Social aspects of clothing
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Clothing, like other aspects of human physical appearance, has various social aspects.
Wearing specific types of clothing or the manner of wearing clothing can have the deliberate purpose, or the desirable or undesirable side-effect, to correctly or incorrectly be interpreted in terms of social class, income, occupation, ethnic and religious affiliation, attitude, marital status, sexual availability, and sexual orientation. This may be considered a "social message", even if it is not deliberate. If the "code of interpretation" applied by the receiver differs from the "sending code", this may give misinterpretations.
The manner of consciously constructing, assembling, and wearing clothing to convey a social message in any culture is governed by current fashion. The rate at which fashion changes varies; easily modified styles in wearing or accessorizing clothes can change in months, even days, in small groups or in media-influenced modern societies. More extensive changes, that may require more time, money, or effort to effect, may span generations. When fashion changes, messages from clothing change.
For example, wearing expensive clothes can be due to (a combination of)
- Being wealthy
- preferring to spend more money on clothing
- Managing to obtain clothing cheaper than usual
An observer can see the resultant, expensive clothes, but may be wrong about the extent to which these factors apply. See also conspicuous consumption. All factors apply inversely for wearing inexpensive clothing, and similarly for other goods.
Other messages clothing can give:
- Stating or claiming personal or cultural identity
- Establishing, maintaining and defying social group norms
[edit] Social status
In many societies, people of high rank reserve special items of clothing or decoration for themselves as symbols of their social status. In ancient times, only Roman senators could wear garments dyed with Tyrian purple; only high-ranking Hawaiian chiefs could wear feather cloaks and palaoa or carved whale teeth. In China before the establishment of the republic, only the emperor could wear yellow. In many cases throughout history, there have been elaborate systems of sumptuary laws regulating who could wear what. In other societies (including most modern societies), no laws prohibit lower-status people from wearing high-status garments, but the high cost of status garments effectively limits purchase and display. In current Western society, only the rich can afford haute couture. The threat of social ostracism may also limit garment choice.
[edit] Occupation
Military, police, and firefighters usually wear uniforms, as do workers in many industries. School children often wear school uniforms, while college and university students sometimes wear academic dress. Members of religious orders may wear uniforms known as habits. Sometimes a single item of clothing or a single accessory can declare one's occupation or rank within a profession — for example, the high toque or chef's hat worn by a chief cook.
See also undercover.
[edit] Ethnic, political, and religious affiliation
In many regions of the world, national costumes and styles in clothing and ornament declare membership in a certain village, caste, religion, etc. A Scotsman declares his clan with his tartan. A Sikh may display his religious affiliation by wearing a turban and other traditional clothing. A French peasant woman may identify her village with her cap or coif. Many Muslim women wear head or body covering (see hijab, burqa or bourqa, chador and abaya) that proclaims their status as respectable women.
Clothes can also proclaim dissent from cultural norms and mainstream beliefs, as well as personal independence. In 19th-century Europe, artists and writers lived la vie de Bohème and dressed to shock: George Sand in men's clothing, female emancipationists in bloomers, male artists in velvet waistcoats and gaudy neckcloths. Bohemians, beatniks, hippies, Goths, Punks and Skinheads have continued the (countercultural) tradition in the 20th-century West. Now that haute couture plagiarizes street fashion within a year or so, street fashion may have lost some of its power to shock, but it still motivates millions trying to look hip and cool.
[edit] Marital status
Hindu women, once married, wear sindoor, a red powder, in the parting of their hair; if widowed, they abandon sindoor and jewelry and wear simple white clothing. Men and women of the Western world may wear wedding rings to indicate their marital status. See also Visual markers of marital status.
[edit] Sexual interest
Some clothing indicates the modesty of the wearer. Other clothing may indicate flirtatious intent. For example, a Western woman might wear extreme stiletto heels, close-fitting and body-revealing black or red clothing, exaggerated make-up, flashy jewelry and perfume to show sexual interest (especially common in prostitutes). A man might wear a tightly-cut shirt and unbutton the top buttons.
What constitutes modesty and allurement varies radically from culture to culture, within different contexts in the same culture, and over time as different fashions rise and fall. Moreover, a person may choose to display a mixed message. For example, a Saudi Arabian woman may wear an abaya to proclaim her respectability, but choose an abaya of luxurious material cut close to the body and then accessorize with high heels and a fashionable purse. All the details proclaim sexual desirability, despite the ostensible message of respectability.
