Kinderwhore is a clothing style associated with female-fronted punk bands that started in the early 90s. It is categorised with babydoll dresses, mary janes, fishnets, peter pan collars and pinks and whites. At it’s core, Kinderwhore is about subverting expectations and the male gaze.
The name may sound like it is sexualising children (Kinder being the German word for child and whore being a sexually promiscuous woman) but this could not be farther from the truth. The style uses symbols of youthfulness and innocence and corrupts it in a way that makes it unappealing to men with feminist punk music, rips and grime.
The patriarchal society we live in sexualises young girls and we can see this in the beauty standards put on all women - hairless, petite, innocent, virginal. Kinderwhore see’s this and combats it by taking these symbols of what men might find sexually appealing and turning it on it’s head. Women who dress this way want to subvert the paedophiliac male gaze.
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