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I have been thinking lately about
skin and the enormous amount of it on campus. In particular, what it
does to our respect for ourselves and from others as well as our place
in American society. These thoughts were enlightened by a lecture I
attended -- "Women & Human Rights in Islam" -- presented by the Muslim
Student Association.
A significant portion of the audience was Muslim women, who displayed
little skin. Their lack of displayed skin made me notice both my own and
other Western women's attire. We wore tighter, smaller, shorter and
skimpier clothes. The line of skin that peaks out from the bottom of my
shirt to the top of my pants had never been more on the front of my
mind. I like to think I am not a provocative dresser, but in comparison
to the Muslim women, I definitely was less dressed.
Western cultures have evolved into rather sexually open societies where
exposed skin is common. Western women epitomize this openness in our
clothing: painted-on jeans, impossibly tiny tank-tops and skirts that
stop two inches below our behinds. We see these clothes everyday on
women in our classrooms, acting on TV, walking down the street, sitting
on our couch, looking back at us in the mirror.
The Muslim women at the lecture made this pervasive sexiness even more
apparent with their opinions. The topic of oppression and head scarves
came up. In Western media, head scarves often symbolize Islamic
oppression of women. However, the Muslim women felt otherwise. One felt
liberated by her modest apparel because she has the freedom to choose
the man who sees her body, rather than displaying it for any man on the
street. She said Western style of female dress is oppressive because it
forces women to display as much skin as possible, to be sexual objects.
Further, Western activists will come to Muslim countries and decry the
"oppressive burqa," but will not question their provocative clothing as
a form of cultural oppression. It's an interesting point: Revealing our
skin is a way to keep women subservient, as beings whose primary value
is sex and how much we exhibit it.
This sexiness is, of course, defined by our culture and expressed
through the media. Our culture tells us that women are liberated, equal
participants in American society which values production, independence
and hard work, while the media shows us that our value is primarily
dependent on our appearance -- how toned our abs are, how white our
teeth are, how well-dressed we are. The travesty is, we all buy it to a
certain degree. Some women spend hours in the morning primping
themselves while others reject this value, spending little time in front
of the mirror. Most women fall somewhere in between the two extremes.
I think we should try something revolutionary -- putting our clothes
back on. For just one day, check out of the hyper-sexualized culture
that tells us to wear skirts seven inches from our knees and shirts two
inches above our waistline. To women who already do not wear provocative
clothing, tell others why you don't! To women who do wear provocative
clothing, evaluate why you do and what tells you to. Then decide if you
still want to participate in the overt sexuality of our culture.
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Susan Goodwin
is a freshman pre-journalism major.
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