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Gap’s newest television campaign shrieks the message:
“Hallelujah, spring is here!” But with the recent cold
and windy April weather, it has become unlikely that we can
“bet our bottom dollar” that tomorrow there will be
sun. Unfortunately, fashion retailers, with their light, breezy
styles, have failed to prepare people ““ namely females
““ for these unexpectedly cold days.
Spring fashion is therefore guilty of stitching sexism into
women’s clothing. Although not obvious to the unclothed eye,
women should not disregard the idea when they are shopping this
season.
During the rest of the year, popular clothing retailers like
Gap, J. Crew, Old Navy and Abercrombie & Fitch offer a variety
of prints and colors. But no season restricts women as much as the
spring with its domination of floral prints, forcing women to dress
as feminine as possible.
Girls will be girls, whether they like it or not, as retailers
fill their stores with ultra-femme prints.
These trends have inspired everything from classic springtime
dresses to gaudy flowered capri pants, available at an Old Navy
near you. Old Navy shouts “Get this look!” but remember
that this is the same company that recently added a “dog
supply shop” as a new department, so that the next time you
shop there you and Fido can get matching T-shirts. Bad taste, of
course, has little to do with sexism, but painting flowers onto
every article of clothing does create a sexist shopping environment
for women.
 Illustration by GRACE HUANG/Daily Bruin Escaping these
patterns of floral domination is as hopeless as an attempt to
escape the sea of petals, and only brings you to a flood of
pastels, No. 2 on the list of spring fashion staples. Finding
darker hues becomes nearly impossible since upon entering the mall
you are up to your knees in light pinks, lavenders and peaches. As
a result, women have only soft, wimpy colors and flowers with which
to present themselves as dainty models of an über-feminine
spring.
If the idea that spring garb oppresses women by restricting them
to dress only in flowers and pastels seems ridiculous, then
consider this: when was the last time spring boasted light pink or
purple shirts for men or flowered pants instead of plain
khakis?
Of course you laugh, because the idea of a man in floral attire
seems ridiculous unless he is the guy who greets you with a lei in
Hawaii or Homer Simpson in a gigantic muumuu (although even that
still garners a few laughs). Flowers and pastels are considered
unmanly and during no other season are they so obviously reserved
for women.
Spring fashion also seems to dictate the sexist idea that style
should rule over comfort, as women’s fashion consists mostly
of lightweight fabrics like rayon, silk and light cottons. Such
fabrics leave women unprepared for those intermittent stormy days,
as retailers emphasize light clothing rather than coats and warm
sweaters, which become hard-to-find collectibles at this time of
year.
Despite the warm weather, some retailers still offer
cold-weather items, but even these are subject to the sexist idea
that a woman’s appearance should take precedence over
comfort. Denim jackets, popular items this spring, seem to offer a
solution for those chilly days, but most are cropped short,
emphasizing style over function. Express also offers a
caramel-colored goat leather trench coat, a potentially warm item,
but again sexism takes its hold on this item, as photos of a model
wearing the coat in the store feature her in a mini skirt with the
coat barely covering the skirt.
If you prefer to wear heavy sweaters in cooler temperatures, you
might be pleasantly surprised that stores still feature them for
women to buy in the spring. Yet, these too are hardly made to keep
you warm as many are sleeveless, have low-dipping necks or are
halter tops.
So where do women go to buy warm jackets and cozy sweatshirts
for the occasional spring downpour? Easy! Such items are readily
available in the men’s department. Even during the warmer
seasons like spring, you will find these items in the men’s
section. Men are allowed to dress comfortably all year long, while
women must suddenly give up warm clothing upon spring’s
arrival.
Even the idea of women having to change their styles each season
is sexist. Unlike men who feel little pressure to constantly update
their wardrobes, women are pressured to change from wearing cute
angora sweaters during the fall to stylish wool coats with matching
hats in the winter to light, flowery dresses in the spring.
Throughout the year men have the same selection of button-up
shirts and khakis, and while items like scarves and turtleneck
sweaters may come and go with the changing seasons, as a whole,
men’s fashion varies little over the year, and men never have
to worry about having to look a certain way because it is a certain
season.
This lack of change shows how men are excused from the big
fashion race, and this difference between the constancy of
men’s fashion and the variability of women’s highlights
the tendency of fashion to be sexist toward females.
As if having to change styles every so often just because you
are a woman were not bad enough, clothing retailers also seem to
declare women as incompetent of creating a unique look based on
individual choice.
At the end of each season, executives of popular clothing
retailers form corporate cabals decide on three or four looks for
the following season and then fill all their stores with the same
looks. This spring, colorful polo shirts for women invade stores
everywhere but not due necessarily to popular demand.
Corporations callously tell women what they need to buy by
producing a limited variety of clothing, giving women no choice but
to buy that pair of gaudy, pink and green flowered capris. And
although they probably are unaware of the cruelty they are
inflicting upon women, retailers rob a woman of her right to freely
choose.
Are women doomed to face every year this vicious cycle of spring
sexism? There are ways to avoid being completely taken by clothing
manufacturers. If this season’s “must-have”
articles of clothing are items you just must have, then by all
means, buy them. Just do not limit yourself to the looks that
stores invent.
Remember that wardrobe basics allow a woman to dress with her
own style even when mixed with current trends in fashion.
And a note to clothing retailers: sexism is never in
fashion.