[edit] Sexual orientation
Clothing can also be used as a public signal of sexual orientation.
Gay pride-themed clothing or decorations, including symbols such as the rainbow flag, or the logo of the Human Rights Campaign, are fairly obvious choices for someone wishing to indicate that they are not straight. However, heterosexual gay rights supporters may also choose to display such symbols as a political statement, which leads to some possibility for ambiguity.
T-shirts with printed slogans or icons have also become somewhat popular for use in casual social situations, and are offered for sale at many LGBT-oriented clothing stores. They often include witty sexual innuendo, comical expressions of affection for people of a particular gender, or non-sexual use of gay slang.
Sometimes people make fashion choices for or against a particular look based on whether or not it "looks gay" (depending on what type of signal they wish to send). Stereotypically "gay" fashion choices include dressing against prevailing gender norms (for example, a trucker's hat for a lesbian, or a pink shirt for a gay man), and for gay men, looking "fashionable" or well-kept. While some people do exploit these stereotypes, many people either ignore them in their fashion choices, intentionally avoid them, or are unaware of them. General erosion of traditional gender norms (see for example, metrosexual) and the ambiguity and changing standards of fashion contributes to the unreliability of determining a person's sexual orientation based on these stereotypes, and some people would consider it offensive to try. Members of some local LGBT communities do seem to try to differentiate themselves as a group, but the particulars vary by location, and can be difficult to detect (especially given integration with the surrounding culture).
Clothing can also be used to express interest in a particular sexual activity or role. One trend in the 2000s is a line of T-shirts that has iconic 1950-style depictions of the baseball positions pitcher and catcher, which are intended to correspond to the top and bottom sexual positions. An older example is the handkerchief code used in the BDSM subculture.
[edit] Laws and social norms
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In Tonga it is illegal for men to appear in public without a shirt.
In New Guinea some tribal attire involves men wearing nothing but penis sheaths in public - this is uncommon in more developed areas. Women wear string skirts. In Bali, women go topless. In India, Hindu women can show their stomachs but not legs.
In the island of Bermuda there is a strict dress code, such that restaurants are designated with different dress-code levels such as "business casual" or "casual." It is also illegal to not wear a shirt or shoes on any of the public places on the island with the exception of the beach.
[edit] Private dress codes
Dress codes may be enforced by private entities, usually imposing a particular requirement for entry into a private space. "Dress code" may also refer to a social norm.
- By religious law or tradition
- For employees, pupils/students, etc. - sometimes a uniform; sometimes depending on the day, see Casual Friday; see also International standard business attire
- For customers, e.g. for a disco, nightclub, casino, shop or restaurant
- In special parties; sometimes a specific costume is requested
- As social rules in general
Dress codes function on certain social occasions and for certain jobs. A school or a military institution may require specified uniforms; if it allows the wearing of plain clothes it may place restrictions on their use. A bouncer of a disco or nightclub may judge visitors' clothing and refuse entrance to those not clad according to specified or intuited requirements.
Some dress codes specify that tattoos have to be covered.
A "formal" or white tie dress code typically means tail-coats for men and full-length evening dresses for women. "Semi-formal" has a much less precise definition but typically means an evening jacket and tie for men (known as black tie) and a dress for women. "Business casual" typically means not wearing jeans or track suits, but wearing instead collared shirts, and more country trousers (not black, but more relaxed, including things such as corduroy). "Casual" typically just means clothing for the torso, legs and shoes.
Transparent or semi-transparent clothing can play with the boundaries of dress-codes regarding modesty.
Dress codes usually set forth a lower bound on body covering. However, sometimes it can specify the opposite, for example, in UK gay jargon, dress code, means people who dress in a militaristic manner. Dress code nights in nightclubs, and elsewhere, are deemed to specifically target people who have militaristic fetishes (e.g. leather/skinhead men).
Setting a dress code can often lead to great embarrassment. One particularly famous example is that of UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, who asked the Bank of England's board to wear lounge suits to their annual dinner, a highly prestigious occasion, as an act of modernism in tune with New Labour thinking (they usually wore White Tie). However, he had not reckoned with their determination not to kow-tow, and when sat at dinner, he was the only person not dressed in White Tie.
