The Woman Warrior

by Gabrielle Hennessey

Jeanne d’Arc would be pleased.

Not since the 1980s have there been so many urban warrioresses power-stomping down the runways in marked defiance to the frilly sex slave/baby incubator version of femininity that has been expected of women since — well, forever, really.

Prada's Fall 2009 Warrior Women

Reigning now is, of course, rampant Balmania with that ubiquitous strong shoulder-line so popular during the fight in the 1980s for gender equality, as well as the androgynous look last seen in the 1920s when women taped down their bosoms and declared their right to become something other than playthings for men.

Yet this modern 2000s breed of the woman warrior differs from both the 1920s and the 1980s, because with the crash of the economy and the uncertainty of the days ahead comes a more somber outlook on life in general. There is a metaphorical war going on, and because of the multiplicity of the female job description, women now wear a veritable army of hats — mother, lover, workhorse, battle strategist — and, despite the advances of the women’s lib. movement (bra-burning, anyone?), many still feel the societal expectation to stretch themselves even further and support that sense of pretty, “feminine” helplessness expected of them: the “feminine mystique,” if you will.

But then entering stage left come designers like Gareth Pugh and Ann Demuelemeester, who present a woman warrior whose power is utterly terrifying because she has absolutely no regard for the male gaze, instead patrolling the streets in something other than six-inch Loubs, because dammit there’s a job to be done and to hell with anyone who stands in the way.

Miuccia Prada declared the “need for female empowerment” and filled her fall runway with thigh grazing, heavy-soled shoes and boots made for working. Heavy tweeds were paired with stiff leathers, cut in a way to remove any connection to the sexy, second skin, fetish inspired iterations that have prevailed on runways past. And the furs? Prada’s 2009 woman, with her untamed hair and crimson rimmed eyes, looks as if she may have killed and skinned the creatures herself.

Beyonce’s fierce warrior woman persona, the hyper-feminine dichotomy of Spring 2010 and more on the next page. Click to continue.

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