I think your choice of materials is very inappropriate. A Dream of Red Mansions is a novel with a vague background, so the costumes in it have traces of nationalities in various dynasties. Some are from the Ming Dynasty, some are Han costumes in the Qing Dynasty, some are flag costumes in the Qing Dynasty, some are theatrical costumes, and even some clothes that are not in real life and are made by the author himself. Moreover, the author's choice of clothes is generally realistic, which should not help your thesis thinking.

If you want to write that men are superior to women and reflect the significance of the times, I suggest you start with European clothes such as suits and uniforms, or you can start with women's underwear. The button position of a suit is completely opposite to that of men and women-it still is, although it is getting weaker and weaker. You can analyze the differences between men and women at that time and the neutral development now. The evolution of women's underwear, from long underwear in the middle ages to metal corsets in the Renaissance, corsets with whale bones and even underwear in the industrial revolution to modern bras and bikinis ... is a vivid history of feminist movement, which will be very interesting if you look at it carefully.