In December my Social Justice group and I interview a “feminist” designer named Suzanne Rae. Suzanne Rae spoke to us about how she views clothing. She began by explaining to us that her “feminist” designs were made to create an experience. She explained that clothing is a “visual language” and that it is something we can all relate to. This really resonated with me because I have never thought about that idea. As we went deeper into this idea, I was able to understand what she meant. When a person wears a certain style or piece of clothing it makes a statement. Clothing is a way of expressing yourself without saying a word. Although we spoke about how clothing represents a part of you, we don’t mean that one should judge a girl or women, by her clothing. We must pay attention to every detail. One can’t say that a girl or women is a “slut” or “whore” because she is wearing a mini skirt (for example). Many of us fail to realize that women wear mini skirts (for example) because they are very proud of their legs. We often forget that we must look at the whole picture. We also discussed slut shaming, which also relates to what I said in the previous sentence. While discussing this we realized that it is a very warped concept. What a person wears does not make them a “slut” or “whore”, and one should not call a person a “slut” or “whore” because it diminishes that person, and no one deserves that treatment, especially from a person who they don’t know. We also spoke of the idea of confidence and how is comes from you, and how some show confidence through clothing. An example of this is the idea of the corset. She told us that many years ago it was used as a restricting tool, but now it’s worn to be used as a form of empowerment. I found this very interesting because women have found ways to make some thing that is meant to be restricting and turn it into a empowering thing. I found this interview very inspiring because this interview taught me a lot about the idea of “not judging a book by its cover” and how if that happens to you it shouldn’t be taken to heart because people only have opinions of what they know, and at that moment all they know is what you look like.
