Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Reasonable Clothes For Women

 Though much of what I'm going to say applies to men as well:)

I get a lot of topics to write about from YouTube videos and discussions. Recently YouTube by some reason pushed some episodes of a Nigerien (that is made in Niger) soap opera about life in a village. It is in some French dialect so I couldn't understand much at all, but I was impressed by the clothes the ladies wore. Now you should keep in mind that in Niger the majority of population are Moslem. However, women don't wear the traditional black stile garment we often associate with that faith, but rather something which I would describe as very reasonable, especially considering the climate.

They wore long colourful skirts with long leggins underneath and long sleeved denim/dark coloured blouses, turbans on their heads and lots of gold/jewellery. They looked feminine and dignified, and their clothes while cool offered protection against the sun.  

When we visit an archeological museum we see women wearing European medieval costumes. They consist of long colourful robes, head-coverings and sometimes hats worn on top of it (depending on the period they are portraying). And while Roman soldiers were known for their short tunics, female clothes were still long and covered the entire body + hair unless she was a slave. Slave girls were more undressed because their modesty and chastity were not protected by the law. 

Traditional clothes women wore in the West until recently were of the same type, though obviously of different styles. Hats and headcoverings by women were still worn till 1960s at the least, though dresses became much shorter. Men still wore long trousers and often hats. Then everything changed. Hats and wearing clothes in general was declared the tool of oppression/patriarchy and to emancipate oneself you have to prance around as undressed as the weather allows.

The funny thing is that while "they" definitely promote it, "they" in this case aren't the government officials but rather the MSM, the fashion world and (female) popstars whose skimpy clothes are eagerly copied by the young girls hoping to become just as popular by being "cool and s8xy".

Various Western governments, on the other hand, keep warning people about the dangers of the sun exposure and urge them to put on what could only be described as "modest clothing", like in this article.

 While they don't mention skirts/dresses (that would be too patriarchal, I guess) their educational video shows a girl wearing a dark knee-length dress. The stores are full of long summer skirts, btw, which offer even better protection since they cover more of your legs. And don't forget your feet. Open sandals are more risky than more traditional foot wear, or sport shoes which one usually wears with socks. 

Isn't it rather funny that all traditional cultures and religions expected folks to cover their nakedness, especially women and that it perfectly coincides with modern medical/scientific advice??? By the way, keep in mind that even when the UV index is low there are still UVA type rays present which normally don't cause sunburn, but they contribute to premature skin aging and are thought to suppress immunity. In fact, this article claims that just using a sunscreen regularly is comparable to botox in making you look younger. 

Well, I guess sticking it to the oppressive patriarchy is worth getting skin cancer and may be even dying. Or is it???


13 comments:

  1. Personally I have always loved to see a woman in dresses and sundresses. When women wear jeans, its kind of hit or miss (generally miss), yoga pants just no, shorts and tee shirts again hit and miss (generally miss), and a suit just flat out no. Here is the thing, and again this is personal opinion though I dare say a large number of men will agree with me in this. Those two hit/miss type cloths are generally based on the woman's weight and youth. However with the dresses and sundresses even overweight women look good in those. I should note I'm not talking about the "sexy" slim evening dresses. No, I mean similar to the sundress, those loose, colorful, dresses women used to wear that you just don't see anymore.

    Heck, I very rarely complement people on looking nice, as I prefer to save those for when I absolutely mean it. The last complement I gave was to a Lady, probably late 40s, early 50s in a dress. It just works. If I had seen her the next day in jeans and tee-shirt, I would not have recognized her or even given her a second glance. It just works.

    Frankly I have no idea what possessed women to stop wearing the dresses and start wearing cloths are unflattering or that were generally meant for men. I just again blame the 60s and all the wickedness that kicked off in that decade. - W

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  2. BTW, about yoga pants: the advice is to wear loose clothes as they apparently offer better protection, so no yoga pants:)

    Anyway, there are generally 2 trends which most Western women follow: flaunt everything and what the cat dragged home, depending on age and occasion. Upper class still dress formally for certain events but love sharing pictures wearing jeans because democracy or something.

