It’s not about the dress!

We don’t dress up to impress others but because it makes us feel confident and smart. But due to the narrow mindset of people we avoid wearing “the skin-showing clothes” and resort to suits and jeans even though the summer heat makes this kind of clothes stick to our skin and more often than not leave rashes. Why you ask me? Because people stare – some with lust others with disgust. Sometimes it gets so uncomfortable that we start second guessing everyone around us. And it’s not always men who disrespect a woman but also our gender doesn’t shy out from calling out a scantily dressed girl. Some of us may get the courage to step outside our house but after that we get so embarrassed, feel as if we have done something wrong by wearing what we want that our confidence starts diminishing and thus little by little we also start considering ourselves sluts and whores. But who has given others the choice to decide what we should wear. It’s not they who are wearing these clothes; so they have no right, absolutely no right to judge our character by the choice of our clothes. They are the ones who tease us, call us with derogatory names, harassed us in the public. And it’s our character that people question? If this is not an example of a patriarch society I don’t know what is. And who defines what decent and modest clothing is? We don’t ask guys to cover themselves up so why should we ask girls to do so? Rapists and molesters blame women for seducing them – they think we wear short skirts, dresses and shorts to lure them in so they can harass us. Well, they need to get over themselves. It’s human nature to blame their mistakes on others and when they can’t find an explanation for their douche-bag behavior they very conveniently blame the victims. Well, she is already a causality why not make her a scapegoat for this also. This is slut shaming at its best. Women in suits and burqas also get molested as much as others. So our clothes have nothing to do with someone else’s disgusting behavior. OUR CLOTHES DO NOT GIVE OTHERS THE FREEDOM OR THE RIGHT TO MOLEST US. We as a society have to realize that and stop judging women on how they dress. Rather we should judge those who consider that disrespecting a woman is okay on the basis of what she is wearing. Change the mindset – because you can’t respect a woman’s character if you can’t respect her choices.     ———— ABOUT THE AUTHOR: This article is written by Pragya Dhir, our intern.