Mardon, Aurélia

Building Identity as a Girl or Boy: Clothing Practices and Styles at School - 2010.


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This article describes the varying uses of clothing both girls and boys adopt on entering secondary school. Sometimes clothing is used to reinforce the visual differentiation between the sexes, sometimes to efface it and even to contest the dominant standards of femininity and virility. During adolescence, clothing can constitute a way for young people to exploring and position themselves with respect to gender norms, but for parents it remains a privileged tool for the transmission of gender norms, which are strengthened in particular at puberty.