The 4th issue of The Critical Pulse Magazine featured an article I wrote titled, "Why is Unisex Clothing so Masculine?". My argument ended in an open note, stating that even now when we have male celebrities and other influential persons being portrayed on frontpages in dresses, wearing gowns on the red carpet or skirts in music videos, there is still a long way to go before the common person will be able to wear what they wish (specifically concerning men wearing dresses, skirts, etc.). (1)
Luckily, I have been introduced to people taking a stance against the binary heteronormative norms that today’s fashion is based on. People who are trying to de-gender fashion or adapt a unisex/genderless way of dressing and being fashionable. One of those people is Dylan Cawthorne, a professor at SDU in Odense.
As of now he has planned three, and executed two, fashion events focused on inspiring, challenging, and getting people to converse on the issue of gender and fashion. The first event “Men in Skirts” was held back in 2020, the second “Fashion Freedom” last year, and this summer’s upcoming event is called “Fashion Freedom Fest”.
All the events have functioned as an interactive exhibition, where the audience had a big role to play, as they become part of the exhibition. The events have focused on breaking stereotypical ideas of fashion, the fashionable, gender binary norms, freedom, identity, and a creative playfulness with clothing. The idea originated with “Men in Skirts,” based on his own experience of moving to Denmark, working at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) and occasionally wearing dresses or skirts to work. This sparked the idea to invite other people to a collaborative experience, where they could try on different clothing and discuss gender norms and how they influence our fashion choices.
Dylan Cawthorne – Engineer, award winner, and proud dress-wearer
Dylan Cawthorne is an engineer and associate professor at SDU. His daily work is concerned with ethics and the social environment, working on projects to improve and better life for the people using his engineering skills in drones; such as mapping countries in Africa. He also happens to be a cis-gender straight man wearing dresses and skirts in his everyday life because this is how he feels comfortable and most like himself. This is how he became interested in the topic of gender and fashion, which led him to create the exhibitions/events. Although his daily academic work is not concerned with fashion, he acknowledges that everything we do has an ethical component, and ideally our work should improve conditions socially, economically, and environmentally as everything is connected.
Just last year, in 2021, he won the TEK Inspiration award for his contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. To learn more about the prize and Dylan’s achievements check out the video presentation interview he gave after winning the prize. (2) As Dylan puts it:
" I occasionally wear skirts to work and to hang out with my friends. I think skirts are cool from a fashion standpoint, because they give a new shape that men do not usually wear in real life (only in fashion shows). I think that many men could be afraid to wear a skirt, because it would call their masculinity into question. But I think that being secure in yourself and trying new things is a healthy form of masculinity. My personal belief is that a gender binary is much too simplistic to capture the complexity of real people, and I am not scared to be associated with the "feminine." So far, I have had a lot of looks, but also a lot of positive experiences wearing a skirt." (3)
Men in Skirts – event of 2020
The 2020 project aimed to question gender norms through an interactive art exhibit by blurring the lines between the binary perception of gender. It took place on August 14, 2020 and consisted of spontaneous interaction between the audience and the exhibit. Attendees could pick from over 40 second-hand skirts to try on and keep them if they wanted to. The attendees became an active part of the exhibition, as seen in this video from the event. One thousand DKK (around 205 Canadian Dollars) was raised and donated to the White Ribbon charity in Canada which promotes healthy masculinity. (3)
Fashion Freedom – event of 2021
Last year’s event, which took place on the 13th of August, 2021, aimed to engage with everyone and their clothing, and to provoke gender norms through an interactive art exhibit. Prior to the event, participants were asked:“how would you dress if no one was judging you?”. This thought experiment was perhaps the most important aspect of the artwork. At the exhibition, participants engaged in spontaneous interactions with one another, including discussing their chosen wardrobe and the thought process behind it. Consequently, the participants were the exhibit. After the event, participants could continue to reflect on their wardrobe choices - and if they take full advantage of their fashion freedom. (3)
Fashion Freedom Fest – the upcoming event in 2022
Featuring Markus "derModemuth" an Instagram influencer who frequently shares pictures of wearing kilts, skirts, and dresses as his everyday outfit, dermodemuth is a wordplay in German, meaning der=the, mode=fashion, muth= (1) old German spelling for Mut=courage and (2) his family name.This upcoming event is set for the August 12, 2022 (4). More details of the event will follow, but it promises to be a fun experience of creativity, identity, and playing with one’s idea of what fashion is.
Stay updated on the event on Dylan’s exhibitions/events website, Men in Skirts.
TedxOdense
If you cannot wait for the event this summer, check out Dylan’s TEDxOdense Talk on May 30, 2022. Tickets are available through their website. (5)
Resources
[1]. Jäger, Sandra Rosenkranz. Why is Unisex Clothing so Masculine? The Critical Pulse. 1 september 2021, pp. 16-19. [2]. TEK SDU - Ingeniøruddannelserne på SDU. TEK Prizes 2021 - TEK Inspiration Prize. Youtube. [Online] September 20, 2021. [Cited: May 9, 2022.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9U6QJfe62k&ab_channel=Ingeni%C3%B8ruddannelsernep%C3%A5SDU. [3]. Cawthorne, Dylan. Home. Meninskirts. [Online] 2022. [Cited: 9 May 2022.] https://www.meninskirts.dk/. [4]. "Modemuth", Markus. dermodemuth. Instagram. [Online] 2022. https://www.instagram.com/dermodemuth/. [5]. TEDxOdense. Home. TedxOdense. [Online] 2022. [Cited: 9 May 2022.] https://tedxodense.com/.
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