gender reboot

At the beginning of the 1970s the peace movements of the last decade had begun its rapid decline.

Pessimistic people became paranoid of their governments and new political movement started to take effect, women and civil right movements started to gain momentum.

the fashion for psychedelic and hippy styles influence crashed with beginning of the 1970s, in part due to its association with excess and premature deaths of the icons such as Hendrix and Joplin who where icons of the style.

gender neutral styles became prominent, uni-sex hair, matching clothes for couples encouraged by icons such as Lennon and Ono.

Movies also challenged the perception of gender and associated dress, movies like Annie hall which saw Diane Keaton's character dress in traditionally male suits saw female fans adopting Annie signature look of tweeds, khaki trousers, and fedoras.
this movie combined with the womens movement helped to influence women to believe in a new freedom, bras and corsets were discarded as symbols of oppression and conformity

                                           Diane Keaton in Annie Hall (1977)

Rocky horror picture show had men and women dressed in stockings, suspenders, and corsets, blurring what was deemed appropriate and appealed to those who did not fit with conventional society.

hyper sexuality in all its forms where explored in the musical.

Men wore clothes associated with femininity and where proud and unashamed.

as Tim curry's character Dr, Frankenfurter sings

 Don't get strung out by the way I look

Don't judge a book by its cover
I'm not much of a man by the light of day
But by night I'm one hell of a lover
I'm just a sweet transvestite

At first this movie was panned by the critics but soon audiences started to interact with the movies and a cult classic was born.

suddenly a subculture that had remained hidden and elusive became something int he open, this lay way for the next decade and the emergence of mens make up and their exploration into there feminine sides as much as Annie hall influences the tom boy mannerisms of women.

this was the first decade where women and men alike started to enjoys and experiment with there appearance in a non gender form, obscuring the line between masculine and feminine, laying way for such movements as the new romantics in the 80s

                                                  Tim curry in rocky horror picture show (1975)

kerri copeland