Analyzing a fashion trend's evolutionfrom @ghostinthesam

Transcript

Man repeller is not the same as man repeller. If you've seen that term floating around in recent years and are like, I've seen that before. Let me explain the difference. And then hate my outfits. If you were online in the twenty tens, you probably remember the seminal blog of the same name run by founder Leandra Medine. Its whole ethos was that fashion doesn't exist solely to make you appealing to men, and moreover, it doesn't have to be inherently frivolous. If those feel like unchallenging ideas today, remember this was right at the beginning of lean in pop feminism. And while the recent man repellent trend certainly started with similar idea, I think what's interesting is it's evolved from a tongue tongue in cheek phrase to a literal one. For example, I think if you'd asked Leandra, why do you wanna repel men? She'd say, that isn't really the point per se. It's more to just not concern yourself with their needs when you're getting dressed. Today, I'm seeing too much more literal interpretations of this idea that I find super interesting. One is a strong queer element to it. You might have seen those videos where it's like, I dress rank and men still talk to me. And the answer to why do you wanna repel men, it's literally because I'm not interested in them. The second interpretation, however, is a lot darker and has a lot to do with anxieties around personal safety. So done with men, become the threat, safety core, those videos where a woman acts super weird when she's on her way back from a night out, and I find that really sad and troubling in a way that's really reflective of our culture today. As current cultural brew of misogyny and violence, the answer to why do you wanna repel men has become because if I get unwanted attention from them, I might be in danger.