adminAnne Ruthenburg Fashion
HELLO there readers, I hope you are coping with the coldest month of the year. I have to say, trying to stay fashionable in this cold is becoming difficult, lol!
I received many requests after last week’s write up on lightening pills from people asking me where they can get these pills. Seriously people – after all I said last week, you still want to ask me where you can buy the pills? There is no way I am going to tell you that even if I knew. Why would you expect me to help you damage yourself, hey? Anyway, you are forgiven . . . don’t worry about it kikikiki.
I sat at a table the other day having lunch with other delegates and the conversation of miniskirts came up. At first, it looked like we all agreed (mixture of men and women), but as the issue progressed, it became clear that the miniskirt issue is more complicated than we care to discuss.
If you all remember this became a big issue sometime in Harare when a girl was harassed and stripped by touts who abhorred the way she was dressed. I cannot remember how it all ended, but I know there was so much noise around the country over this issue for weeks.
I just recently found myself wearing a skirt that was slightly higher than my thighs. I wore tights underneath and knee high boots, so in my view it was decent. But the story changed somewhat when I sat down. The length of the skirt went from one-inch above my knees to above mid thigh. I could not even cross my legs. Oh, I forgot to mention that the skirt was fitting. It suddenly hit me that if I had no tights on, I would have looked way too provocative, and there is no way men would not have made a pass at me sexually.
Now I did not leave home with the thought of dressing or looking sexy. It never occurred to me that the skirt which when I am standing is perfectly acceptable, but when I sit, it gets pulled up by my derere kikiki. Of course I cannot deny that I knew it was shorter than my normal skirts, but not indecent. Now let me tell you, as I walked down the street, I got a lot more stares from men and women than I usually do. This could have been because the whole ensemble looked good as one person who had the guts to stop me said. But then again it could have been the skirt’s length, whichever it was, the thought of the discussion with the other delegates came to mind, as I sat on the chair trying to adjust the skirt downwards.
In fact, I had one woman telling me that her man loves it when she wears skirts that are short. I thought to myself, either the woman is stupid or the man is. But whichever it is, the woman is the one who will eventually suffer the consequence.
Women, it is one thing to think or believe that the more you reveal your body, the sexier you are. But this is not so except in certain circles where sex dominates the conversation.
This is Africa. We are very different from the western world I tell you. Our understanding of respectful dressing runs very closely along the lines of what is morally correct. As women who are taught by our elders, we know that we treat our men folk with the respect of a father or sekuru. Is what I am wearing suggesting anything other than I have a respect for myself and I demand that you respect me? Is the outfit I am wearing saying something about me and my moral belief system that I am not?
And honestly these feminist battles we continue to fight will not be so prominent in our society. There is nothing wrong with adopting things from the western world in my view. But if what we adopt from there starts to erode our self respect and lower our moral standards – then we have a major problem there.
Ladies, think about it! What is so great about seeing a woman wearing only a bra and a panty, gyrating on those music videos we see? These are videos, not real life. I have seen some of these stars in my life time and I assure you many of them do this for TV and are not really this way at home – it is all a show to make money. Now here you are making it your lifestyle! We really need to be more in tune with reality ladies. Surely we are not that dumb to not know that most of what we see on TV is just for show and not really for you to emulate.
I sometimes wonder if we have taken the “Feminist Movement” thing too far. There is nothing wrong with fighting for our rights as woman (I am a human rights activist). But when that right infringes on the rights of other things and erodes the basic standards of things like male and female cohesion, marriage harmony, respecting our Elders and so forth . . . then I think we have lost the plot.
Yes, you have to right to dress how you like, but to what length? You see there are consequences to the things we do, whether we like to admit it or not. Women get raped every hour every day just because they are women and there is some insane male unable to control his manhood, selfish with his thinking out there.
Why on earth would you want to tempt fate by dressing in a way that will draw that sort of male to yourself? Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying men should beat up or rape women who dress provocatively – no! I would be the first to say cut his manhood off of if he can’t control it.
But I will not be doing just to us as women if I do not constantly remind us that we are all so beautiful just because we are women. Your time will come! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so wait for your beholder girl.
That is it from me folks, food for thought! Until next week, God bless!
◆ Anastasia is an ex-photographic model, a blogger (annruthenburg.blogspot.com) , a writer, and a fashionista and can be messaged on 0772 933 845 or emailed at [email protected]
Online Reporter