ISSN 2411-9563 (Print)
ISSN 2312-8429 (Online)
European Journal of Social Science
Education and Research
May-August 2018
Vol 5 No 2
259
DOI: 10.26417/ejser.v5i2.p185-190
Open Access. © 2018 Sophio Moralishvili and Vladimer Adeishvili.
This is an open access article licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License
(Review Article)
Deconstruction of Gender Stereotypes Through Fashion
Nihan Akdemir
Assist. Prof. Dr., Altınbaş University, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design
Abstract
This research aims to investigate the role of fashion in the context of the deconstruction of gender stereotypes.
Expectation of society and culture related to the biological structure of the individual carries some roles and this
role also carries many gender stereotypes in it. But the individual can be use the clothing style to express his or
her gender identity which may not match the expectations of the community and society. In the context of big
role of the clothing, stereotypes could be deconstructed because clothes are the visible expression of gender
identity of the person. And fashion is a big part of this structure because fashion is a pioneer of what people
wear. Nowadays fashion has also mean about expressing identity independent of whether you were born male
or female. Many fashion brands prepare their collections in the concept of ‘gender fluid’ by deconstructions.
The representations of gender fluidity through fashion help bring a sense of normality to people who are trying
to find the self-confidence to express who they want to be. And the results are showed that the numbers of
collections about it are increasing and fashion sector takes this issue into consideration.
Keywords: Fashion, Gender Identity, Gender Stereotypes, Deconstruction, Gender Fluid
Introduction
Stereotypes are the common beliefs and values of the group, culture or religions and the gender stereotypes are fixed
ideas about men’s and women’s traits and capabilities and how people should behave based on their gender. For example
common gender stereotypes about the color blue and pink for boy and girl. In fact these stereotypes could lead also to
discrimination. But clothing for both men and women is culturally defined by the society. Cultural norms and expectations
are related to the meaning of being a man or woman and are closely linked to appearance means clothing, because the
clothing is the most important point of representationof the identity. At this point the clothing has a big role. When the
concept of clothes is concerned, the concept of fashion is emerging. And the essence of fashion is transformation and
innovation and Deschamps has come to the conclusion that fashion is global. Three of Deschamps' twelve vector fashion
devices are gender, society, and norm.
So, the relationship between gender and fashion is an important point, even with different parameters. It means that If
society changes, norms changes and ıf the norms changes, fashion changes or vice versa. And also these changes can
come out with the changes of perceptional perspective.
In this research the stereotypes in the perception of form and color appearances about clothing has been tried to examine.
Then, the gender stereotypes which are deconstructed at fashion scenes have been explained over the examples. The role
of fashion in the adoption of change by society has been tried to explain through examples.