Stop Looking Under There

“Go change.”

What is the definition of ‘too much’? For generations, society has projected this idea that a woman dresses solely for the male gaze, and that it is her responsibility to not incite the lust or thoughts of men through her appearance. It is not emphasised enough that men should be held accountable for how they view and treat women in the world; to control their own minds. What we fail to see is the true reasoning behind women seen as “inappropriately” dressed in everyday life.

We are encouraged to express ourselves, our talents and our passions, but somehow women remain limited by the repeated rules of dress code that have been institutionalised and culturally embedded into society. It is now normal for women to assume they will be sexualised. Anything supposedly “too tight” is distracting, “too low” is revealing, and “too short” is provocative and tacky.

Young girls, as little as primary school, are told to wear their uniform a certain way. Although there should be purposes to look smart, from personal experiences of attending an all-girls school, we were told by senior staff that uniform code should be followed in order to “not provoke the male teachers and visitors”. An example was during any form of exercise or sport match fixture, gym leggings were banned from being worn, simply because they accentuated our figures too much. The school skorts were definitely impractical during the winter season outside and wearing thick tracksuit bottoms and hoodies are too heavy for a cardio session. Again, it is this assumption that girls are dressing for appearance rather than just wearing clothes for the actual activity they are engaging with. The perspective should be that if a grown, adult male cannot see women in a non-sexual context, it is not the student’s problem but the man and his thoughts in these scenarios. Particularly in schools, where they should be a place and environment for girls to feel safe, respected and not surrounded in a victim-blaming culture and objectification.

“You are a bad woman.”

The moment women make a profit from their bodies, find a loophole in the patriarchal system, it suddenly becomes too objectifying. As soon as women started to benefit from the sexualisation of their bodies, learning to work with it, they were and still continue to be shamed, considered to have the lowest self-respect and “unable to close their legs”. Whorephobia is an excuse to aim more hate toward women and demonise prostituted women, again taking away the focus on the perverted men who give in and are part of the system. These men willingly and equally contribute to the industry, using their money to pay to objectify women for their own pleasure, and inevitably view women only as a sexual tool. Additionally, there is less awareness toward the abuse happening behind the trade and some of the barbaric behaviours these men do and act. Many women do not benefit and suffer from violence, forced to be submissive as they are temporarily ‘owned’ and manhandled. If consent has to be bought, is it really consent? Most of the time there are no sex workers rights; men control the experience how they wish. Despite this realm of male supremacy and women as the commodity, it is still the women are still the ones who are blamed for their lack of sexual morality. Yet, who truly is the ‘happy hooker’ out of the two participants in this situation?