FASHION IN FEMINISM

How women’s movements in the last century have used fashion to change the world

Over the last 100 years fashion has been used by feminists as a symbol of their fight for female rights in numerous women’s movements globally. From the coloured sash of the suffragettes uniting women for the first time, to the burning of an item that oppresses females in abiding to the male gaze. But feminism is more than a ‘We Should All Be Feminists’ top sprawled across the runway, and it’s definitely more than fast-fashion brands taking advantage of women’s movements for its own profits by bulk producing tops emblazoned with the words ‘Girl Power’.

From something as simple as a DIY hat to a small but powerful pin worn at an awards ceremony, when chosen carefully fashion can be used as a powerful tool to start a revolution. From shattering gender boundaries to fighting inequality in the work place –– Like a Girl Magazine uncovers the most powerful examples of how women’s movements have used fashion to unite people in the fight for female and human rights.

Replica from the Museum of London

THE SUFFRAGETTES

It has been over 100 years since women were first allowed to vote in a general election, a revolution deemed the first step towards equality for women that was fought and won by the Suffragettes. Although subtle, fashion played a crucial role in the Suffragette movement, which led to the colours that were associated with the fight for the vote for women to be stocked in Selfridges and Liberty at the height of the protests.

The movement was led by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel, Sylvia and Adela. Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union, which would later be better known as the Suffragettes, with a mission of fighting for women’s right to the vote. Pankhurst was determined to achieve the right for all women after witnessing the first fight for suffrage, which was founded by Millicent Fawcett in 1897 and was called the National Union of Women’s Suffrage. But the Suffrage wasn’t making progress fast enough and men in Parliament soon voiced their opinion that women should not have the right to vote as they do not understand how Parliament works. Pankhurst decided to take on the fight with a different approach, one that would spark attention and ensure change would be made.

Emmeline Pankhurst’s daughter Sylvia, who had studied at the Royal College of Art, designed the uniform of the Suffragettes. The colours chosen to represent the women were purple for loyalty and dignity, white for purity and green for hope –– the women were told that the colours were to be worn as a duty and a privilege. The Suffragettes would dress themselves in their smartest clothes at all times, now seen as a tactical sartorial branding technique as a disguise for the women who would resort to violence in order to achieve the vote for women. They aligned themselves with the traditional dress associated with the Edwardian ideals of femininity. They were often seen wearing tailored coats, long skirts, high- collared white blouses and flowery hats with ostrich feather boas, and the purple, white and green sash across their chests emblazoned with the words VOTES FOR WOMEN.

The tactic of hiding in plain sight was mastered by the Suffragettes as the women dressed like the respectable Edwardian women they seemed to be. It was an intelligent disguise that contrasted the actions of the women as many protests ended in violence and imprisonment. The Suffragettes weren’t afraid of going to extreme lengths to fight for what they wanted. They burnt down churches, set off fire bombs at politicians houses, chained themselves to Buckingham palace and one Suffragette named Emily Wilding Davidson even threw herself under the King’s horse at the 1913 Derby, killing herself.

The colours of the Suffragettes held an important message to the members of the WSPU. Over 300,000 women were seen wearing purple, white and green at the first WSPU meeting in Hype Park on June 21, 1908, titled Women’s Sunday. Major retailers, such as Liberty and Debenhams, caught onto the movement of the Suffragettes and would stock clothing and accessories in the infamous colours.

Women who were over 30 and a home-owner achieved the right to vote in 1918, and in 1928 all women over 21 won the right to vote. The three colours that were used by the Suffragettes in the feminist movement for the vote for women became a symbol of the women’s rights movement, uniting women across the country in the fight for equality.

THE BRA BURNERS

It is a well known fact that feminists once burned their bras in an act of resistance in 1968. But what these women were really resisting was different to the myth of the bra burning feminists that has been portrayed in popular culture ever since.

The feminists of the Women’s Liberation Movement dominated the 1960s and 70s, bringing great change to the lives of women and their rights. Before the Women’s Liberation Movement in America women were refused a place at college, weren’t allowed access to a credit card and were denied a mortgage. The feminists who changed all of this would consider themselves second-wave feminists. This wave of feminism would follow on from the achievements of the Suffragettes with an aim of gaining more than just the right to vote for women.

Bra-burning has been seen as a feminist ritual since the protest, which started the misconception that to be a feminist you must burn your bras –– going completely against the mission of the Women’s Liberation Movement and its aim to free women of all the items that oppress them. The protest took place on September 7, 1968, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, outside a convention centre hosting the annual Miss America Pageant. In a press release written by the Women’s Liberation, it was announced that they would “protest the image of Miss America, an image that oppresses women in every area in which it purports to represent us.”

More than 100 women were said to have turned up to protest outside the Miss America Pageant, protesting many injustices against women from the male gaze to the fact that since it’s inception in 1921 there had never been a non-white finalist in the competition. Two decades before the protest, the rule that each contestant must be of good health and of the white race was abandoned, yet there was still only all white winners of the competition. The women’s liberation commented on this issue through the press release, saying, “This has not been for a lack of test-case contestants. There has never been a Puerto Rican, Alaskan, Hawaiian, Mexican-American winner. Nor has there ever been a true Miss American – an American- Indian.”

