719: Below the Belt with Eleanor Medhurst

Lez Hang Out | A Lesbian Podcast

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that wants to know if you wear Docs, Crocs, or Birkenstocks.

This week Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Eleanor Medhurst (@dressingdykes), lesbian fashion historian and author of both the blog Dressing Dykes and the soon-to-be-released book, Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion, to talk about lesbian, and more broadly, queer, fashion throughout the ages. Although often subtle to the heterosexual observer, the decision to dress in a way that pushes the envelope on what is considered acceptable is one that queer people have made time and time again, often at great risk to their personal safety. As times and laws regarding acceptable dress have changed, queer fashion has followed suit, making it possible for historians like Eleanor to track these changes through recorded history.

Fashion provides a rather useful historical record of queerness, shifting over time to reflect the ever-moving needle of societal acceptability. The modern lesbian uniform of “Docs, Crocs, and Birkenstocks”, flannels, beanies, and carabiners did not just crop up one day out of nowhere, but instead developed out of a necessity for queer people to both flag themselves as outside of the norm and to find one another in an otherwise heteronormative world. Nowadays, lesbians in many areas of the world have the opportunity to dress however they would like, whether that be more masculine, androgynous, feminine or all over the spectrum. Sadly, not very long ago, that was simply not the case. Due to laws like New York’s 3-piece Clothing Law ( which required people to wear at minimum 3 pieces of “correctly-gendered” clothing), queer people of the past had to be extremely cautious of their fashion choices or risk being arrested. This can make it a little more difficult to track queer people through history, as of course, the ones who make more risky fashion choices are often the ones who make it into the history books. Those who fell in line with the laws of the time, typically femmes, were mostly invisible outside of the lens of a more masculine-presenting partner.

In addition to providing a way for queer people to look back and see ourselves represented throughout all of time, fashion is still used in modern media to express things about the characters to the audience. Take Gentleman Jack, for instance. While the show was based on the very real person, Anne Lister, some things were changed about Anne’s fashion to make her more understandable as “outside of society’s norms” to a modern audience. The real Anne Lister never would have worn a top hat on the regular and likely would have worn a more typical bonnet like other women of the time. However, the showrunners did not feel that this look would make Anne stand out quite enough and chose to give her a top hat to more strongly emphasize her masculinity and power.

Eleanor’s book, Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion, will be available beginning June 1st and is available for pre-order now.

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