Sir Ted's blog post - Play/Mate

Why is a woman in overalls, especially Naturally Red, so erotic?

There's something about the masculinity of the clothing itself--the association with work and labor--that contrasts with the femininity of the subject. I've noticed that overalls either tend to emphasize masculine charactersitics in a woman (hence their popularity among some lesbians) or, by their very masculinity, highlight the femininity of the woman wearing them.

Obviously, this picture is an example of the latter!

The notion of why women wearing stereotypically masculine clothing are particualrly sexy is interesting, especially given that the opposite--men wearing women's clothing--is more often than not seen as laughable. The fact that a small minority find male transvestitism sexy is a classic example of the exception proving the rule.

There are a number of reasons for this, but that's for another post.

Why does this picture strike *me* so much, though? It goes beyond the fact that the overalls on such a feminine woman highlight her erotic charms (charms that seem to defy the denim's defeminizing tendencies, and by so defying, are amplified).

No, it's the associations with overalls...for me, childhood, Oshkosh B'gosh, and all that. They call to mind a time before awareness of one's own sexuality, or that of peers. They recall a gender-neutral time (or the created false-memory of such a time).

The femininity erupting from the overalls, on a subliminal level, recreates a sense of rupture . . . when a boy suddenly sees his female peers emerging in their full sexuality . . . usually leaving him behind in the process. The photo is like Venus emerging from a denim foam in her undeniable erotic power, but not having fully emerged . . . the coming into of eroticism from the ungendered playground or sandbox . . . the moment of tangency between "play mate" and "playmate."