Why cant I wear that?

By: Karla Duck, Jonathan Abazan, Daniel Garcia, Stephanie Knutson

Date: April, 2016

I.

Introduction

Our problem is that we sometimes let the judgement of others get the best of us and affect
the way we express ourselves and how we view others, but we shouldnt let other peoples
opinion affect us. In todays society we are influenced by the media, our peers, and even our own

family members. Despite our improvement over the years, we are still told what is acceptable
to wear based on our gender, and what is in. Raising awareness is a starting point to solving
this issue. It is important to start opening up people's mind and start changing their mind set on
the topic. By doing this, we hope our society starts to realize that they should not let others
influence their way of thinking. Throughout this proposal you will learn about our video, as well
as the process we will go through to make it. The history of clothing, and the effects it has on us,
and also the solution in which we would like to break free from this stereotype. We will start by
talking about the history of our problem, why it is interesting, when and why it occurs, and what
the impact of the stereotype is. We will then move on to talking about what our video will be
about and what this project will achieve, what we will be needing in order to complete it, what
will be some challenges, why our project is unique, and what the call to action is. Next will be
our project timeline and our solutions to this issue.
II.

Motivation

We chose this issue because the reaction people usually get when the way they dress does
not meet societys standards is a bad one. Clothing has and is still being used to express ones
social standing. What is in are the trends that are viewed as socially acceptable marking
people as either belonging or as being outcasts. Because of this, one can expect staring and
whispering if a guy wears a dress, and it is viewed as unacceptable because its girl clothing.
This all started in the mid 1800s when cities started legislating what type of clothing individuals
could wear based on their sex. Various laws were established prohibiting people from wearing
the dress of the opposite sex statewide. Columbus, Ohio, was one of the earliest that instituted
this law in 1848. More than 40 U.S. cities created laws limiting the clothing people were allowed
to wear in public in the decades that followed (PBS). According to Susan Stryker, an associate
professor of Gender and Womens Studies at the University of Arizona, the laws in the 1850s
represented a new development specific to gender presentation.
More progress has and is being made towards women in what used to be a man's world,
but there has been little progress made for men. It is more acceptable for a woman to operate in a
male atmosphere than vice versa. Moreover, we are pressured to fit the mold that has been set in
front of us by those who surround us. More ideas get formed that people are either trying to
avoid or live up to. Ideas of how they are "supposed" to be, act, or look. It forces people to feel
as if there are standards they must meet. This happens everyday and the reason why is simple.
We want to fit in; we dont want to be judged. However, whether we mean to or not, we judge
people and make assumptions based on their appearance. Most of the time we even stare at
people who look different, and we cant stop ourselves from doing that. Even so, it does not give
us the right to make fun of them, or exclude them, or tell them that they should not look and
dress the way they do. Sadly this problem is not even close to being solved. Even though
awareness of people wearing the opposite genders clothe is ok is being raise, it will take lots of
time for people to accept those who look different, but by continuing to raise awareness and

informing people of this problem, it can help speed up things a little. How the world changes is
with the non-normal, people that are creative, they think of the next thing that will be good to
do/dress. If people agree with our video idea then hopefully people would be more acceptable to
the changes that are going on even if they dont see to be normal.
III.

Project Summary

After looking through videos on this topic, we found that there were a few similar videos
out there, but instead of their focus being on clothing, they mostly focus on on role switching
(how a men or women looks and acts and what they do), kids views on girls toys and boys
toys, or interview with kids about gender roles. There are also other videos out there on little
boys dressing like a girl and how people react to that, or a male adult crossdressing and walking
around the city, but there arent any videos like the one we will be making. I think because our
topic has yet to be thoroughly discussed or brought to the attention of the public on a global
standpoint, we already have an advantage. I also think that in order to make our video stand out,
we have to ask questions that really get people thinking.
For our project, we will be interviewing kids from different grades in High Tech
Elementary. We will be asking them a series of questions and asking them if they want to dress
as the opposite gender, if they are willing to, if they do not want to cross dress then we would ask
why they didnt. The kids will be split evenly gender wise and asked a series of questions on how
they feel, what their thoughts are, and if they would wear the outfit out in public. Also what their
definition of girl clothes and guy clothes are. The project will take place inside of the conference
room in the forum and we will be bringing in the kids one by one. Afterwards, the same
questions will be asked to different kids as a whole group to see how different they respond to
each question knowing theres pressure on them from their classmates.
IV.

