Women choose to dress provocatively for some of the following reasons:
- Primitively speaking, to attract a mate,
- to attract attention to their self-deemed gorgeous bodies,
- to get free drinks from men, or
- to seek the one night stand they’re after.
Bear in mind, when you see young girls going out wearing next to nothing that they might just be expressing their youth rather than their sexuality because in most cases they’re too young, and maybe naive, to realise the message that their way of dressing is conveying.
Going back a hundred years
In the old days, women weren’t supposed to show their ankles, their dresses had to practically drag on the floor. Think of the Voortrekkers in South Africa. In Victorian times, even the legs of the piano were covered in case they gave men dirty thoughts. You couldn’t get more conservative than that!
NMem/Royal Photographic Society/Science & SocietyThings began to change rapidly after 1920 when women of the Western world got the vote. This newly gained independence brought about shorter skirts for American and British women. The World Wars also gave women a greater sense of independence after they filled jobs previously occupied by the men, who had left to fight in the war.
1960+
The 1960’s boasted the shortest skirts of all when the miniskirt became popular in London, endorsed by famous model of the time, Twiggy. During the economic ups and downs of the West
Flickr R.L Huffstutter people joked how skirt length was a predictor of stock market direction. Short skirts indicated a time of general consumer confidence whereas long skirts depicted a time of general fear and gloom.
In South Africa, during this time, the Afrikaans society was still very conservative in their cultural beliefs, and the women in their way of dressing, compared to Britain and the USA. With the government’s opposition to the introduction of television, and it’s late appearance only in 1976, a Western influence through media took a long time to manifest in our country.
Today
These days if you look at Afrikaans music videos on a channel like MK on DSTV, groups like Die Antwoord and Snotkop keep up with the standard of overseas Hip Hop videos with the use of women who look like they’ve just climbed off the nearest strip pole, or come off a porn set.
Yet, Western culture hasn’t become completely numb to the idea of nakedness, because society still limits how much skin is allowed to be shown through censorship and social morals. However, some people do push the boundaries, with examples like Lady Gaga and her skimpy outfits in her music videos, and some rather proud exhibitionists on some of our beaches in South Africa. There are those women who like to show as much skin as possible as often as possible, then there are those women who like to leave a lot for the imagination by covering up with just a hint of skin showing, enough to entice you.
Most women do know that if they’re looking for a long term partner they need to cover up and show respect for themselves in order to attract a man who is looking for someone to get serious with. Johnny Depp fell for his long term partner Vanessa Paradis from seeing just a flash of the back of her swan-like neck. That’s all he needed to see of her to make him want her.This is made illustrious by the timeless style of Coco Chanel, who adopted elements from male attire for women to use, like women’s slacks. Her style is a great guide for any woman who wants to dress sexy, but still appropriate.
“Elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress” - Coco Chanel
The real question remains, how do you men feel about the way women are dressing these days?
Written by Cassandra Rowley for SA Men
http://www.samen.co.za/index.php/date-women/594-women-dress-article
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