When it comes to women’s clothing, society has imposed some control over what she can wear and what she cannot. This control over women’s clothing is not only found in the Maldives. In south India we find women are discouraged to wear cloths other than Sari. In Rome, women were banned from wearing toga.
These restrictions though it seemed to have come from society, when we look deeper, we find it actually came from men. In India the nobilities were men. All Roman law makers were men. Women were banned from politics. Not only Rome, until recently, most societies were ruled by men. So it is clear that these rules have come from men. So why men want women to clothe certain way?
By imposing restrictions on women’s clothing what do they want to achieve?
Surely there must be some benefits for women in this deal right?
Looking at India, the list of benefits for women from wearing Sari are:
None.
Of course there are good reasons for example in ceremonies etc. but that reason ends there. There are no practical use for wearing sari on a day to day basis.
One factor that emerged from my observation on women’s clothing is male jealousy.
One day I overheard a woman complaining about her boyfriend banning her from wearing shorts. They are from a tropical country and it is common for women to wear shorts during the summer in that city.
What drove him to tell his girlfriend not to wear shorts? Is wearing shorts would cause harm to someone? What we know is that his intention is not to make her feel more comfortable or make her life easier. Nor his intention was close to anything rational or logical. It was male jealousy that led him to tell her not to wear shorts.
Why German women were banned from wearing gold and silver? It was imposed by men, and their aim was to make their women less attractive to other men. What emotion drove those men to make that decision? It was jealousy.
Another place I noticed was Oman. The jealousy runs deep and strong in men. Maldivian men and Omani men had similar response to jealousy.
But on the opposite side of the spectrum we see China. In China jealousy behavior is seen more from women than men.
This raises the question, is jealousy part of society’s conditioning or people are naturally jealous when it comes to women’s clothing?
Since people of Russia and people of Middle East have different response when it comes to women’s clothing and people of China and the people of Maldives and Ache province has opposing response when it comes to clothing, we can safely say that jealousy is not hardwired in men. The reason is because Maldivians share European genes as well as Indian gene. And our ethnicity is also Indian. And Indians are Indo-Ariyan and Indo-Iranian origin. Russian and European share the same genes as well. So if it occurs naturally it must occur among everyone who shares the same gene.
Take an example of an independent single woman. What would be the outcome if she wear clothes that are most comfortable for her to wear? Surely it will improve her happiness. It will improve her creativity. It will improve her productivity. It will improve her wellbeing because clothes do give comfort and protection. And the list of benefits goes on and on.
Women mostly choose clothing that are practical but there are times women as well as men wear clothes to attract the opposite sex. But no man wear clothes 24/7 with the intention of attracting women. And women don’t do that either. It is practicality that wins in the end.
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Revisions:
Original- 16-04-2022