Return-Path: <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g152K2u06515; Mon, 4 Feb 2002 21:20:02 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 21:20:02 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <55.220827d8.29909a8f@aol.com> Errors-To: alcrsb@langate.gsu.edu Reply-To: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: AWilder106@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:1978] Fwd: Fw: Long but VERY interesting X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Mac - Post-GM sub 146 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="part1_55.220827d8.29909a8f_boundary" Status: O Content-Length: 3262 Lines: 84 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Thanks Ujwala for your post to the list. I have always bee interested in the clothes women wear to do their work, to me they so often seen physically constraining. Hoop skirts posed problems, and there's the burqa and the chador. If I can help it I will never wear pantyhose again, an invention of the devil. I added my pervious comments to your post. Andrea Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Disposition: inline
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Return-path: <AWilder106@aol.com> From: AWilder106@aol.com Full-name: AWilder106 Message-ID: <145.8e18d53.298eda8c@aol.com> Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2002 13:25:16 EST Subject: Re: Fw: Long but VERY interesting To: usamant@home.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Mac - Post-GM sub 146 Ujwala, Long but VERY interesting. My experiences in Karachi: After about 30 seconds in the Bohri Bazaar I came home and put on a long-sleeved shirt and long trousers. I had been "dressed" --in a dress. I understood what I was wearing was the equivalent of underwear in Karachi. A short time after a freind and I went for a swim at a hotel owned by Parsi friends. One second in the pool and everybody else has clumped at the other end! Then I noticed they were all men, climbed out, changed, left, went for a swim at theAmerican pool. Now understood why It was open to Americans, other expats, and their Pakistani friends. I bought shalwar kameez with a friend who took me again to the bazaar, and we had a great time selecting. I put it on to show Mohammad, the cook. he was shocked--No doparta! So I bought a doparta, draped its double folds aroudn my neck, and was modestly attired. I saw women in burquas, had a feelign that this conveyed protection, and understood from experience (I thought) why it was worn. A long time later, I read about an Israeli woman traveling on a bus, and an orthodox Jewish man who told her that her uncovered arms offended him--she said to him somethignto the effect taht These are my arms, not yours. My conclusion: where a person's body begins is negotiable, it probably includes fabric and cultural context. With women, this space is usually negotiated by reference to the man's gaze--how far it goes, what stops it, and the man's power to enforce what clothes women wear--male power. How much of the space between a man and a woman is owned/contolled by the man? Now, I see men jogging all the time, and in warm weather they jog in shorts--little ones--I have never heard this questionned. women wear bikinis at the beach, men wear speedos. This seem culturally allowed. But women or men jogging in what would be obviously underwear would be shocking. I saw the pictures of burqua clad women shot in Afghanistan under the Taliban. Were women raped. Is the Koran As exacting in control of men's clothing? That's it for now. Here's the ps--in Cambridge I dress like a student and am therefore invisible, very comforting, very anonymous, very comfortable. Thanks for the post! Andrea
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