The latest addition to my The Pattern Girl series is I Want To Wear Ladies Clothes. I created this series during lockdown, and it is my lighthearted look at the topic of clothing and sex roles, highlighting some of issues that women found themselves facing even more than usual during the pandemic: having to do the bulk of the family and household chores even when both parents were working from home. This coincided neatly with an explosion of men claiming to be women.

The men in the pictures are from 17th and 18th Century France. They readily illustrate that the distinction between men's and women's clothing is meaningful only in the context of time and place. The clothes these men wear would be considered women’s clothing in the 21st century. These pretty men who want to wear ladies clothes still want no part of running the household, raising the children, or doing the chores.

The men say “Look at me,” while the women say, “There’s work to be done, mister. Get cracking!”

For better or for worse, men can never be women.