    Since jeans are certainly not comfortable, at least for women, and I say this as someone who used to wear them regularly for years. They are comparable to Victorian corsets in rigidness and some doctors say are just as unhealthy for female fertility.

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  3. Don't know about fertility, but my lady parts have been so much happier when I started wearing skirts only. Sorry if this is too much information. Now if I try to put fitting pants on -oh, the torture.

    We have I big medieval festival in our town every summer. It is usually very hot weekend. A lady I know wondered last year, how all the sellers and performer manage "all those clothes in this heat". I pointed out that I was wearing similar lever of coverage and said "honey, we are so much cooler than you are" (pun intended...) She did not believe me, but keeps on splashing those harmful sunscreens, while simultaniously wondering why my decolté does not look like old, baldy tanned leather...

    We also had last week or so a big internet debate, because some celebrity ladies over 50 see it fit to exercise at gym wearing legginses that look like body paint and sports bra. Showing their wrinkly midriff. Apparenlty it is soooo empowering to flaunt your aging flesh and everybody saying otherwise is just jealous and fat.

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  4. It is so sad, how they are hungry for attention, and jet fail to see that a) if you dress in modest and feminine way, you get so much so respectful attention, because it is so rare nowadays and b) if you have Faith in God, you need attention from no man, because you get all the attention you could ever need from your God and Saviour. (I do appreciate my husbands attention, though, but in a way it is just extension of God's attention, don't you think?)

    Anyway thank you for this post, Sanne. I was wondering if I should by another covering white blouse for summer, and now I am convinced that I most definitely should. ;)

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  5. You are welcome, Blanka!

    About jeans, what I read (and no, I can't provide the links, I don't even remember where I read it) basically some (female) doctors say that nowadays young girls often wear skin tight jeans as default clothing which prevents normal blood circulation in the pelvic area and maturing of their ovaries/uterus and can lead to problems in future.

    I'd like to add that not all sunscreens are harmful, you could use sunblock which is quite safe (but more expensive), here is an article about it:

    https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/is-sunscreen-safe

    However, the consensus is that sunscreen is "the last line of protection and should never be used to extend time you spend in the direct sun" which, of course, is not what the manufacturer wants. They will encourage you to "tan safely" while wearing liters of their products, lol.

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  6. BTW, something I've been wondering about. Since the direct sun exposure ages your skin (called photoaging) could it also age your hair in a similar manner? I.e causing you to get more grey hair? And could wearing a hat prevent it?

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  7. I have no idea; I do not believe on "premature" aging. We are aging on the exact pace God has planned.

    I also find it funny how people are hysterical about UV-rays, when most of us spent most of the time inside anyway.

    If you go closer to Equator, that is totally different for those of us with pale skin. Of course. But if one stays in her own country or thereabout.

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  8. Well, I'm not so fatalist. We have free will and our choices affect our health, that includes aging process. smoking is a simple example. Women who smoke go into menopause earlier. Sun exposure is just one of the risk factors. Of course, it's up to the person to decide what to do about it.

    Where I live UV radiation is the strongest in summer. And that's exactly when everybody goes outside in skimpy outfits and spends hours on the beach;)

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    1. Taking care of ones health is one thing. Putting potentially harmful chemicals on ones skin out of sheer vanity is completely other.

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    2. That could be said about any skin care product, plus shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste, and, of course makeup. They all contain chemicals. I guess we should just use nothing then.

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    3. And don't forget medication, even paracetamol has unwanted side effects.

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  9. About sun exposure and greying, I don't know, but since I cover my hair I know I don't need to do the yearly end of summer hair cutting-nourishing-recovering from summer routine which seems to be normal according to certain ladies' magazines

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