Wednesday 26 March 2014

"Unisex"

Recently an online store that sells a variety of t-shirts from different YouTubers and other internet things decided to discontinue the "ladies cut" for the shirt and make only available what they call "unisex".

I'm not happy that they made this move, as I strongly dislike the shape of unisex clothing because I think it is super unflattering, but I also just have an issue with the name "unisex" in general.

When a company calls their clothing "unisex", what they are really saying is "hey, so we decided that we're only going to stock clothing for males, but we will call it "unisex" so we don't come across as sexist".
Unisex clothing is problematic because it takes an already flawed dichotomy of gender and tries to simplify it even further. We need to account for more genders, not fewer.

I also really dislike unisex clothing because it rarely fits nicely.
Most women will have curves, yet unisex clothing is cut in a way that assumes people are shaped like boxes.
It is clothing made to fit men, and when a company refuses to sell an alternative option it is essentially saying that women aren't as important, and if they want to be considered important they should try and appear more masculine.

Another thing that is very unusual about this shift is the fact that this site sells shirts for a large variety of different YouTubers, many of which are women, have women themed content, and are marketed towards women -but now you can only buy their shirts in unisex cut. How does that make sense?

Perhaps I'm being too dramatic about this. Perhaps I'm making this into a far bigger deal that it actually is. Perhaps there is a perfectly legitimate reason as to why the ladies cut was discontinued. But I'm irritated because I would like to have the option. Finding clothing that fits can be a struggle for a lot of women and not giving them more options certainly isn't helping.
Perhaps I should finish my homework... 

2 comments:

  1. I can see where you're coming from, though you're looking at one side of the equation in my opinion. What happens when a company makes things for only females and 'unisex'?
    Finding clothes that fit is a struggle for men too, especially when you're not built like a body builder or a blob.
    You have every right to be outraged, but if you think you're the only one who feels ostracized, you're wrong.

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    Replies
    1. I can see what you mean, especially clothing stores that are created for one specific gender, but that does go both ways ( although probably not as much for men only stores).
      I guess my issue is that this is a website that sells clothing that I really like that they decided it was no longer worth it to stock women's clothing, rather than a store that sells women's clothing that it is highly unlikely a man would want.

      And yeah, I know what you mean about the thin guys having difficulty finding shirts that fit.

      I'm more so annoyed that they changed and tried to make it seem exciting. If this had always been the case, it would be much less of an issue for me.

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