Escaping the pigeonholes of Cisnormativity and Gender-roles

Since last few years words like unisex, gender neutral, gender equal have become much more familiar among youth, As more and more luxury brands, big fashion houses, fashion influencers and high-end fashion designers are involving in related areas and aspects of this new popular concept. This concept defies typical gender-norms and boundaries. People are free to express themselves, explore themselves and be proud of whatever they are. New gender identities are being defined that no one has ever heard of. People are discussing it, declaring it loudly in public, raising their voices for equal chances and respect that they deserve. It is starting to change social norms based on gender-roles. The point is, we, humans are used to creating our very own rules and boundaries limiting ourselves from exploring other aspects that aren’t seen by us. Then how is this all happening? Why are we accepting new idea of gender-roles keeping aside hundreds of years old stereotypes? Well, as they say “rules are made to be broken” and so are stereotypes. 

Melbourne fashion festival 2019
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Renaissance painting by Michelangelo
Source: Google

                                                  
                               
Talking about 19th century, it was all glory and grace. It invokes flowery images of romanticism and heavily-embellished architecture presented by designers and artists. Then too women had proven several times that they are no less than men. Medicine politics, astronomy, business in every field , women have proven themselves equal to men. Clara Barton is often considered a trailblazing activist for women’s rights. Her job at the patent office in 1854 made her one of the very first women to be employed by the federal government, and the equal pay with men was unusual at that time.

Designers and artists worldwide have always been known for their creative minds, unique, out of the box concepts and for inspiring the world. In 20th century designers like Coco Chanel, Alexander McQueen and Jean Paul Gaultier helped  women escaping the pigeonholes of unjust and suppressive beliefs starting a chain of breaking gender-norms. They thought of equality and something different and so people were quick to get hold of the concept and involved themselves, too. Not only designers played role in making this massive change in society, but also famous personalities like Katherine Hepburn, Merlene Dietrich, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Grace Jones, Audrey Hepburn and very famous bands like The Beatles and Nirvana expressed their true selves making a pathway for those who were living in the closet.

1910, pants for women by Chanel
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Magazine cover, Nirvana
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Androgynous fashion has taken the glamour world by the storm for sure but, it is also affecting people in real life. People are realizing their differences, gender identities and sexualities keeping aside typical gender-roles and giving chance to a whole new perspective of modern society and culture. Every time we see, hear or read about related terms, whether it is big fashion house launching unisex clothing collection or lifestyle products, more of us become familiar with the terminology and concept. The question here is, do we actually ever dig deep to try and know more about this ongoing trend that is changing our lives and the ways we think? So many of us do not know the difference between gender equality and gender neutrality whereas some of us are woke. Unisexism has been a hot topic of fashion world gossip but now it’s not just limited to glamour world only. Normal people like us are accepting this change and some of us are yet to accept it as the best and the most positive option in favour of human being.

People may confuse Gender Equality with Gender Neutrality. Feminists and communities for queer people are helping spread awareness about equality and neutrality. Equality is parity. All genders have equal chances of getting job is equality. Best among all participants has higher chances of getting job is neutrality. While words like unisex and genderless are easily spread and shared among people because of glamorous advertisements, promotional parties, award functions and through gossips of film and fashion industry. Fashion enthusiasts are keeping an eye on high-end fashion labels 24/7. This is 2019 and designers and fashion houses have made genderless-ness a very popular trend, famously known as “unisex fashion”. Launching clothing collections that can be worn by any person of any gender or body size and promoting this idea in fashion and lifestyle has left its impact on society. Although these gender-bending trends are changing our mindsets, the culture and religion have always remained same.   

Source: Google

Source: Google

                                                                                                                        
Now-a-days, vast majority of people are influenced by bloggers, vloggers, celebrity lifestyles, famous internet personalities. Social media platforms have influenced our lifestyles in an unbelievable way. This is the place where hate and love, negativity and positivity, justice and crime exist together.
On such platforms, number of people are raising awareness about equality and neutrality and the rate is increasing day by day. Supporting each other have helped lots of queer people coming out to their families and society. Celebrities and activists leading campaigns for equal rights and respect, web/drama series characters, famous personalities discussing openly about their gender and sexualities all these things have given courage to those who were afraid to come out. Movements like #metoo encouraged women to speak up their truth and to fight for justice. Even people from different field of interest got involved and started coming out and breaking down gender barriers. Woke people are fighting against body shaming and spreading body positivity. In recent times, celebrities talking openly about their gender and sexualities have made a big difference in our understanding of gender and related terminology. Popular entertainers and public figures like Miley Cyrus, Bella thorn, Ellen DeGeneres, James Charles, Jeffery Star, Caitlyn Jenner etc are some of those. Our youth is denying typical gender-norms and the idea is to eliminate those unfair and restrictive gender rules.

Teen Vogue, Mac X Patrick Starrr
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Ellen DeGeneres with wife Portia
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Changes are being mirrored, women all across the world feel empowered by easy and increasing access of communication. The 2019 woman wants to take charge, she is not afraid of making the first move and express her admiration for a man without waiting for him to approach first. Dating Apps like Tinder, Bumble, Woo are providing women safer experiences and empowering them.
Bumble has a policy of only women being able to make the first move. Tinder has an option where this choice can be toggled on and off by women. Woo lets women call their matches without revealing their contact numbers. These Apps also give options regarding genders to choose from. Anyone can choose whatever gender they are interested in. 



Things have changed for men also. Men getting waxed, stand up comedies and joking about it, men wearing skirts or feminine dresses, wearing make up without hesitation are normal now-a-days. Brands are hiring skinny male models and plus size female models to support equality. While talking about film industry, we can’t say the same because plus size actors/actresses are rarely seen in movies but it’s just a start. Things are starting to change. Movies/web-series are showing and supporting characters from LGBTQ+ communities. Fashion world and social media apps like Instagram and YouTube are taken over by these beauty gurus like James Charles, Jeffery Star, Patrick Star, Nikita Dragun who all represent power of LGBTQ+ community in Industry. Recently, In India decriminalization of section 377 (law affecting rights of LGBTQ+ population) represents changed and modern mindset of citizens. Today we can proudly say that world is becoming a safer and positive place for LGBTQ+ people who have tolerated all these years of unjust being disguised by families. After all we would love to live in a world that offers everyone same respect and rights despite of their gender or sexuality. Wouldn’t we?