Publicerad: 2007-11-27
ISBN:
ISSN: 1650-3686 (tryckt), 1650-3740 (online)
This article concerns the gendered history of women’s police uniforms. Tracing the historic symbolism of “phallic trousers” as belonging only to men; and how they slowly become introduced as a garment also for women; it is argued that trousers can be used as a material and visual point of reference; through which it is possible to analyse some important social changes regarding gender throughout the 20th century. Overall; the article purports the idea that when trousers were introduced as an item of clothing to (most) women; this was implicitly accompanied by an increased attention to the body as marker of gender. In Sweden; the first police women “on the beat” in the 1950s had to wear culottes instead of proper trousers; while today all police uniforms are gender neutral. The article suggests that the resilient discussions of the presumed incompetence of the female body for some police work; serves the overriding purpose of maintaining naturalized gender differences in light of “trousers belonging to all”. Policing is still maintained as a profession where men can be both caretaking and violent; while women are construed as non-violent and thus only as caretaking; leading to an asymmetrical logic; here captured as “the man contains the woman”; but “the woman does not contain the man”; profoundly affecting the range of possibilities in the two gendered positions.
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