Project Details
Setting up the Environment

We will interview children from High Tech Elementary, revolving around children of
grades 3rd - 5th. These kids and our expert contact will be the actors. We chose these age
groups specifically because we feel that there is a certain point in which society starts to
manipulate our opinions, and we feel it would be interesting to see how early it starts. The
interviews will take place in the conference room at High Tech Elementary.
Our video is intended for people of all ages. We want to show how we alter our
appearance and act differently around people in order to fit in. Our break free moment is
intended to be after the kids choose what they wear, and they explain to us why they chose it,
showing why it is we dont choose to look certain ways. We think it will be really powerful to

see at what age the children start worrying about their appearance, and other peoples opinions on
it. For all of this to happen, the equipment we will be needing is a camera with a microphone and
a stand to go with it, kids clothes, lighting if we need to film inside, plastic hangers for each one
of the outfits, and the program we will be using to make the video edits is final cut pro because
we are all familiar with it.
Expert Contact :
We chose these contacts specifically because we were looking for somebody who
specializes in how society shapes us as a person. The expert contacts we chose are the Social
Cognition Lab, and the Human Development Program, both at USCD. We felt that they would
have good insight on why and how our minds develop as we get older, and how they are affected
by the world around us.
UC San Diego Department of Psychology(Human Development Program)
Phone:
(858) 534-9919
Location:
5320 Applied Physics $ Mathematics Building
5th Floor, Muir College
Winkielman Lab (Social Cognition lab at UCSD)
Lab address:
3125 McGill Hall
Department of Psychology
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive #0109
La Jolla, CA 92093-0109
Lab phone: 858-534-1022
Implementation Issues and Challenges
One of the main challenges we might face is getting the children to feel comfortable
expressing themselves, without the fear of being judged by their peers. As well as seeing their
reaction to the questions that we ask. We want the children to be as comfortable around us as
possible, which is why we will be filming them individually at first. However, we do believe that
it will all work out in the end. We also believe that because this is a topic we can all relate to, it
will be able to catch the audience's attention. This is an issue that is not acted upon. It is
important to discuss this topic because it has to do with self confidence. I think we are evolving

as a society but one of the main things we still struggle with is the fear of being judged based on
your appearance and dressing not for others but for ourselves.
Deliverables
Our project will produce a better understanding on how we as a society judge others and
find the way certain people dress socially unacceptable due to events that happened in history.
Our video would show how in our society today, it is more acceptable for a woman to operate in
a male atmosphere than a man working in a woman atmosphere, and how this idea starts at a
young age. Our video helps act upon the issue. Our goal is for the viewers to open up their mind
to the idea of everybody feeling free to dress how they want, regardless of their gender and
everyones opinions. We should not care about what other people think of us, but we do. We
cant openly look how we want to look because we wont fit in, because it does not meet
societys standards. However, this should not matter, we should not expect stares and whispers.
We should be able to look how we want to without people criticising us.
The way we look or dress should express the way we feel or the way we want people to
see us. It is not about fitting in it is about feeling and expressing oneself on to the view of
others. If social media tells people what is cool and what is not, then people would feel confused.
If someone wants to feel like they are accepted by other people they first have to accept
themselves, because people's opinions are their own but yours are the ones that matter the most
to you.
Today, social media is the best way to get noticed. When we have our final product we
will share links on all of our social media pages and tell our friends and family to watch it, and
share it as well. We think that this way would work because usually what happens in social
media is that when people see something they really like they too will share the video.
Timeline
Week 1: Talk to the children from High Tech Elementary about our project/video idea,
and ask them if they would be willing to participate in our video. We will set up the dates with
the teachers, and provide permission slips for the children that are interested. The day after we
will go back to their school and gather the permission slips from the kids. We will come back the
next day incase some of the kids forget their permission slips.
Week 2: Collect all materials needed in order to film. Set up the camera and gather the
kids outside of the conference room. We will proceed to record the third graders at the forum
conference room in the elementary school individually.

Week 3: Import the recording into the computer and work on it as a group, we will go
back to get some more footage if needed.
Week 4: Make final edits and call to action.
V.

Conclusion

Our video will show kids being asked to dress in clothing of the opposite gender. We will
capture the authentic reactions of the children and hopefully capture the age in which we start to
become victims of society. We let other people's opinions lower our self esteem, and we tend to
start trying to fit ourselves in a mold that is unrealistic, and impossible to fill. All in all our
project is about breaking free from the roles society has given us based on our gender, this is why
we chose this topic to work on. As a society, we like to make others feel negatively about
themselves because it makes us feel better about ourselves. We like to express ourselves in many
ways and appearance is one way; it just so happens that it is one of the main details people notice
about you. Our video is about broadening perspectives, helping people realize the power that we
hold as individuals to start making a change, and allowing everybody to be who they are without
the fear of getting attacked by others. We believe that this can be achieved if we start raising
awareness. We will begin the process of teaching people to be less judgmental of others, and
allow them to feel comfortable in their own skin.
VI.

References/Cited Research

"Arresting Dress: A Timeline of Anti-cross-dressing Laws in the United States." PBS. PBS. Web.
26 Apr. 2016.
"Women in Pants, Men in Dresses: A Societal Double Standard." The Anarres Project. 2015.
Web. 26 Apr. 2016.

"Fashion, Dress, and Gender." : Berg Fashion Library. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.