The bare truth on covering up
Annie at PhD in Parenting has created a video to accompany an amazing post she wrote last year entitled ‘Covering up is a feminist issue.’ Read the article, watch the video and spread the word. Telling us how we can or can’t expose and use our bodies is oppression, pure and simple.
I went and read the post and I watched the video. I didn’t leave a comment there, because there were already 163 (perhaps I should have read the debate, but I didn’t).
It’s a lot more complex than she allows. What we feel is appropriate or comfortable isn’t some free-floating personal choice. These things are inevitably defined by time and place. If a Victorian showed her ankle, that was shocking. Clearly it isn’t today. There isn’t an absolute.
I see this in the approach to breast-feeding in the US/UK. The way babies are hidden away under blankets in the US seems silly to me, but that’s because it’s not my cultural norm. I couldn’t believe it when Pam in The Office wore an apron on a hoop to learn breast-feeding, that allowed her to look down and see the baby, but would keep everything hidden from view from others. That was in the privacy of her own hospital room. (This scene has been my only access to what a post-natal hospital experience is like in the US!)
So yes, I agree that being told what to wear or not wear can be a form of oppression. But I don’t think it necessarily is.
Am I not digging deep enough here? I can see that change only comes when individuals challenge the status quo, but I don’t want to see guilt piled on the individual for following norms that others might see as ‘oppressive’.
Iota´s last [type] ..Google- Blogger- my dishwasher- and my ill child
[Reply]
Fertile Fem Reply:
February 23rd, 2011 at 10:54 PM
@Iota, Annie was obviously not saying that women who DO want to cover up are wrong or feel oppressed, just that the whole concept of other people policing how much skin a woman is ‘allowed’ to show, particularly when doing something as essential as feeding her baby, is, at its root, oppressive.
I look at it as similar to the burqa debate. The burqa is IN ITSELF oppressive. The entire reason for its creation was to shield men from female physicality and sexuality, something they believed was an affront to their sensibilities and would disturb their moral fibre. But instead of learning to control their reactions to females or simply averting their eyes, these men instead decided to cover up the women and shift the onus onto them to keep out of sight and be ‘discreet’. Both the burqa and the breastfeeding cover can prevent women from fully participating in society and interacting with others because it puts up a wall, sends the message, “I am doing/am something/someone shameful under here.”
Women now CHOOSE to wear the burqa and women now CHOOSE to wear breastfeeding covers, yes. I don’t blame these women individually one tiny bit. No one expects every single woman to be on a crusade for change. We were born into and live in a culture that says it’s okay to enforce or encourage these coverings. No one is judging individual women who decide not to fight that battle and who actually find their nursing cover or mode of dress empowering and it gives them a sense of safety and belonging, which I know many women find reassuring.
But again, I believe that both are, by their very nature and implementation, oppressive.
[Reply]
Annie @ PhD in Parenting Reply:
February 24th, 2011 at 4:23 AM
@Iota, @Fertile Fem
I agree with what both of you have said and would add to it too.
I do think that there are women who cover up because they are oppressed. I also think there are women who chose to cover up because they prefer to be covered. I also think there are women who wear revealing clothing because they are oppressed (prostitutes, strippers, some waitresses, some girlfriends) and there are other women who freely choose to wear revealing clothing.
I would love to see a society where all women are free to cover or not (in both dressing and breastfeeding), where the spectrum from fully covered to not covered at all is both accepted and well represented in society.
Annie @ PhD in Parenting´s last [type] ..Covering Up is a Feminist Issue Video
[Reply]
Thank you for posting this! It’s a great video.
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