Jeans have invaded our campus, our closets, and Gustavus. Sitting in the Courtyard, almost every person must be wearing jeans, and yet there is an obvious split in the fit and style of all the jeans I can see.
The tighter, shapelier jeans, without exception, belong to the women; the looser, straight jeans belong to the men. Even those few guys walking around in skinny jeans have the luxury of a straight cut and some wiggle room. Thinking this over, it seems silly. Fundamentally, all jeans are made out of the same, tough thick cotton and are meant for casualness, comfort, practicality, and yes—style; but most importantly any type of pants are meant to protect you from the considerably harsh elements we experience here in this frigid wasteland called Minnesota.
The more I look around, the more annoyed I become. After all, a pair of jeans can easily ruin anyone’s day. I can see perfectly in my mind’s eye a scenario in which I go to the dressing room of a department store with 20 pairs of the most boa constrictor-like jeans, and I proceed to be squeezed to death as if I were a predatory snake’s next meal just so that I can look good in a pair of pants. And I am definitely not the only one who does this. Why do girls torture themselves this way? Or maybe the better question is why boys do not.
It is at this point that it strikes me that the reason girls put themselves through this particular type of hell is because most people would cast weird glances at most any girl who walked around in oversized, baggy, comfortable jeans. Where boys, at least until relatively recently, would be looked at much the same way if they walked around in thin, painted-on, low-rise pants.
If a girl wants to buy a pair of jeans, she has to put up with different sizing, rises, lengths, cuts, and washes which vary from store to store. None of these styles are ever loose enough to conceal the shape of girls’ legs unless they are not the right size; a girl cannot find a pair of jeans that does not touch her skin almost everywhere. Most jeans rise low on her hips, are rarely comfortable, never practical, and often don’t even have functioning pockets. Boys, on the other hand, go to a store and pick out their waist measurement, inseam length, and style. Where as a girl is hard-pressed to find a loose pair of jeans, boys have a plethora of shapes and styles to chose from, whether they are loose or tight, and any of which can be worn in public without a second glance or a raised eyebrow.
The lasting influence of gender roles in our society affects even the pants you purchase. But that is not all.
The Gustavus Wind Orchestra recently went on tour in Eastern Europe. Before they left, they were strongly encouraged to dress-up for their departure at the airport. For girls this meant they were to wear blouses, pencil shirts, hose, and high heels while carrying their instruments, backpacks, purses, luggage, and extra-band equipment through the terminal, in freezing weather no less. Fortunately for them, the fiasco was averted due to the weather and impracticality of exposed skin in such conditions.
The expectation of how a girl should look when she is dressed-up, appropriated by one of our own faculty members, is proof enough that this campus as well as our society has a growing need for feminism. It is a movement often misused and misunderstood. Old aspects of feminism no longer apply, and new ones, such as changes in gender roles, don’t get enough recognition. Women and men unknowingly fuel this, whether they are buying a pair of jeans, reading a recent best seller, or even getting dressed in the morning. Lines blur, and feminism seems to be without a definite concept or definition.
Luckily, campus organizations such as the Womyn’s Awareness Center (WAC) and M-PACT work to answer this question through on-going conversations about equality and awareness concerning gender roles. WAC is launching a poster campaign on campus dealing with the importance of feminism in today’s society starting this coming semester. The Dove® Real Beauty Campaign, a major corporation trying “to challenge beauty stereotypes,” will also be coming to Gustavus later this spring.
For now I’m taking off my jeans. I hope you all do the same.