There Most Definitely Is An Unmarked Woman

In a year where we have studied various sensitive topics such as rape, and racial injustice, surprisingly our most heated in-class discussion to date was about women's fashion. To be fair it was a rather in-depth conversation about women's fashion, as it was more of a discussion on the way that woman are pressured by society to look beautiful while men do not ever feel this pressure. The reason I think that this was such a hotly debated topic was because Deborah Tannen's argument in "There is no Unmarked Woman" seems somewhat incomplete. 

One part of her argument that seems flawed is the part that discusses how men have the ability to choose whether or not they are marked. Admittedly this is true to an extent, as women do seem to have more choices to make when it comes to formal wear while men almost exclusively wear suits.
However, Tannen goes a little too far when she tries to elaborate, saying that at a formal event a man could wear a "cowboy shirt with string tie or a three-piece suit," or dress as a "necklaced hippie in jeans." This point does not make any rational sense because if any person, regardless of gender, were to wear this attire to a formal event, they would certainly be marked.  I would even argue that a woman is not marked at all if they show up in any sort of attire as long as it fits the formality of the occasion.  Therefore women have just as much freedom when it comes to choosing to be marked because choosing to be marked in this situation would really just be choosing something that is inappropriate for the occasion.

Even if the setting is not as formal, it still seems that woman are given more of a choice to be unmarked than Tannen seems to think. Tannen along with many people in class on Friday were arguing that women are looked at much more closely when it comes to what they wear from day to day.  They argued that guys can wear sweatpants whenever they please, but if a girl were to come to school in sweatpants one day, everyone would be questioning if everything is okay with that person. I fully disagree with this statement because I believe that being "marked" really comes down to a break in consistency with what either a male or female wears.  A girl who chooses to wear sweatpants one day would only be marked if she normally comes to school wearing dresses and skirts.  This rule goes both ways and applies to men just as much.  If a man who normally would come to school in a well-fitting collared shirt and dress khakis came in wearing a tee shirt and baggy sweatpants, I would be just as confused as if a girl did the same thing.  A male or female is only marked if they break the consistency of their normal attire.  Because in the end, everyone is so caught up in their own things that no one really is going to care what you are wearing unless it's outrageously different from anything you have worn in the past.