The Other Side of Male Dominance: Prohibition of Pants 15
The Other Side of Male Dominance: Prohibition of Pants 15

Author(s): Zeynep Özlem Üskül Engin, Dolunay Çörek Akyıldız
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Psychology, Essay|Book Review |Scientific Life, General Reference Works, Geography, Regional studies, Library and Information Science, Sociology
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Gender; law; freedom of dress; prohibition of pants; female body
Summary/Abstract: The paternalist mentality has tried to be revealed as a result of gender studies and has been criticized by feminists. Due to the “deficiencies” and “difficulties” of the woman’s body, the doors of the outside world were closed to her. This separation, which begins as soon as she is born, is a situation of marginalization that a woman will see and experience throughout her life. The clothes of nuns can be given as an example: In order to curb the body’s desires, the nuns’ clothing was aimed at reflecting the body based on decay, as a result of following an attitude that went as far as hating it. Recognition of freedom of dress will mean the removal of control over the female body. For this reason, the paternalist mentality that holds the politics in its hands has imposed bans on women wearing the trousers. This subject, which is at the intersection of law and gender, has been examined in this study. The effect of the gender rules that caused the prohibition of pants on the control of the female body was investigated, and then the prohibition of pants imposed on women in certain countries were examined in a chronological way. The study does not claim to bring the prohibition of pants under a holistic historical examination. In general, some historical examples are given with the emphasis on masculine domination. For Turkey, the problem was investigated on the basis of 1970 and later years. The place of the trousers ban in our country in the legislation was examined and the discussions on the abolition of the trousers ban were included in the parliamentary minutes. The ultimate aim of the study is to reveal the social struggle of women for the freedom to wear trousers.

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