Op-Ed Final
Anaise Reina
Ms. Katie
11/7/21
Composition 1
Should all clothes be labeled as unisex?
Although some have argued that stores should have a men and women clothing section, I would argue that clothes should be unisex because not all people label themselves as the gender associated with their body parts, it can trigger gender dysphoria, and nowadays people don’t shop based off women and men style. As a masculine presenting female, I shop in the men’s section, and it feels very uncomfortable getting eyeballed while trying to shop for clothes that are comfortable to me.
With society today, it is common for people to identify as a gender that is not associated with the gender they were born as which often accounts for transgender people and non-binary people in the LGBTQ2+ society. According to the oxford dictionary, the definition of a transgender is “denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex.” For people like them, going into a store can be very uncomfortable because even though it’s common for people to identify that way, it’s not 100% normalized. If the labels of men and women clothing was taken off and clothes were just labeled as clothes for all, it would cancel the problems for people who don’t identify as the gender assigned at birth to be gone and they would be more comfortable shopping for clothes that fit their personalities.
Labeling clothes as men’s or women’s clothes forces people into two categories, men and women. Men who are feminine are forced to dress masculine because of the societal rules and vice versa for masculine females. An article on NBC news, there was a person named Medina who was trying to use the men’s fitting room and try on men’s clothing and the attendant stopped them which triggered gender dysphoria and caused for them to feel “invalidated” and like them “human rights were being taken away…” (Lang, Zara reaches settlement with transgender shopper over alleged discrimination). There is no reason why something as necessary as shopping is limited to certain people because of the labels put on clothing. Clothes being labeled as unisex would have allowed her to freely try on the clothes and not be triggered.
Androgynous fashion is the future of clothing. In this generation, there is no such thing as dressing either masculine or feminine. Big brand names such as DKNY, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci, use trans and queer models to promote clothing as unisex. Even then they use well-known celebrities to show that dressing androgynous is okay. A magazine called ZIPPED states that, “Millennials and Generation Z have embraced an exploration of gender that goes beyond the binary gender spectrum, and even walking around campus, we’re seeing more genderless expression through clothing…” (Hetcher, THE RISE OF ANDROGYNOUS FASHION). Labeling clothes as unisex promotes the idea that there is more than male and female. The categories of men and women trap people into the idea that they must be one or the other.
Clothes should most definitely be labeled as unisex for the sake of keeping up with culture. It will lower the triggers of people who have gender dysphoria making shopping a better experience, can allow people to freely express themselves as whatever they identify as, and it allows for people to accept fashion in a whole new way while not even harming the people who identify as either male or female. If you like it, you buy it, then you wear it. Simple as that.
Works Cited Page
Nico Lang, Zara reaches settlement with transgender shopper over alleged discrimination, May 1, 2020, 6:05 PM
Chloe Hechter, THE RISE OF ANDROGYNOUS FASHION, November 4, 2020
https://www.zippedmag.com/fashion/2020/11/1/the-rise-of-androgynous-fashion