See also shoe etiquette, mourning, sharia, Dress code (Western).
[edit] Work clothing
Business-wear clothing has changed over the years. In an office, appropriate corporate attire may be clean, formal clothing, such a shirt and tie, suit, or other similar outfits.
While previous eras of clothing (classically, the 1950s) had very standardized business wear, differentiating strongly between male and female apparel choices, the two types have converged as women's business styles have become less exclusively focused on skirts and blouses and have introduced suits as an article of business wear for either sex.
Casual wear has made some inroads into corporate culture recently, with the advent of the Silicon Valley technology company bringing with it a more common acceptance of informal clothing at work. Additionally, some companies have specific days set aside in their workweeks - generally Fridays (known as "dress-down Friday" or "casual Friday") - during which employees may wear less formal apparel.
Some employers believe that discrimination laws restrict their right to determine appropriate workplace dress. In fact, employers have a lot of discretion in what work clothes they can require. Generally, a carefully drafted dress code that is applied consistently should not violate discrimination laws. However, this fact will not stop employees from questioning company dress code policies. [1]
[edit] Business casual
Business casual, also known as "smart casual", is a popular dress code that emerged in white-collar workplaces in Western countries in the 1990s. Many information technology businesses in Silicon Valley were early adopters of this style of dress. In contrast to business formal wear (suits and neckties, sometimes called international standard business attire), business casual wear has no generally accepted definition; its interpretation differs widely between organizations and is often a cause of confusion.
The job search engine Monster.com offers this definition: "In general, business casual means dressing professionally, looking relaxed yet neat and pulled together." A more pragmatic definition is that business casual dress is a middle ground between business formal wear and street wear. Examples of apparel combinations that are considered appropriate for wearing to work by some organizations that consider themselves to be using a business-casual dress code are:
- for men, a collared shirt (perhaps a tennis shirt instead of a dress shirt) and cotton trousers (such as khakis)
- for women, a tennis shirt and trousers
Neckties are generally not part of business casual dress unless worn in a very non-conservative way. The acceptability of jeans is variable — many organizations frown upon them as too casual, but will accept men who wear jeans with a sportcoat.
[edit] Inverse dress codes
Inverse dress codes, sometimes referred to as "undress code", set forth an upper bound, rather than a lower bound, on body covering. An example of an undress code, is the one commonly enforced in modern communal bathing facilities. For example, in Schwaben Quellen no clothing of any kind is allowed. Other less strict undress codes are common in public pools, especially indoor pools, in which shoes and shirts are not allowed.
Places where social nudity is practised may be "clothing optional", or nudity may be compulsory, with exceptions, see manners in social nudity.
[edit] Gender and clothing
Various traditions suggests that certain items of clothing intrinsically suit different gender roles. In particular, the wearing of skirts and trousers has given rise to common phrases expressing implied restrictions in use and disapproval of offending behaviour. For example, ancient Greeks often considered the wearing of trousers by Persian men as a sign of effeminacy.[citation needed]
See also cross-dressing.
[edit] Violation of clothing taboos
Some clothing faux pas may occur intentionally for reasons of fashion or personal preference. For example, people may wear intentionally oversized clothing. For instance, the teenage boys of rap duo Kris Kross of the early 1990s wore all of their clothes backwards and extremely baggy.
A trend in underwear has moved toward underwear that looks less like underwear, e.g. undergarments that look like bathing suits or beach shorts. For women, deliberately showing bra straps has also become fashionable.
[edit] Reversalism in the sociology of clothing
Social attitudes to clothing have brought about various rules and social conventions, such as keeping the body covered, and not showing underwear in public. The backlash against these social norms has become a traditional form of rebellion.
[edit] Nudity and contamination
During the 2001 anthrax attacks, large numbers of people stripped to their underwear in parking lots and other public places for hosing down by fire departments, often in front of TV news crews covering the events.[citation needed]
On the other hand, some people are unwilling to violate their self-imposed and fully internalized social norms of body covering, even in a situation where mass stripdowns and washdowns could save their lives. [2]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Dress Code Legal Issues. Personnel Policy Inc. Last accessed November 20, 2006.
- ^ We'd rather die than take our clothes off, disaster planners say, By Dru Sefton, Newhouse News Service, Nation & World: Saturday, May 25, 2002
