Best/Worst Dressed: A Fun but Shallow Tradition

Since it’s awards season, people are rolling out the red carpets to be stepped on by the rich and famous. Glamorous celebrities jump at the opportunity to be photographed looking beautiful in their expensive gowns and tuxes. For most female celebrities it is the opportunity to stand out, to show how fashionable and gorgeous they look. I understand the tradition. The red carpet and the award show would look pretty humdrum if everyone wore simple dresses or jeans, but I balk at the obsession with what everyone wears (mostly the women, no one cares about the men’s suits).

I am a feminist. I also like fashion. These two things are not mutually exclusive, however I do find that the red carpet is sexist in how it reduces women—women who should be lauded for their acting/singing/directing ability—to what dress they wore. The marketing of fashion labels becomes more important than what everyone is there for—to applaud the achievements made in the categories of that award show. Now, I understand the guilty pleasure one can get from rating the dresses on the red carpet, but upon actual rumination, the practice disturbs me. The women who attend these events deserve to be recognized for their work (not all of them, but still). Instead the media and spectators fixate upon their fashion triumphs or gaffs. I personally enjoy laughing at a particularly hideous dress, but I find that the amount of grief that female celebrities get if they make the worst dressed list frankly ridiculous. (Although, I am equally baffled by the number of hideous dresses that I see. All the celebrities have stylists, people they pay to make them look good and tell them when they look bad. Are these stylists blind? Some of them are obviously not very good at their jobs)

I understand why everyone makes a big deal about the red carpet. It’s fun, plain and simple. It’s also extremely shallow. It’s just a big marketing ploy. Celebrities get primped like poodles in a dog show, and are used to show off a designer’s newest (ridiculously impractical, I mean when would anyone ever wear it again?) design. I’m not saying that we should forgo the red carpet pony-show. I just wish that, instead of asking “who are you wearing?” to the female celebrities, that reporters respect their talent and ask them about something less shallow than their dress choice.

Here’s a great article about red carpet sexism:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/2013/feb/18/fixation-red-carpet-fashion-sexist