Sari, Short Dress or short mentality?

Of one of the very few topics that bugs the Indian society these days is the never ending debate of women wearing short dresses out in public. The recent surge in the number of women getting sexually abused has been linked to wearing short dresses by many individuals in the society. When we as modern or rather logical thinkers listen to this statement, it makes our blood boil. But have we ever wondered what lies beneath the beliefs that these individuals harbour? Centuries long and rooted Patriarchy in the Indian society!

Patriarchy is a term which means a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.

Being the 21st century, we are all victim of this system. And by we, I don't just mean the women, but also the men who have been wrongly brought up by conditioning such ideologies into their mind. Over centuries, women have been constantly "told" what to wear, how to sit, how to eat and several other things.

You might all be knowing that the best symbol that is used to describe the quintessential "Bhartiya Naari" is the sari. Sari is in itself an elegant attire just like the woman who graces it with her elegance! Almost all the ladies in India wear sari on a regular basis. But they are quick to judge if a girl steps out in a short dress that shows some inches of her legs, cleavage or hands, for that matter! A wide open back in a blouse is acceptable but a backless dress is frowned at!

A recent post on facebook also reminds me about this fact. We see symbols of Indian Goddesses or guardian Goddesses at temple gates. Have you ever noticed that they are not entirely clothed? Yet we accept it and choose to ignore it because they are Goddesses! Another fact is that if you study the history of clothing, during the medieval times, women only used to cover essential areas of their bodies. Inspite of this, sexual abuse cases were comparatively quite fewer those days.

The main problem here is that a woman's attire is always connected with a man's sexual needs. A woman who shows more skin is quick to be termed as inviting to the male eyes. At some or the other point ,women have been told to cover up when there are males around, but the males are never asked to accept and respect what a woman, or even a fellow man too, wishes to wear. This trend, I see has been changing over the past few years in preferably younger men who have accepted & revolutionized their thinking and started accepting that the length of a woman's dress is not the parameter of her character.

This is one of my few posts on how patriarchy has been directly or indirectly responsible for the downfall and ignorance of women in the Indian society. I will be posting more. Meanwhile, feel free to share your points of view, opinions, comments and things I should write about with me in my new journey! :)