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Katie Jordan

Professor Matt Weinkam

English 111

24 November 2009

How Women Dress: An Analysis of Men’s and Women’s Roles in Society

There seems to be a fair amount of women wearing short mini skirts and tight

tank tops out in public, but what is the motivation behind this dress? Are these women

trying to show off their bodies to get male attention? Or do these women feel they need to

dress revealingly to compete with other women to find a man? Men look at women, and

women look at men. It’s human nature. Feminism has played a significant role in

analyzing this “looking” between men and women (Walters 50) and bringing attention to

the negative affects that come form this “looking”, especially disrespect of women. The

feminist movement has created many changes in Western Society including those in how

men perceive women, appearance and dress, and male and female roles.

The Feminist Movement has made apparent “that women are so often represented

as sexual spectacle, as ‘on display’ for men” (Walters 50), but why has that come to be?

The main reason comes from the imbalance in power between men and women in our

Western Society; after all, the main point of the feminist movement was to gain more

power for women. This power imbalance leads to the connection between gender and

looking, for Walters explains, “In our particular culture with its imbalance between male

and female power, women are positioned as the passive object of the male look and come

to internalize this look” (51). Women have come to realize this power imbalance, and

while some revolt against it through feminism, others passively accept it by wearing

revealing clothing. Provocatively dressed women draw attention because of the simple

 
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fact that men look at women. Not only do men look at women, but women notice men

looking at them. Walters explains, “This [looking] determines not only most relations

between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves…Thus she turns

herself into an object of vision: a sight” (51). Relationships between men and women as

well as women’s respect for themselves is affected by this “looking”. Women try to

appease men, and because men enjoy looking at women, women want to be as visually

appealing as possible. Because of this, some women turn to wearing more and more

revealing clothing, degrading the female population in the process, which only fuels the

power imbalance. Walters says, “looking-which might be considered a relatively neutral

activity-actually carries with it relations of power, access, and control” (51). Men only

gain more and more power and control when women choose to dress provocatively; men

are given the persona of an observer while women are solely an image that is designed to

please the man (Walters 51). Despite the feminist argument that women should be able

to wear whatever they please without consequences because that is the privilege of men

(Ross, “Feminism”), our Western society needs to realize that dressing provocatively

does have consequences of giving men more power, a consequence that the feminist

movement cannot afford.

Not only are women harmed by the male influences of looking, but they are also

harmed by the standards that western society places on beauty. Unrealistic standards of

beauty are placed upon women everyday and feminist activist Germaine Greer argues,

“The pressure women face to look eternally young, beautiful, and thin makes them

abnormally preoccupied with their appearance” (62). This obsession women have with

their appearance can lead to why some women dress more provocatively. Some women

 
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feel as if they don’t meet this unrealistically high beauty standard and because of that feel

like they are loosing attention from men (are not being “looked” at as much as other

women). In order to gain back that attention, these women might turn to tiny skirts and

low cut shirts, but again this only reverses the feminist movement, giving men more

power.

Men and women are simply not on put to equal standards, explaining why men

are in positions to gain power and why women are in positions to try to gain attention

from men. Michael S. Kimmel explains, “Virtually all societies manifest some amount of

difference between men and women, and virtually all exhibit some form of male

domination” (28). We are living in a male dominant society, which is greatly

contributing to how women think they need to appease men visually. Greer explains,

“Women and girls are routinely objectified in ways that their male counterparts simply

are not” (65). Men are not held to the same appearance standards as women in our

society, leading further into a power imbalance. Greer says, “Insecurity has been installed

into women over generations; we have made not the least headway in the struggle to

dispel it” (63). Women are full of insecurities because of the high beauty standards they

are held to, and because men are held to far less beauty standards, they have far less

insecurities about their appearance. By putting effort into raising the self-esteem of

women in our society and removing a lot of the factors, such as the influence of the

media on beauty, that lead to low self-esteem in women, more and more women will

slowly gain back power from men while less and less women will feel the need to dress

provocatively for attention.


 
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However, the other side of this issue is also very important to address. Feminists’

main goal is to achieve legal, political, and social equality (Ross, “Feminism”). Men and

women should be equal on all levels. The feminist revolution stresses that laws, social or

legal, cannot be different for men and women (Ross, “Feminism”). To achieve this,

many feminists suggest that women should not act inferior to men, and therefore, slow

progress will be made to change societal views on men and women roles (Sophia,

“Women”). The feminist reasoning is completely logical, however, feminists need to

alter their basic assumptions of moral and ethical issues today because these standards are

changing (Collins). Women are much more willing to dress provocatively today than in

years past, and feminists need to realize the power that men can gain from not addressing

this issue.

Women in today’s western society concentrate a lot on being the visually

appealing image for men, fully prepared to dress provocatively to fulfill that social

standard. Although the feminist movement is working towards gaining more power for

women, feminists need to better take gender differences into account. The idea of

feminism that women should be able to do anything, be anything, or look anyway that

they wish may be ideally correct; however, by only moving forward with that view point

and ignoring the fact that men will continue to gain power through certain social customs

and standards relating to appearance and looking, then the feminist movement will never

be able to reach its ultimate goal of complete gender equality. Women need to realize

that wearing provocative clothing will not ultimately get them the satisfaction,

acceptance, and equality they desire. Provocatively dressed women are only hindering

 
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the opportunity for women to be seen as equal to men, rather than to be seen as purely

images for men’s enjoyment.


 
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Works Cited

Collins, Louise. “Book Review.” National Women’s Studies Association Journal (2001):
n. pag. Web. 19 November 2009.
Greer, Germaine. “Women Are Harmed by Societal Standards of Beauty.” Feminism:
Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. Jennifer A. Hurley. San Diego, California:
Greenhaven Press, 2001. 62-67. Print.
Kimmel, Michael. “Culture Establishes Gender Roles”. Male/Female Roles. Ed.
Auriana Ojeda. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2005. 27-37. Print.
Ross, Kelley. “Feminism.” The Proceedings of the Friesian School., 2002. Web. 18
November 2009.
Sophia. “Woman Not Inferior to Man.” The Thinking Man’s Minefield. n.d. Web. 19
November 2009.
Walters, Suzanna. Material Girls: Making Sense of Feminist Cultural Theory. Berkely:
University of California Press, 1995. Print.