Moondog: What does "female fashion" really mean?

I recently went to see the movie The Beach Bum in theaters. It just so happened that the director, Harmony Korine, was in attendance. Before the movie started he shyly and awkwardly thanked the audience of 20 for coming out to see his film and he hoped we all enjoyed. An interesting greeting for a interesting movie to say the least.

The Beach Bum tells the tale of Moondog, an over the top rich poet. His nomadic lifestyle is filled with drugs, sex,  and recklessness. Due to Moondog's eclectic and eccentric lifestyle, his outfit choices reflect his behavior accordingly.

After writing most of my blog posts on traditional, societally excepted female fashion choices, I decided that this movie was the perfect opportunity to branch out from this box.

Moondog's fashion choices throughout the movie represent him as a free spirit. He wears what he pleases. Most of what he wears happens to be traditionally "female" clothes. Dresses, one piece bathing-suits, and pink bathrobes with fur.

This got me thinking about how much "gender roles" influence our perception of someone. Just because Moondog identifies as a male, he gets judged and looked at for wearing traditionally female clothes. Though these choices in the movie were more for laughs, The Beach Bum shares a message of challenging the status quo, creating gender diversity, embracing gender queerness.