Paradigm Shifts: Societally Contrived Concepts of Gender are Changing Around the World
"Japan is seeing an explosion in sales of male beauty products and the spread of male cross-dressing." We are witnessing a shift and change in the ideology of the world as we continue to break down societally pre-conceived concepts of gender expression. Society has seen, in the past 100 years, the rise of women to be able to express as men, right down to their choice of clothing if they so desire. That's a move "up" in a patriarchal society that had always put men higher on the totem than women. Women's suffrages and rights have come to change that. Still, society has had a difficult time with the reverse... seeing any expression of the feminine as a step downward. Descriptives such as "girly", "effeminate", "emasculated" are often used. Even sexual identity is often mis-labeled and such a male may be considered to suddenly be "gay" for so cross-dressing. If women can express their masculine side and work