Internalized misogyny is in itself when women hate one another. The patriarchy has set women up to hate one another rather than to look to the root of the problem, hate from men. Although this issue does not seem to affect the fashion industry from an outside perspective, it does change the way we as women see each other, especially through clothes. Terms such as “basic” may seem normal at surface level but words like this were coined by men to give us reasons to judge each other. I’m sure other girls have found themselves being compared to one another by men, and feeling judged and in constant competition with our female peers. The steady competition staged by men that puts women at constant contention can be seen most clearly via fashion. Dressing up to go out, makes some women feel confident and other women feel shameful. The shame associated with dressing up in more revealing clothes is due to this deeply rooted subtle internalized misogyny that allows for us to feel the need to please men. This is no new issue and has transcended the bounds of time. Back in the early 1900s many women felt the need to cover their heads and not show their hair to not give men any ideas. Women who wore head coverings would judge their female friends who chose not to. Similarly, during the 1960’s dresses were only seen as wearable if they were below the knee. Women who dressed more modestly judged those who did not. Although wearing less and dressing up for ourselves has become more socially acceptable, this problem is perpetuated through social media, and the constant factor, men. Men have taken to tik tok and started trends in which they name the most attractive styles for girls, telling women that they should dress for men. These same people have taken to platforms such as instagram and shamed women for the way that they express their sexuality. Young influencers have been called names, harassed, and ended up harassing one another because of the way that they dress and present themselves. Dressing up nowadays to be alt or different has become a trend because men called us basic. Lululemon and uggs are now not seen as acceptable because they were taken away because us women internalized the judgements of men. Girls use words such as slut and whore against one another to bring each other down, especially in a fashion sense. Dressing up should be for us, it should be because the style means more to us than men. Women need to realize that men have juxtaposed us against one another for centuries via fashion. To all the girls reading this I can bet that you have been called basic, or a try hard, or too lazy, or slutty with your fashion, and not by men, but by each other. This is the sad reality of what happens when men seem to get away with silently putting us at contention. Fashion trends such as corsets and fishnet are being used by modern women to take back their sexuality in ways they did not have before. Women are using trends that men put them in to claim back what is theirs. Girls need to now more than ever wake up to what men have gotten away with for too long. I myself have called other girls basic, I have been called basic, I have also judged my female peers based on what they wear and I am not proud, but the first step in recognizing the subconscious internalized misogyny that we all hold as women in the modern world, is to realize the prejudices we have in the fashion industry. All and all the steps we can take as women to start recognizing our inner misogyny is catching ourselves when we start to think negatively of other based on their outwards appearance, we can dress up in what we like and normalize all different kinds of fashion, and we can take trends that men have used to objectify us and use them to reclaim power that we did not always have.
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