Friday, August 21, 2009

How clothing standards are completely subjective

My body is covered neck to wrist to ankle in thick, unflattering material that hides my shape. My hair is completely covered. My face is free of makeup.

There's a knock on the door. I'm hesitant to answer because I feel overexposed, but it's the UPS guy and if I don't take the package then I'll have to go all the way to Jane & Steeles to collect it. So I answer, and he averts his eyes a little to protect my modesty.

If he had come to the door half an hour later, I would have been wearing a fitted scoop-neck cap-sleeve shirt, a knee-length skirt, more makeup than strictly appropriate, and my hair completely uncovered and styled in a way that hints at its length and lusciousness. If the knock on the door had come then, I wouldn't have hesitated to answer because I wouldn't have felt overexposed, and he wouldn't have felt the need to avert his eyes because I was clearly fully clothed.

In the outfit I described in the first paragraph, I was just out of the shower in a bathrobe and hair towel. In the outfit I described in the third paragraph, I was dressed for work on a hot summer day in Toronto.

1 comment:

laura k said...

I often think of this in relation to skimpy bathing suits. *This* part of your anatomy is ok to show. *This* part is not.