Donald Trump seems to often be concerned with the way those around him look, which is funny for a guy who can’t seem to buy a well-fitting suit and keeps his too-long tie together with tape. He reportedly chose his staff based on their “look,” has a long history of being involved in women’s beauty contests, and now has apparently told his female staff that they need to “dress like women” if they’re going to represent him.
Never mind that it’s been socially acceptable for women to wear pants for nearly a century, unnamed sources say Trump told staffers that men need to wear ties and women need to namely wear dresses to “dress like women.”
Whether the claim is true or not, women have been responding on Twitter with #DressLikeAWoman, posting images of women protesting and resisting in dresses, and being their badass selves in pants.
My late mother, Patricia Stephens Due, arrested during a civil rights demonstration in Florida in 1963. #DressLikeaWoman #Resist pic.twitter.com/K6tXpLvZUo
— Tananarive Due – The Reformatory (@TananariveDue) February 3, 2017
#dresslikeawoman Katharine Hepburn when harangued about not wearing a skirt: "I’ll wear it to your funeral.” pic.twitter.com/8yz2UvCtX3
— Dubhthaigh Adams (@lizduffyadams) February 3, 2017
https://twitter.com/SchrodngrsTrump/status/827414903019364352
Anna May Wong (1905-1961) certainly knew how to #DressLikeAWoman pic.twitter.com/qMM1FHZP6I
— Nancy Wang Yuen (@nancywyuen) February 3, 2017
Dresse lyke a woman pic.twitter.com/EEGBs4Atem
— Chaucer Doth Tweet (@LeVostreGC) February 3, 2017
https://twitter.com/jrmr126/status/827357401527357441
On a related note, high heels, wigs, and makeup are not just women dressings and have all historically been used by men. They were also often signifiers of masculinity.