And such marvelous moderation on the thorny issue of gender and clothes by both you and S! I’ve found the discussion to be very interesting. I love the portrait of Louis XIV in full regalia to make the same point to my students: long curly hair, exposed calves, high-heeled red shoes, yards of lace = masculine?

I also hate the ridiculous names given to clothing, not just because of the gendered notions, but because of the manipulative marketing. A “boyfriend jean” is big and slouchy. If I wanted a bigger and slouchier jean than what I’d normally wear, I’d buy a size up. Or I’d go DIY and actually wear my boyfriend’s jeans! But these jeans are most likely priced higher than the “normal,” non-trendy jean one would normally purchase.

As far as pronouns go, I try to be specific whenever possible. If I don’t know, I tend to use her/she. As a side note to this discussion, I’m an English student, and I’ve read in a few articles/books on writing that “they” is becoming acceptable for use as a singular pronoun in order to avoid gender distinctions. I have mixed feelings about this personally, but it’s an interesting solution.

Also, if I may make a suggestion, another great way to show your students how what we consider masculine/feminine changes would be with some old rock concert clips. The male rock star (Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, etc.)is often used as an example of ultimate masculinity, but in the sixties and seventies men often wore ruffles and flowers.

Monday and Tuesday I inadvertently wore shades of black and white. After those two days I decided to do that the rest of the week and it is much more difficult than I would have expected!

Your all black and white outfit looks amazing, but I challenge you to try and do it for a full week. It really has put me in a sort of down/calm mood the whole week.

Looking good, as always!