Men dressing up - The male 'suit'

Thinking Allowed

BBC

Society & Culture, Science

4.4 • 997 Ratings

🗓️ 14 September 2016

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The male 'suit': Christopher Breward, Professor of Cultural History at the University of Edinburgh, talks to Laurie Taylor about the myriad forms and meanings of a garment which has dominated men's wardrobes for 400 years. From Saville Row to Wall St; in times of crisis, as well as celebration; the tailored suit is so ubiquitous that we take it for granted, ignoring its complex history and many varieties, including the Zoot Suit and Le Smoking. Although it embodies ideas of traditional masculinity and respectability, it has also been subverted by women, musicians and revolutionaries

Also, men 'dressing up'. Barbara Brownie, a senior lecturer at University of Hertfordshire, explores how, in recent years, the wearing of costumes has become an increasingly masculine pursuit. Through historical re-enactment, superhero 'cosplay', and the personalisation of characters in online games, a new generation of men are taking pleasure in costume. Producer: Jayne Egerton.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a Thinking Aloud Podcast from the BBC and for more details in our terms of use and much,
0:06.2	much more about thinking aloud. Go to our website at BBC.co.uk.
0:12.4	Hello again. Now you're just going to be a little bit patient with me because this is taking a little bit of time.
0:18.0	You see, first of all, I've got to pull on this tight grey body suit. There we are. And now these fin-like gloves and of course the black boots. And now the utility belt stuffed with gadgets.
0:33.7	Nearly there, nearly there.
0:34.9	Just got the wide scalloped cape to put on.
0:37.8	And finally, this close fitting cowl over the top off of my face.
0:43.0	There, how do I look? Me, me, me dressed up as Batman. It's an absurd idea really, isn it? I mean I'm about as likely to dress up in a superhero
1:06.2	costume as to walk stark naked into the into the new stand at Anfield. But it seems that I may increasingly be out of step with my fellow men
1:15.8	because a recent paper in the journal Clothing Cultures tells me that wearing
1:20.0	fancy dressed costumes is no longer primarily a feminine pursuit and that paper is
1:25.4	appropriately called the Masculization of dressing up and its author who now
1:29.4	joins me is Barbara Browner who's senior lecturer in visual communication at the University of Hartford,
1:35.6	Chair. Barbara, I gather from your paper that if I'm going to understand why more men are
1:41.6	dressing up in costumes, I'm sorry to sound a bit like a high court judge here, I need to understand what it is that you call cosplay.
1:49.0	Cosplay. It's short for costume play, so it involves dressing up as a fictional character who might
1:57.4	be from a TV show or a comic book and embodying that character for a short while.
2:03.6	And it's a form of fandom that takes fandom beyond just enjoying
2:07.6	reading the book or reading the comic or watching the TV show,
2:10.4	but actually engaging more substantially with a character by actually taking on that role.
2:15.5	What do I do or what people do when they dress up as Batman? I mean, they go somewhere.
2:19.2	Well, they not only dress up, but they also make the costume themselves and that's an important
	...

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