My research on young women’s clothing choices shows that the political right and left are aligned on wearing sexy outfits, but not on what “sexy” means.
No judgment, but the women featured in Evie Magazine—a “conservative Cosmo” for women 18-34—are more likely than not to show off their breasts. In a nod to the tradwife fashion trend, milkmaid dresses with low décolletage are featured on young, voluptuous white women. An article making the case against body positivity and fat acceptance, “The Return of Skinny,” is accompanied by a photo of a busty white woman on a beach wearing a thong bikini. A photo spread of Eva Vlaardingerbroek showcases the Dutch right-wing activist wearing a gold cross necklace—along with her breasts falling out of a low-cut gingham dress.
There’s nothing wrong with wearing revealing clothes, and no one should be slut-shamed for doing so. Yet it’s curious that Evie’s content strategy favors Playboy-esque lingerie over Handmaid’s Tale dresses. After all, this is a publication whose sex columnist presumes everyone seeking advice is married and heterosexual; advises pregnant teenagers that their only option is adoption, not “panic-driven abortion”; steers readers away from birth control and toward rhythm-method fertility tracking apps; and informs readers that “men typically prefer virgins.”
It’s not just at Evie. The MAGA movement has introduced legislation that would allow authorities to charge patients who obtain an abortion with homicide, is redefining some forms of birth control as abortion and is calling for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the right to same-sex marriage.
Yet many women who support these efforts to deny sexual freedoms proudly wear revealing and sexy outfits—from Kimberly Guilfoyle’s low-cut, body-hugging red dress at the 2020 Republican National Convention, to Steve Bannon podcast co-host Natalie Winters, known for wearing provocative outfits to Trump’s White House briefings, to the Trump supporters featured in New York magazine in silky slip dresses and lace bustiers.
It appears that Republicans in support of Trump’s politics, including conservative Christians, have concluded that displaying women’s semi-naked bodies can be useful for their political objectives, even if doing so is at odds with their values. There is occasional slut-shaming on the right, as when commentator Megyn Kelly slammed Jeff Bezos partner Lauren Sánchez as having “no dignity” when she wore a bustier instead of a blouse to the Trump inauguration.
But overall, conservative women are wearing body-revealing outfits with pride.
To people with conservative views, only some women—those who look and act like ‘real women’—get the privilege of being sexy.
This shift coincides with the political rise of Donald Trump, the former owner of the Miss Universe Organization, who has a long history of treating women as sexual objects whose value corresponds with his opinion of their looks.
This is not behavior typically considered acceptable by conservatives. But instead of distancing themselves from Trump, it appears that they have framed Trump’s affinity for scantily clad women as a moral statement: A woman wearing a tight dress with a thigh-high slit and stilettos is taking a stance against trans rights and in support of the executive order that the federal government recognize only two sexes. She is dressing like a “real” woman—as understood by a president who likes women who look like pinup models and who rejects the idea that a “real” woman may be transgender or nonbinary.
Ironically, conservative women can now often be mistaken for their progressive doppelgängers, who embrace revealing clothes to make the point that they “own” their sexuality and bodily autonomy.
For the last six years, I’ve been speaking with teenage girls and young women about these clothing choices for my book Sexy Selfie Nation. I began this research because panicked parents kept reaching out to me, a slut-shaming expert, to ask how they should talk with their daughters about their “inappropriate” clothes and selfies.
One mom said to me, “You’re a feminist. Aren’t you horrified that so many young women are objectifying themselves?”
Another direct-messaged me, “I keep telling my daughter to change her outfit and delete her bikini selfies, but she won’t listen. What should I do?”
To give parents useful guidance, I asked a diverse group of young women, mostly politically progressive, why they’ve chosen to sexualize their appearance.
Consistently, they tell me they aren’t trying to be sexy and don’t think of their attire as having anything to do with sex. They’re just standing up for themselves.
Girls lose their bodily autonomy at a young age with gendered school dress codes that cause them to be removed from the classroom over infractions such as wearing a top that exposes bra straps. Teenagers and young women suffer from the proliferation of so-called revenge porn and deepfakes, which are a form of image-based sexual abuse and are facilitated by tech companies that are doing next to nothing to stop it. Our society still victim-blames after sexual assault and harassment.
Women are fed up with being called sluts for doing nothing wrong and being held responsible for others’ inability to keep their eyes and hands off their bodies, and they’ve decided to wear what they want.
It became clear to me that parents anxious about their daughters looking “inappropriate” should redirect their concern. The real problem is not what young women wear but the rampant sexual objectification and violation of bodily autonomy they face every day, in real life and online. And the Republican denial of reproductive, sexual and trans rights is central to this environment of slut-shaming and victim-blaming.
To people with conservative views, only some women—those who look and act like “real women”—get the privilege of being sexy.
In our realignment of sexy, the political motivations on the right and left are in opposition, yet a bikini selfie is a bikini selfie. Regardless of whether the woman depicted has used the morning-after pill or taken a virginity pledge, she’s not a sexual object.
This is why it’s especially important for those alarmed by the conservative rights grab to vote, march, donate, volunteer and call and email lawmakers to tell them to support legislation holding tech companies accountable for image-based sexual abuse and protecting LGBTQ rights.
Now more than ever, we can’t let our bodies or clothes speak for us.
