Monday, October 20, 2008

Dressing well


Yung regalo, lalo na kung precious, you won't leave just lying around anywhere. And you'll make sure it's wrapped well. Kung bale wala lang sa 'yo, papabayaan mo lang kahit itapon-tapon or something. It's the same with oneself.

Thanks, sunnyday, for the wonderful analogy!

It makes sense that one should dress appropriately when one goes out--because you want people to take you seriously. Dressing well (that is, keeping secret parts, er, secret) instantly expresses how a woman regards herself and the people around her. Like a precious gift, as sunnyday says above, the body must be carefully wrapped and nicely presented.


Dressing well works two ways: 1) it helps the person wearing the clothes express who she is and how she wants to be treated, and 2) it influences the mindset of other people she meets throughout the day.

The way society treats a woman is greatly influenced by how she invites them to treat her. See those billboards along EDSA that depict women in underwear and nothing else? They're not there because men want them up there; they're up there because women allow it.

Our standards have fallen gradually every year--they inch down so slowly that hardly anyone notices. Only when one looks back to ten, twenty years ago that one notices that "we were so uptight back then." Now, modesty in clothing is equated with words like "baduy," "manang" and "losyang," when there's truly nothing wrong with it.

Here's a snippet I picked up from Modestly Yours--this one written by blogger Allison Josephs--about nudity for art's sake. I think it has a good insight on why women should be vigilant about how they present themselves in general:

Like the artists of the world, I believe that the human body is a beautiful thing. However, just because something is beautiful doesn't mean it needs to be shared with everyone. Under the guise of art, we've been led to believe that you can separate a body from a person. That you can appreciate the form itself while ignoring the essence contained within it. But body and soul are inseparable. And when a body is revealed in such a complete way, not everyone will cherish the soul that comes with it.

I hope more women realize how much they can change by just picking the right clothes from the department store.

4 comments:

The Perpetrator said...

YOUUUU FASCIST! we were just talking aboot this last week, right? ;)

dude, i dont really mind what other people wear. i think people who pay too much attention on impressing other people by showing skin is just as lame as those who put too much effort to not offend people and in turn pick on everything and everyone else. Everyone should just lighten up and/or put a cardigan on cuz really... i bet it gets chilly. peace out! win/win!

also.. burberry is awesome. that pic of urs.. A+. I would make the entire collection my wardrobe if I could. :D

The Perpetrator said...

oh and can you be more specific when you say "secret part." Is this like a britney thing? haha

sunnyday said...

Hey, insightful points here. I agree that standards change gradually and we hardly notice the change, and before we know it, value systems are being altered as well!

Isn't it amazing that clothes started out as fig leaves and maybe animal skin, then over the years we've learned how to use of these pieces of cloth to even to enhance our dignity (and express a sense of style along the way)? What I don't like is discovering that one can put a hefty price tag on even the smallest and flimsiest piece of cloth and still be able to sell it!

petrufied said...

@OK-hehe! yeah i had this modesty rumination last time and i spoke to everyone about it. :D It helps if you think about things. (about the secret parts, let me think of some more specific words for next time. LOL.)

Yeah, put on a cardigan--and get a stylish one to inspire all to wear nice cover-ups! I agree on the burberry. that shirt is lovely! (but too expensive for my closet D:)

@sunnyday- it's marketing! haha XD but seriously, it's easy to sell a scanty piece of cloth when one puts a lot of weight on a brand name or when they have a good advertising idea...

yeah, the more we see lots of skin, the more acceptable they look--it's easy to get numb about things like this!