In class today I was explaining how Franco’s dictatorship imposed a very strict dress code on women.
“The kind of dress I’m wearing today, pants, short shorts, sleeveless blouses, open-necked shirts – all that was considered indecent by the dictatorship,” I say. “Now, why do we wear short skirts and dresses and shorts?”
“To look pretty and attract men!” a male student blurts out.
Female students roar with laughter.
“Believe it or not,” I smile, “I don’t come here to look pretty or attract anybody. That’s really the last thing on my mind when I come to teach. But let’s ask our female colleagues. Women, why are you wearing T-shirts and shorts today?”
“Because it’s +92 degrees F,” a female student explains.
“Ah!” says the male student who had advanced the “looking pretty” theory. “That. . . makes sense.”
I’m always happy to challenge the worldview based on the idea that women exist to look pretty and attract men and for no other purpose whatsoever.
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