A Study of Korean Costume Culture's Attribution Reflected upon the Term "Be Like~"

"~답다"에 내재된 한국 복식 문화의 속성 -의복에 표현된 성 역할을 중심으로 -

In our culture, the term, "be like", is frequently used. There are expressions such as "feminine-looking dress" and "manly style" relating to this term when we describe the styles of clothing. This study addresses the question on which type of garment would be selected under the description of the term, "be-like", in relation to gender. This term reveals the preconception of gender as being feminine or masculine according to the styles and colors of clothes. A group of 362 college students from Seoul and Gyeonggi area was surveyed fur the study The statistical analysis of SPSS 10.0 was applied f3r analyzing the data, and the significant variances were reviewed by the basic statistics, multi-variate and T-test. The results are as follows: First, the details of clothes imply the preconceived idea of gender. As a result, women's blouses and skirts were selected as the most feminine upper and bottom garments. The Y-shirt and T-shirt were selected as the most masculine upper garments. However, in contrast to the . skirts being the most feminine bottom wear, the pants were not significantly recognized as the most masculine ,clothes. Second, the variances of the survey show that the female students are more conscious of the sexual identity expressed in clothes than the male students. Third, the styles of clothes reflect the general understanding of what is considered to be "feminine or not feminine" and "masculine or not masculine" In conclusion, this study has discovered that the certain characteristics of gender are predominantly implicated in the styles length, and color of clothes. Both men and women responded differently in defining their idea of "femininity" and "masculinity". Nevertheless, there still exists strong preconception of what is considered to be feminine or masculine, and it affects the choices people make in selecting clothes.