Trends Guys Hate AKA I Don't Give a Fuck

                There have been a lot of articles circling the internet lately regarding the things women wear that apparently every man despises. If you’ve had the pleasure of reading one of these, you probably noticed that it includes pretty much everything we wear. UGG boots, yoga pants, red lipstick, beanies, bandeaus, fake nails, high waists, high heels, hair bows, oversized sweaters, hi-low dresses, leggings, dramatic makeup, skinny jeans, cut-off tanks. If we were only trying to please guys with our clothes, half of every women’s clothing store would be off limits.

                It’s like people are incapable of imagining women dressing in clothes they like. Because obviously only male approval can make us feel good about ourselves. It’s also a sign of how heteronormative our society is that we automatically assume a girl dresses according to the attention she wants to receive from men. Because she obviously doesn’t want to attract a person of any other gender, right?

                Now let’s talk about how there’s no female equivalent of the male gaze. Are there hundreds of articles in the mainstream about the things guys wear that women hate? No. Because men aren’t expected to dress to attract women. They wear stupid t-shirts and ill-fitting jeans and gross worn-out sneakers and nobody says a word. Guys who do dress to impress girls are usually assumed to be gay because it’s not manly to care about your appearance. I mean if you can’t impress a girl with your pure strength and dominance, does it even count?

                Personally, when I put on red lipstick I’m not thinking about how it might dissuade a guy from wanting to kiss me. I’m not thinking about how it might make me look like an old woman. I’m thinking: hmmm, I really want my lips to be red today. When I wear skinny jeans I’m not thinking about whether guys can see the entire outline of my legs. I’m not thinking they might show off some curves guys might not appreciate too much. I’m thinking of comfort, or how the bottoms won’t drag on the sidewalk. Sometimes I’ll even wear things that I know won’t bring me any attention from guys because I’m just not interested.

                Sometimes we dress to impress other girls, even when we’re heterosexual. After all, who’s going to be the one to compliment our new shirt? Unless it’s a band t-shirt or pop culture reference, it’s probably not going to be a boy. It’ll probably be a fellow woman.

                But the truth is girls mostly dress for themselves. We want to feel good about ourselves when we step outside. Clothes and makeup give us the opportunity to create whatever image we want for ourselves. They give us ways to emphasize aspects that we love about ourselves and hide those that we’re maybe not so fond of. Guys, do us a favor and stop assuming everything we do is for your viewing pleasure. And accept that maybe, just maybe, girls have desires and preferences of their own.

((Hey friends. It’s come to my attention that a lot of my posts play heavily into the gender binary because when talking about gender inequality, it’s easy to divide it into 2 groups: boys and girls. This is because most of society’s rules about gender disregard anything outside of that binary. I’m going to try to be more conscious of this in the future because any feminism that isn’t intersectional is bullshit, but for the record, when I say women, I mean anyone who identifies as that gender, regardless of sex parts. Stay rad, pals, and wear that red lipstick proud.))