Naked Time.
What is naked time? Its that time of the year when it gets so hot all the women practically run around naked. If it really was the summer, I would see them on the train in bikinis. Really. Bikinis. Without shorts, just the suit.... I wish I was kidding.
During this season is when I really think about hijab and how maybe it should be somewhat relative to culture. My friend mentioned an article she read today about a bunch of women who orchestrated a protest for women's equality by parading down the street with their shirts off, breasts exposed. Their thought was "If men can run around shirtless so can we!". So my friend and I discussed to what lengths would we have to go to actually make that work so it became equal and didn't cause such a stir.
Well first of all, more men would need to walk around shirtless. Very few do except for at the beach. Its very weird to see a man in a public place shirtless, although not completely uncommon. So that would have to happen to bring things to their definition of equal which is "Doing the exact same thing, in the exact same way, as the opposite sex".
Then you'd have to get women to agree to not wearing shirts. And somehow remove the billion year old concept that breasts are a private part of a woman's body. That its ok to show them. Yeah that's going to work REALLY well.
Its silly, it really is. But it made me think about "Naked Time" and how maybe hijab really should be more relative to culture. The way I dress I am considered ultra concervative and I still show my hair, neck, lower calf, and arm below the elbow. So imagine how out of place a full on hijabi must be on the modesty scale in the US. When women are running around half naked do you really have to be covered head to toe to achieve modesty?
Probably not. But that might not be the point. I cover up more than I need to because I refuse to give in to what society tells me is beautiful. That I can't be beautiful without first appealing to the sexual desire of the opposite sex. To counter that, I dress conservative but elegant. Beautiful like a princess. A confident but covered woman. I don't want to encourage this sexy=beautiful mentality. Its dangerous, and unfair.
Oh yeah and totally not equal.
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