A choice among what options?

And speaking of special rules for women – a conversation among some feminists on Twitter brought up the familiar issue of Why is it always women who have to wear the torture shoes or tight lacing or tiny dress in freezing cold?

Jennifer Lawrence has criticized “sexist” media coverage of her fashion choices in a new Facebook post.

The Oscar-winning actor, currently on a press tour for thriller Red Sparrow, responded to comments suggesting that the sleeveless Versace outfit worn during a photocall in London implied that she was being mistreated alongside her coat-wearing male co-stars.

“Wow. I don’t really know where to get started on this ‘Jennifer Lawrence wearing a revealing dress in the cold’ controversy,” she wrote. “This is not only utterly ridiculous, I am extremely offended. That Versace dress was fabulous, you think I’m going to cover that gorgeous dress up with a coat and a scarf? I was outside for five minutes. I would have stood in the snow for that dress because I love fashion and that was my choice.”

An article in Jezebel had the headline, Please Give Jennifer Lawrence a Dang Coat, showing the actor’s co-stars, Joel Edgerton and Jeremy Irons among them, wearing large coats and scarves.

The Red Sparrow photocall in London.

John Phillips/Getty Images

Oh hey, you know what, there’s something else to notice about that photograph. See the tidy symmetry? Two men, then Jennifer Lawrence, then two more men. Oh hey guess what this is yet another movie with a man, a man, a man, a man, and a woman. Any hope it passes the Bechdel test?

But to her point. It’s her choice, she says – but is it, really? On a superficial level maybe it is, maybe nobody told her to wear a glam dress and glam shoes, but realistically, could she have shown up for a photocall dressed exactly the way the men are? Could the men have shown up dressed the way she is?

Come on. There are conventions about these things, and they’re not all that relaxed. Lawrence can dress the way the men are on her own time, but not when she’s doing glam duty on the job. The men cannot dress the way Lawrence is unless they decide to “transition.” It’s not a mere coincidence that the way the men are dressed leaves them able to run if they need to while Lawrence is quite literally hobbled by what she’s wearing. No doubt she does love fashion, but that doesn’t mean we can’t question the norms of what both sexes are allowed or pressured to wear.

11 Responses to “A choice among what options?”