[Today’s donation was to Black Girls Code. Click here to see my Pride & Joy Project 2020 Daily Donations List.]
Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short, wear shirts and boots, because it’s OK to be a boy, but for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, because you think that being a girl is degrading. But secretly you’d love to know what it’s like, wouldn’t you? What it feels like for a girl?
Ian McEwan, The Cement Garden
I’m so sick and tired of seeing Superman and Batman and Captain America and Black Panther and Iron Man and Spider-Man logos on shirts for both men and women, but when it comes to female heroes like Wonder Woman, there are very limited options in men’s apparel. Looks like McEwan’s quote (said by Julie, one of his characters in the book) is true even when it comes to heroes.
I’m even more irritated when I see men’s shirts with overtly sexualized images of female heroes on them. Like the only way a guy can have a drawing of a woman on his shirt is if she’s objectified. Fuck that.
The comic-book industry was/is incredibly sexist, and some of us worship problematic people and creators like Stan Lee. (No, I’m never going to forgive Lee for that sexist garbage Stripperella.)
In March 2017, the comic-book-fashion company, The Hero Within, launched a denim jacket for men with Wonder Woman logo stitched on the back yoke, and it received some flack from both men and women. But the jacket itself was sold out in my size (I wear outerwear men’s size S) when I first heard about it sometime in September of that year, otherwise I’d have bought it.
Honestly, 85% of my clothes are women’s (used to be 98% up till when I was in college because I was really skinny and men’s clothes were too big for me). This blue Wonder Woman sleeveless top is definitely women’s, since it flares quite a bit at the bottom. I didn’t buy this one. One of my good friends visited Los Angeles last summer and went to Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. He stayed with during the visit and he knew I loved Wonder Woman, so he got me this blue top from the tour.
This sleeveless top has become a staple of my wardrobe back when I still went to HIIT bootcamp before the Covid-19 pandemic forced it to close (it’s been three months now). I love how airy and lightweight this top is. It keeps me cool during my workouts. And I’m not gonna lie: the fact that this is a woman’s shirt (with a Wonder Woman logo) makes me feel more feminine and empowered.