Women in America: All Eyes on Them and Their Clothing

Psych Mechanics

America has a set of arbitrary rules for its people to follow, especially when it comes to American women. Women in America have been criticized constantly on every aspect such as their attitude or their goals in life. Many times, these criticisms will contradict each other and come off as confusing. The largest thing women are judged on, however, is how they are dressed and present themselves. For women's clothing, there is never a right answer for how she should look, she is either overdressed or underdressed, never in between. In a situation where she is assaulted or harassed, however, one of the first questions always asked is, ‘well what was she wearing?’. Women's clothing in America is constantly being criticized, no matter how she is dressed. 

In the age of the feminist movement, which is meant to encourage and empower women, it could be argued that women's clothing is not as closely monitored as it might have been. This is absolutely true, when it comes to things such as the rise in feminism, women are encouraged to dress in what makes them comfortable. While this is the case, there is still a good chunk of society that believe that women need to dress how they deem 'proper' or 'modest' to deserve any sort of respect. This is especially an issue when no one can seem to agree on what is deemed the correct way of dressing. These people, even if they are the minority, tend to be much louder and more vocal with their opinions; this drowns out the voices of encouragement from those who think women should dress however they want. 

Lakshmi Pillai Gupta says it best, what women wear has always been the business of everyone else, and that it stems from a need for power and control. While not outwardly stated, women have always had a set of beauty standards they had to follow if they wanted to be considered ‘beautiful’. These beauty standards are constantly changing throughout the decades, and while some are easily obtainable, others can be near impossible or even dangerous to try and achieve. As times move forward, these beauty standards continue to change and start to become impossible and expensive to keep up with. However, women are still expected to follow them in the hopes of people being happy with their appearance. Still, no matter how closely they may follow these rules, someone will always grasp at straws to judge, to keep that power and control. 

These criticisms usually start as kids, often in a school setting through the form of a dress code. Schools claim that dress codes are put in place in order to prevent distractions, but more often than not just target their female students. Schools will oversexualize parts of the female anatomy, such as their arms, with the assumption that other students will do the same. So, policies such as no showing shoulders, no visual bra straps, knee length skirts and dresses are created to, as neaToday puts it, keep them from distracting male students. 

This continues into adulthood, even in places such as their worksite. While all jobs have a standard of what is considered ‘professional’ attire for that field, sometimes it doesn’t matter and judgement is still given. Lisa Marie Basile points out that what women wear to do their jobs is nitpicked or sexualized. An example is the pencil, a sleek, form fitting skirt commonly worn by women in an office setting, usually questioned for its professionalism because it can be seen as ‘revealing’. Things such as pantsuits and slacks, while looser, are also questioned due to their supposed lack of femininity and not creating a more ‘polished’ silhouette. 

Outside of this environment, many eyes still fall to what women are wearing, and people start to make comments. Some people will keep their gossip to themselves, others will shout it out for the world to hear, and sometimes people will drag down another woman in order to lift up another's outfit. This isn’t just strangers on the street; it can even be her own family and friends. Many stories are shared where a woman has faced criticism from her family because of what she wears around them, or friends making comments about her outfit whether they be to her face or behind her back. 

A lot of this stems from misogynistic ideals that create rules for women that don't apply to men. When it comes to how men dress, no one bats an eye at his clothing. Their clothes aren't inspected as closely as women's are, with certain parts of the body being needlessly sexualized. Because of standards like this, it creates an uncomfortable and dangerous environment for women to try and operate in. When a woman can't even walk outside of her home without being catcalled or given judgmental stares because her shirt is a little tight, it becomes an issue. 

Women in America are being criticized for what they wear, no matter the circumstance, and they shouldn’t be. Clothing is meant to be a way of self-expression, a way for people to express themselves and give the world a taste of who they are. Women are no exception to this and should be able to treat them the same way. However, when society constantly makes them feel less than for dressing how they want, this form of self-expression is being stifled. Clothes are objects meant to be worn, not held over people's heads to keep a power dynamic. Clothes should be treated as just that, clothes.