Although the myth focused around the burning of the bras isn’t entirely incorrect as the feminists were seen throwing them into the bin, the most important item at the protest was actually the bin itself. On the front of the bin were painted on letters that read ‘Freedom Trash Can’. Although bras were thrown in, there were also numerous other items thrown in that relieved women of what they described as “the roles we are all forced to play as women”. Items seen thrown into the Freedom Trash Can included high heels, false eyelashes, bottles of washing up liquid and magazines such as Cosmopolitan and PlayBoy. The ritual falls under the first point out of ten that they announced they would be protesting, which they named, “The degrading mindless-boob-girlie symbol”.

Although bra burning has remained the centrepiece of the protest almost 50-years later, the demonstration by the Women’s Liberation was organised with a much larger and more important agenda than just burning bras. The other points that they would be protesting included, “Racism with Roses”, “The Consumer Con-Game” and “The Irrelevant Crown of the Thrown of Mediocrity... Miss America represents what women are supposed to be: unoffensive, bland, apolitical.” The feminists involved created change for women in America and around the world as second-wave feminism spread globally in a fight for gender equality.

Although the term bra burners is often used as a negative phrase to dismiss feminists, the women throwing their bras into the burning bin were more concerned about their protest for freedom, which put them on the map and highlighted the inequalities that they were determined the fight.

March in Washington, courtesy of Pussyhat

THE PUSSY HAT

On January 21, 2017, a sea of protesters flooded the streets of Washington D.C. in vibrant pink Pussyhats as part of the first Women’s March. The protest had been specifically scheduled to take place the day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, in protest of comments made by him that were seen as anti-women. The march also stood for LGBTQ rights, racial equality, reproductive rights and immigration reform. The pink Pussyhats were a symbol of solidarity, representing female and human rights through a collective, bold and loud visual statement.

The Pussyhat Project was founded by Krista Such and Jayna Zweiman on November 23, 2016, in anticipation of the Women’s March where they hoped that protesters would wear them to represent their support of women’s rights. They chose the hat to be a vibrant pink colour as it’s the colour that is ascribed to femininity, and the founders decided to use this controversial colour in an attempt to take back ownership of pink and create a powerful statement. The word pussy was used in the name for numerous reasons: the hat is in the shape of cat ears and so the founders liked the idea of Pussyhat rhyming with pussy cat. The name also refers to the Access Hollywood recording of Donald Trump saying, “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful –– I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

The statement made by the soon-to-be president outraged many people, for good reason, including the founders of the Pussyhat Project who decided to act against the horrendous phrase used by Trump. Jayna Zweiman wrote on her blog, “Pussyhat is about speaking up for body anatomy and fighting against abuses of power.”

Krista has since left the Pussyhat Project, leaving Jayna as the Executive Director. What started as people either wearing Pussyhats in solidarity or knitting them for others to wear quickly grew into a symbol of equality. The hat has been featured on the cover of TIME magazine and the seas of pink are still visible at the Women’s March in 2019.

The now executive director of the Pussyhat project, Jayna Zweiman, said that the “Pussyhat Project is a movement, not a moment.” But the project has faced criticism in the last year as many protesters and feminists have ditched the hat due to it being exclusive of transgender and non-binary people, especially the association of pink and pussy in the name and style of the hat, with many demanding a more diverse design.

TIME’S UP PIN

At the Golden Globes last year actors arrived at the awards ceremony in solidarity, dressed in all black and wearing a white and black Times Up pin to show support for those who have experienced sexual misconduct at work. The Time’s Up initiative was created by female actors, artists, executives, directors, producers and writers in the entertainment industry when several hundreds of them began to meet to discuss how they could prevent abuse and fight for equality for women in their industry.

Time’s Up is described on its website as being “born out of the need to turn pain into action”. Members include Reese Witherspoon, Eva Longoria, Natalie Portman, Emma Stone and several hundred others. On January 1, 2018, the Time’s Up Legal Defence Fund was launched, housed and administered by the National Women’s Law Centre, to help less privileged women to pursue action against the sexual misconduct they have experienced in the workplace. The fund is backed by donations made by the members of Time’s Up and has a mission of making sure that every person is safe at work. But the Time’s Up members have made it clear that safety alone is far from the end goal, which is to fight the imbalance of power in the workplace, wherever you work. They declared “we won’t stop fighting until there is gender balance in leadership and all women have the opportunity to reach their full potential at work.”

In the year since the Legal Defence Fund launched there have been more than 3,800 women and men from all 50 states of America reach out for help. The fund was created after the members of Time’s Up realised that they had an opportunity –– and a responsibility –– to create change for women in the work place globally, and so they started to think beyond Hollywood and the entertainment industry. The Time’s Up Legal Defence Fund has supported many people in raising their voices against sexual misconduct at work. In 2018 it supported over 10 women working at McDonald’s around America as they filed sexual harassment complaints. This led to the first multi-state strike on sexual harassment in the history of the U.S. when workers in 10 cities walked out during the lunch rush in protest.

The Time’s Up logo can be bought on t-shirts, bags and the Golden Globes pin on its website, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Time’s Up initiative. The black and white logo represents progress in the workplace for women since it was created just over a year ago, as the conversation surrounding sexual harassment gets louder and the abuse of power by those in leadership positions comes with consequences never faced before. Time’s Up is powered by strong, determined and hard working women who wont stop until they achieve equality in the workplace. Giving women equality opportunities at work will lead to more diverse leaders in charge, in the hope that the abuse of power that has been accepted for far too long will end and Time’s Up will achieve its goal of making sure every person feels safe at work.