IN his famous 1960 address on the issue of women wearing masculine clothing, Giuseppe Cardinal Siri, then Archbishop of Genoa, noted that when women started wearing trousers they showed that they were viewing femininity as inferior to masculinity. The change in fashions was not a sign of strength or confidence, but of weakness:
In truth, the motive impelling women to wear men’s dress is always that of imitating, nay, of competing with, the man who is considered stronger, less tied down, more independent. This motivation shows clearly that male dress is the visible aid to bringing about a mental attitude of being “like a man.” Secondly, ever since men have been men, the clothing a person wears, demands, imposes and modifies that person’s gestures, attitudes and behavior, such that from merely being worn outside, clothing comes to impose a particular frame of mind inside.
Then let us add that woman wearing man’s dress always more or less indicates her reacting to her femininity as though it is inferiority when in fact it is only diversity. The perversion of her psychology is clear to be seen.
These reasons, summing up many more, are enough to warn us how wrongly women are made to think by the wearing of men’s dress. Read More »