Last Sunday we honored the congregation's high school graduates. From beginning to end the service was planned and run by the young people. This year they chose to put on a play based on a Chinese folk tale about a farmer whose luck alternated between good and bad. We, the townspeople, took turns cheering and moaning, but all the farmer would say is, "Could be good, could be bad, it's too soon to tell." A great lesson on the unpredictability of life.
In between "acts" of this play, the graduating students got up and spoke at the podium. The first speaker was a girl who wore a bareback halter sundress, a beautiful dress, to be sure, but showing quite a lot of skin. In contrast, the boy who followed her was dressed in a suit and tie. Now I don't want to come off as sounding judgmental about what the girl wore but it got me to thinking that we have two different standards when it comes to showing skin.
Have you ever noticed how often women and girls "show skin" even when it is cold outside, and how very rarely you will see men and boys doing the same? Women's clothes are designed to reveal, to entice, to be sexy (even when the wearer is not consciously trying to promote this image). Men's clothes, on the other hand, are not. There is no reason why men's clothes could not be as revealing as women's clothes except that I don't think this is something men themselves want. There seems to be a strong social bias against men "showing skin" in public.
The next time you watch an ice skating competition, notice how each sex is dressed. The same goes for dancing. I've been to several black tie events and always the men are covered up while the women display backs, arms, cleavage, legs. I'm not saying this is a bad thing necessarily. But a straight man who did these kinds of things at such an event, like unbutton his shirt to show off his chest or wear tight pants to show off his butt, might find his sexual orientation questioned by other men. Because men generally don't display--and why not?
About the only time you will see men showing large amounts of skin are places like the beach or certain types of athletic/sporting events (such as boxing or swimming). You won't see a man going shirtless to church, no matter how casual the service or how hot it is (at least I've never have). Even in my neighborhood it is rare to see a guy without a shirt. The one exception is a guy who really should cover up. Maybe his wife thinks he's sexy but the rest of us don't. I'm afraid that he comes in for quite a bit of ridicule behind his back.
I wonder if it has to do with running around half-naked being a little boy thing and that once you achieve manhood you go and put clothes on. It's an apparently unspoken and unwritten code. It's interesting that the young man who spoke chose to wear a suit and tie rather than his usual jeans and T-shirt even though nobody would have thought any worse of him if he hadn't dressed up. By wearing a suit and tie he was announcing he was ready to take his place among the adults and that he expected to be taken seriously. Not so the girl in the sundress. While she may have wanted the same thing as her male classmate, her dress said otherwise.
I just wonder if all these young women who insist on the right to show skin wherever and whenever it pleases them would be so enthusiastic about doing so if they realized they were getting this "freedom" in exchange for giving up credibility and accepting a second-class status in society. Watch where, when, and how, men show skin; I think you will notice that they do not do so when they want to make a positive impression.
In between "acts" of this play, the graduating students got up and spoke at the podium. The first speaker was a girl who wore a bareback halter sundress, a beautiful dress, to be sure, but showing quite a lot of skin. In contrast, the boy who followed her was dressed in a suit and tie. Now I don't want to come off as sounding judgmental about what the girl wore but it got me to thinking that we have two different standards when it comes to showing skin.
Have you ever noticed how often women and girls "show skin" even when it is cold outside, and how very rarely you will see men and boys doing the same? Women's clothes are designed to reveal, to entice, to be sexy (even when the wearer is not consciously trying to promote this image). Men's clothes, on the other hand, are not. There is no reason why men's clothes could not be as revealing as women's clothes except that I don't think this is something men themselves want. There seems to be a strong social bias against men "showing skin" in public.
The next time you watch an ice skating competition, notice how each sex is dressed. The same goes for dancing. I've been to several black tie events and always the men are covered up while the women display backs, arms, cleavage, legs. I'm not saying this is a bad thing necessarily. But a straight man who did these kinds of things at such an event, like unbutton his shirt to show off his chest or wear tight pants to show off his butt, might find his sexual orientation questioned by other men. Because men generally don't display--and why not?
About the only time you will see men showing large amounts of skin are places like the beach or certain types of athletic/sporting events (such as boxing or swimming). You won't see a man going shirtless to church, no matter how casual the service or how hot it is (at least I've never have). Even in my neighborhood it is rare to see a guy without a shirt. The one exception is a guy who really should cover up. Maybe his wife thinks he's sexy but the rest of us don't. I'm afraid that he comes in for quite a bit of ridicule behind his back.
I wonder if it has to do with running around half-naked being a little boy thing and that once you achieve manhood you go and put clothes on. It's an apparently unspoken and unwritten code. It's interesting that the young man who spoke chose to wear a suit and tie rather than his usual jeans and T-shirt even though nobody would have thought any worse of him if he hadn't dressed up. By wearing a suit and tie he was announcing he was ready to take his place among the adults and that he expected to be taken seriously. Not so the girl in the sundress. While she may have wanted the same thing as her male classmate, her dress said otherwise.
I just wonder if all these young women who insist on the right to show skin wherever and whenever it pleases them would be so enthusiastic about doing so if they realized they were getting this "freedom" in exchange for giving up credibility and accepting a second-class status in society. Watch where, when, and how, men show skin; I think you will notice that they do not do so when they want to make a positive impression.
