REDEFINING MASCULINITY THROUGH THE POWER OF FASHION
From women being like “why should boys have all the fun?” to men wondering “why don’t we all have equal fun?”, some men have encouraged themselves to equalize with women and empower each other in every way possible. On the journey towards achieving gender equality, both men and women have come to realize that it’s just not enough to empower women but also the need to discard the toxic stereotypes attached to masculinity. After decades of just being taught about sexism, misogyny, and “alpha male” behavior, and being kept distant from emotions, now some men have understood that emoting and being feminine is not a weakness at all. Therefore, amidst changing gender dynamics and accepting all kinds of women dressing and grooming practices, male grooming has also evolved into its own being. Various men like Siddharth Batra, Ankush Bahuguna, Shantanu Dhope, and Deep Pathare have tried to overcome the restrictions associated with the clothing and styles for men.
Among the bunch of guys who have been overly hairy and beastly all their lives, there are men who have to tend to bring a transformation and make manscaping mainstream just like getting a wax job among women. Now the attraction and intimacy towards a hairless individual isn’t just one way, instead, it has started to emerge among both the genders for each other. While talking about hair, discussing the massive leap in the men’s hairstyle also stands significant. Women with messy hair bun don’t only appeal to men nowadays, but even a man buns and ponytails also pin women towards men.
Earlier, a man painting his woman’s nails or toenails was considered sexy, but now he’s asking her to paint his nails. Not just nail paints, even the makeup for men has also observed a huge revolution but it is voluntary among men to an extent. Basically, it’s just an option which one can take or leave as he finds it fit to fine-tune his appearance. With a voluntary choice, many men have become outspoken about wearing makeup and they experiment with some sort of makeup application approach which brings a different perspective to society. Being fond of flawless skin as equally as women, many men love to use foundation, concealer, brow filler, bronzer and lip balm, etc.
In this series of equalizing feminine and masculinity, some part of the population has come in term with living more like human beings and drop the gender mask. Besides, makeup and hair, men have also found their own way to pull off women's outfits with equal grace as the women themselves do. Just like normalizing women wearing pants, men with courage and confidence have come forward to detach the clothing from gender prejudice by adopting the fashion of skirts and dresses. Though the fashion of “lungi”, “dhoti”, “kilt”, etc., the traditional skirts of men have been quite prevalent since ancient times, men wearing actual skirts are considered to be quite controversial. Leaving behind the fear of controversies and masculinity limit men’s well-being and potential, men have not only started to wear skirts and dresses but have also started to pair their clothing with accessories other than cuff links, sunglasses, and wristwatches. Some of their reformed accessories include scarves and suspenders, bracelets of earthy materials and man purse, etc.
However, we might not have achieved absolute gender equality but we cannot deny that we have achieved some part of it, especially in terms of fashion trends. As many a little makes a mickle, the recent verdict by the Supreme Court of India for decriminalizing homosexuality is also a major milestone for LGBTQ-identifying people across the country, where homosexuality remains a social taboo and gay people face endemic discrimination. Not just this but recently we also witnessed fashion and entertainment magazine Cosmopolitan India announcing the above-mentioned men as winners of awards belonging to some quite exceptional categories. With the positive happening of such events, we can be optimistic about breaking gender stereotypes and achieving absolute gender equality in the future.
