What does it mean to label garments as “women’s clothing”? One might (myopically) say that it means clothing uniquely suited to women. But does it really mean that? Women do not have extra arms or other anatomies that require special design. After accounting for sizing, every garment works on every human.
So does “women’s clothing” mean that it is tailored for a woman’s body, accounting for protruding breasts and unintrusive vulvae?
Or does “women’s clothing” mean that it is designed to appeal to interests, to women’s tastes? So in other words, does “women’s clothing” merely signify “items which marketers intend to sell to particular a demographic” (women, rather than children rather than men)?
Stores sell “work boots” but does that mean work boots are only suitable for “working” people? And isn’t that a misnomer? I never once wore boots to the corporate office (“work”). I occasionally wore boots to the classroom (not “work”). But then there are “business suits” that I sometimes donned for work in the corporate office. Shouldn’t that make it a work suit? But I also wore the business suit to church and ceremonial events. And the dress shoes that I wore with the business suit (to work) should have been called business shoes or work shoes, right? And yet women’s analog ensemble is not a “business suit” but rather “pants suit.” Need I even digress into the ambiguous “dress suit” colloquialism?
“Button down” describes a style; “polo” describes a style. “Women’s” and “men’s” adds nothing since there are still “women’s” polos and men’s “polos”. So doesn’t “women’s clothing” describe its marketing rather than its design, its function, or its purpose? These labels are just marketing mumbo jumbo that tells consumers, “this is the style we (paternalisticly) say you should wear” and “this is what everyone (societally) says you should wear.” To some degree labels can be impliedly valid, such as bikini swim tops and undergarments (narrowly, as anatomy necessitates).
But gender designators are not indicators of appropriateness, just of marketing.