Dressing Constitutionally: Hierarchy, Sexuality, and Democracy from Our Hairstyles to Our Shoes

The intertwining of our clothes and our Constitution raise fundamental questions of hierarchy, sexuality, and democracy. From our hairstyles to our shoes, constitutional considerations both constrain and confirm our daily choices. In turn, our attire and appearance provide multilayered perspectives on the United States Constitution and its interpretations. Our garments often raise First Amendment issues of expression or religion, but they also prompt questions of equality on the basis of gender, race, and sexuality. At work, in court, in schools, in prisons, and on the streets, our clothes and grooming provoke constitutional controversies. Additionally, the production, trade, and consumption of apparel implicates constitutional concerns including colonial sumptuary laws, slavery, wage and hour laws, and current notions of free trade. The regulation of what we wear - or don't - is ubiquitous. From a noted constitutional scholar and commentator, this book examines the rights to expression and equality, as well as the restraints on government power, as they both limit and allow control of our most personal choices of attire and grooming.

Author: Ruthann Robson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 07/29/2013
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780521761659

About the Author
Robson, Ruthann: - Ruthann Robson is Professor of Law and University Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York School of Law. She is the author of Sappho Goes to Law School (1998), Gay Men, Lesbians, and the Law (1996) and Lesbian (Out)Law: Survival Under the Rule of Law (1992), and the editor of International Library of Essays in Sexuality and Law (2011).