Feminine dress functions as self-decoration, offering the wearer up as merchandise

Evidence

Nothing is less natural than dressing like a woman; no doubt masculine clothes are also artificial, but they are more comfortable and simple and made to favor action rather than impede it; George Sand and Isabelle Eberhardt wore men’s suits; Thyde Monnier in her last book spoke of her predilection for wearing trousers; all active women like flat shoes and sturdy clothes. The meaning of feminine attire is clear: it is a question of decoration, and decorating oneself is offering oneself; heterosexual feminists were formerly as intransigent as lesbians on this point: they refused to make themselves merchandise on display, they wore suits and felt hats; fancy low-cut dresses seemed to them the symbol of the social order they were fighting. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1078

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Addison’s ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ — feminine adornment as display/offering-of-self is the same economic-sexual logic behind historical sumptuary panics; could be cross-referenced. — connects to: For a woman, dress functions as economic currency and social standing. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1567; Women believe dress grants access to both the world and an idealized self; Dressing for display makes women dependent on others’ recognition for self-worth — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1582 (+3 more)
• DEFINE: Defines feminine attire’s social function as decoration/offering rather than comfort or utility.

Broader Connections

• For a woman, dress functions as economic currency and social standing. #expands (0.92) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1567
• Dressing for display makes women dependent on others’ recognition for self-worth #expands (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1582
• Dress lets the idle woman believe she is recreating her own self. #expands (0.88) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1551
• Women believe dress grants access to both the world and an idealized self #expands (0.85)
• Even self-directed feminine adornment requires an external gaze #complicates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1574
• Narcissistic self-fashioning lets woman express personality without being beautiful #complicates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1800