Now what? A re-introduction
A window, a door, a reflection
The window
We’re all born naked; the rest is drag.
-RuPaul
The Queen is correct; I have believed this all my life. Call it drag, or cosplay or costume, the power of dress has always fascinated me. I would look at old photos and know that no matter how they were dressed, the people in the picture were just like the humans who lived around me. I also knew that they were different in their habits, language, and beliefs. As I learned more, I was drawn to the study of the history of clothing, convinced that understanding those aspects of culture would help me understand the experiences and worldviews of the people inside the robes, suits and gowns. What was it like to live in that time and place? Fashion was my window.
The door
At first I focused on the clothing itself - how it was designed and made. But the answer to my question was not in construction techniques or the design process. I needed a way to understand the wearers, who used clothing to express their identities and social roles. Perhaps because I went to graduate school in the 1970s, the aspect of culture that intrigued me the most was gender. This opened the door to fifty years of exploration, as I have tried to connect what I knew about clothing with what humans believed about gender. As an academic researcher, I shared what I learned through the usual narrow channels: conferences and journal articles. When I could, I tried to reach a general audience, working with museum curators to organize exhibits and giving scores of interviews to journalists. I finally found an academic press that would support my desire to reach the general public, resulting in two books: Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America and Sex and Unisex: Fashion, Feminism, and the Sexual Revolution.
Reflection
Seven years into retirement, I have nearly reached the end of my journey. I have answered all the questions I once had, except for this one: Why is the gender binary so durable in American culture? I naively thought that my research would at least make it wobble a little bit. Maybe it did; maybe I am a teensy bit responsible for the current turmoil around gender identity and expression. (Even if Judith Butler has never cited me, and my books have not been banned.)
Having decided that I am done with books, I am going to lay out what I have learned and what I believe about gender one last time. It will be a series of short essays here on Substack, one every week or two, until the well runs dry. After that, who knows? More knitting, more drawing, more poetry, maybe some fiction (but I doubt it).
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A lovely piece, Jo. Looking forward to reading more. Wren