The story of man ... is woman!
While surfing the net and chasing up some obscure topic or another, I came across the website of the Economist magazine. The cover of the December 2005 edition caught my eye, firstly by the headline, and then definitely by the graphic.
You'll have to be transgender or at least feminist sympathetic to understand the humour.
I think it's funnily ironic and apt, in a transgender sort of way.
Except that there are still vestiges of male patriarchy informing the graphic. Notice how the legs are apart and the skirt is invitingly open. Gender permeates in subtle ways yet again.
Comments
Danielle Marie LaBelle
Written by Guest on 2006-01-01 14:03:43
I have as well noticed in the past year or two that magazines now ignore the very specific gender issue of male and female clothing. For women the blouse opens toward the heart, for men it is away from the heart. To save money, the publishing industry is ignoring this feature and reversing the photos to suit their fit in the magazine.
Perhaps this means that we are becoming more androginistic in our thinking? Or, economics is having another obvious impact on the commerical publication industry.
The fact that clothng is specic in this manner is an obvious attempt at defining genders. For that matter, it is a very specific method to determine male and female clothing. Without this method, a white business shirt, less the "darts," could be for anyone.
Since we "tailor" woman's clothing to accomodate and display the "bust," perhaps there is a physical reasoning here. This would not play well on a large barrel chested man. So,perhaps at times, we notice things that are just designed to meet a physical need.
The "open skirt" may simply reflect a parallel to the less dressed previous men and their stepping forward. At the same time, it could have ben clearly a woman in trousers rather than a skirt/dress as depicted. It is tempting to draw conclusions depending on a personal point of view.
Danielle