Why Do Women Wear Clothes?

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.

9 thoughts on “Why Do Women Wear Clothes?

  1. Franco imposed a very strict dress-code on women. Islamists want to expose a very strict dress-code on women. And they call anti-Islamists fascists…

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  2. I feel that if I covered myself in Islamic garb, I would be inclined to behave very badly. Anonymity removes a level of shame (at least for me), so with my entire face and body veiled, I would probably curse like a sailor, drive like a schizophrenic and possibly (if it was a really demented day), use my burka as a handy shoplifting accessory!

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