Thursday, July 17, 2008

Skirts or Pants- The Better Option

It’s still a prevailing thought among Sri Lankans that women are more “civilized”, “chaste” and in many ways “better off” wearing skirts; the traditionally accepted female attire(here I mean the normal knee length or longer flared type and not the tight ones and the very short ones). Pant-wearing-females are still (in some minds) looked down upon and labeled “fast and furious”. Though this phenomenon is decreasing rapidly in urban areas, pants-on-women are still recognized as “bad” among some traditionally thinking Sri Lankans.

This observable fact was actually opened up to me with the start of my University life. According to local university “culture”, some universities and faculties have “rules” that girls should not come in pants during the initial rag season and some others force girls to come in skirts and dresses all throughout their campus lives! This, I truly believe, is not a rule to get students to be in line with Sri Lankan “tradition” or the likes, because if so, the boys would’ve been forced to wear sarongs or national suits as well. No! They can come in any cultural attire while females have a set of rules restricting their dress code.

The irony of this situation is that most males find females more attractive, sexy and beautiful when they dress in skirts and frocks which naturally accentuate their femininity along with increased emphasis on curves and legs. According to my findings from an informal research, most girls (whose normal dress usually consists of T-shirts and pants) actually choose skirts in order to be intentionally sexually attractive to guys.

So does our University culture (and the somewhat inflexible traditional thinkers) want females to be looked at in a sexual manner by their male counterparts? Do they want females to seduce males with skirts when and where possible?

Leaving aside all others, a very obvious difference between female pants and skirts is that the latter makes the wearer more vulnerable to be the target of sexual abuse which can even lead to rape cases, etc. As my mother (a strong opponent of the “skirts-are-better” perception) rightly says, any man would find it even a fraction bit harder to take pants off a girl than a skirt, which will give the victim even a slight chance to free herself. A bit far fetched yet perfectly true.


So, in my opinion, for any female living in Sri Lanka( which I may fearlessly say still holds plenty of gender based threats), pants would be a better option for everyday wear, given of course that seduction is not one of the intentions of the day.

12 comments:

  1. I disagree... I prefer women in tight jeans over those wearing those long and baggyish skirts! If anything figure hugging would accentuate the body more right?

    I think most women would pull out a mini or short skirt as a seduction tool.

    But yes people should be allowed to wear what they want, and that is a silly stereotype. But what to do, people choose to believe what they want.

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  2. Shows just how enlightened our university students are?

    They need to occupy their minds with serious work, like thinking, which appears to be beyond them rather than on dress codes of fellow students over which they have no authority.

    In anycase how did skirts and frocks become traditional attire???

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  3. Totally dissapointed abt hearin wts happenin in uni, i guess they are doin all that to level out the gap betwen colombo and outstation crowd(which actually exist in different forms) but taking it further and singling out girls (as u hav mentioned) is quite pathatic.

    But on an overall note have to agree with foxhound there...its quite up to the person to decide the beauty of the skirts or pants...after all beauty cmes in different forms..people may perceive it in different ways..

    so skirts or pants doesn't matter much to me. b coz i think it depends on the person as well(depending on their physical appearance)....

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  4. Hmmm.. having recently entered Uni myself.. i evidenced first hand the whole pants vs. skirts saga.. i think it's just a bit of innocent fun on the part of seniors to get the girls to wear dresses and has nuthin to do with sexuality... a woman in jeans is helluva of lot hotter than one in a "cheeththa gawuma"!...

    Personally i find skirts (not the long flared kind) more appealing than jeans but the wearer should definitely remember to wax her legs... hairy legs are a huge turn off!!!

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  5. no mate i disagree with you there... most girls ive seen today prefer to wear pants rather than skirts.... this is visible right through out.. if u just step out u will most likely find more females wearing pants rather than skirts.....

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  6. Jack Point has got a point there, since when did skirts and frocks become traditional attire?
    It is true that Uni students are made to wear skirts during the initial rag season, well, rag season or not nobody has the right to impose any restrictions on anyone's attires.

    BTW, it's not only the Uni students, once I was walking down a street in a denim and blouse (nothing too tight and nothing revealing) some idiot by the roadside said "ayya gedera de?" (Is your brother at home?) meaning that I borrowed his trouser.

    Again another day a bunch of school boys (I was 26 years old at that time) threw stones at me! and this was in the middle of the Kohuwala junction, and for what reason god knows!!!!!! then made a remark on the 'kalisama'.

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  7. shili thats an awful experience..gosh... yes, skirts are not formally labelled as traditional attire but INFORMALLY so in most of the traditionally thinking people's minds..

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  8. agree with skull's idea . because it depends on each person! great post again by HORTON. dress is a very important denominator in a culture of a society so as of people living in that we got a right to talk about it! keep it up!

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  9. Sad to here about Shili story about wearing a denim. Its just seriously immature that these sort of things occur in public.

    I'm with foxhound on tight jeans matter unless of course a slightly shorter skirt is worn which is very unlikely seen in public unless its an office attire.

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  10. Appu would love to see Kolu in Hot Pants, enrolled at a local university. That should get 'em thinking and I doubt they'd ask for more...

    http://www.parippuplease.blogspot.com/

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  11. I don't think it is fair to generalize the practices of all universities. Some seniors in some universities make a decent attempt to instill some amount of discipline among the new students. However, there are different cases.....

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  12. it is shameful to read about shili's experience. only their lack of culture and philistine nature is depicted in that scene.
    our society is full of such crappy people.

    the topic itself is very interesting one. but i have to tell that this situation is not similar in all univ's as i know in some universities, dresscode is used simply as a method of fostering discipline among new students. so in such cases, the exstance of a dresscode is sufficient for that purpose. whether the dresscode is pants or skirts, does not mater.
    meanwhile, i dont agree with the fact that women can seduce men by skirts rather than pants. lol

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