Sex, Gender Identity, and Behavior Concerning Sex-related Clothing

Abstract

An individual's sex and the psychological concept of gender identity (masculinity and femininity) were used to predict the wearing of stereotypic sex-related clothing. Subjects consisted of 174 male and female students who completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem, 1974) and a Sex-related Clothing Inventory. The inventory tapped the extent to which the subjects wore stereotypic male-specific, female-specific, masculine, feminine, and neutral clothing. Sex per se was found to be a better predictor of behavior concerning sex-related clothing than gender identity. The males in the study were more likely than the females to wear male-specific and masculine clothing, and the females were more likely than the males to wear female-specific and feminine clothing. The study extends clothing research by relating the personality trait of gender identity to the overt behavior of wearing particular types of clothing. Implications for the predictive utility of the Bem Sex Role Inventory are also discussed.