Today I was talking to a good friend of mine, the funny thing was that we had always met on business first and later when we started to get to know each other, we met after work too and she is a very pretty lady and always dressed very professionally, hair always in a very conservative bun, shirts always light or pastel shades, and trousers with or without jackets. Well a few days back she had to go to a local club on a semi work do, and since she didn’t know any one there she asked if I would be willing to escort her. I said yes as I rarely have any thing interesting to do on weekends and I loved her company, so spending time with her was a good idea, I arranged to pick her up and when I arrived at her apartment complex, I saw she was waiting in the porch of her building for me. I was stunned, she had a short flared denim skirt that fell to just above her knee and was wearing a tank top that just met the skirt around her waist and a short denim jacket, I was speechless well I always thought she was this severe and very conservative lady, she took in my look, looked at me very quizzically, arranged her self very demurely on my bike took the extra lid that I keep for the pillion, strapped it on and said “lets go, we can talk later”
Well as I said earlier that I love spending time with her and we have real animated conversations, so I had a fun night, the guests from her company's Bangkok office and the colleagues that had accompanied us were fun company and the night was a success. We met for brake fast two days later, and she was looking at me with this funny little smile, so I asked her what was wrong. She said there was nothing wrong its just that she was wondering what I was thinking about when I was picking her up for the party the other night. I was embarrassed and I thought she thought that I was leering at her, well I wasn’t, it was more of a gawking look really. Any way back to the topic, I said it was just that I had never really seen her dress like that, and even though she always looked good that night she looked stunning. She just blushed and said that it was not that big a deal, she liked to dress up like any other girl and it was only that fact that if she dressed up for work no one took her seriously they thought she was pretty but dumb and if and when she dressed up people thought she got every thing she did at work was because she was using her looks.
Weird right, why does even so long after women have invaded the work place and even after so many women have gone to the very top of corporate structure they are seriously so stereotyped, and worse still men are still seen as testosterone driven Neanderthals. My friend is real good at her job, and no I am not saying this because I am her friend or because she is pretty I am saying this because we met because of work and I got to like her because she is good at her work oh and she is smart too. Women need to do so much extra to be proven equal to men and then after all that they have to give up dreams of a family, and every thing else and then hide who they are just because they want to be appreciated for what they achieve. Its sadder still that men are still thought of as horny toads. That we objectify every women and treat them as inferior. It is a testament to the immaturity of us humans as a species, more than our petty differences and all other short comings that we cant see women as equals.
Labels: Discrimination, Dress, Gender
3 comments:
hmm..yes ideed this is sad...its very coomeon to see this..women dress up nicely is not capable to wrk... sad sad
hmm, sad but actually its not...i kinda look at it in a diff view...
hrd da old hindi song - 'kuch toh log kehenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna...' one amazing song, 'n one tht ppl forget...or another relevant example would be 'What do YOU care what other people THINK' by Richard P. Feynamn...
heeding to other talk 'n changing ur style, personally is not something i would approve of, by doing that you are in a way approving of their thinking...
i wud say dress as u please( suiting da occasions, going in payjamas to a formal black-tie kinda meeting, ob wudnt do :P ), if others have problem its theirs not urs, but if u think u r not getting promoted 'coz of this, thn u have a serious problem, which prob is best taken up face-to-face with the boss, if u dont get ur point across 'n they r still bent on tht way of thinking, then its probably time to look elsewhr....
'n yea thts my view, as far as guys thinking tht way, well 'm sure it will reduce over time but complete stop? doubt it...
'n in some ways its not only guys, u can have other females commenting saying, she gets stuff...just 'coz she is beautiful...i don't think that kind of thinking will ever stop...
wow! an amazing post!
so true too. people just go on blaberring about anythin at all, w/o thinking.. how much more effort women put in to get where she is... alll she asks for is a lil respect!
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