. Also, I want the viewers to acknowledge the diversity and understand different people in our society.

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These are the fashion templates that I used in my project.

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These are pictures of Louis XIV wearing lace and heels in ancient times. The history of how men wore clothes inspired me to design a unisex outfit.
 

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This is a picture of the material that I used for the pants on the templates.

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Work Cited:

Guardian News and Media Limited. 2013. “A Brief History of Lace” http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/gallery/2011/oct/19/a-brief-history-of-lace#/?picture=380231215&index=2. Lace is considered as a feminine material for women’s clothing. However, it is used on male and female clothing in ancient time. People such as Charles I and Henrietta Maria wore them.

Webb, Wilfred Mark. 1868. “The Heritage of Dress: being notes on the history and evolution of clothes” http://archive.org/details/corsetcrinolineb00lord. Dress is not female clothes in ancient times. However, our society changed and made dresses a symbol of women clothing.