Dresses and their role in women empowerment
Jawhar Sircar
(New Indian Express, 1
April 2021)
We will not dwell upon the recent comment made by the new
chief minister of Uttarakhand on women wearing ripped jeans. He obviously spoke
for certain sections that are yet to come to terms with the newer dress
preferences of Indian women. We will not even discuss individual tastes and
freedoms here, because history is really not bothered about our opinions. It
moves relentlessly on its own as mankind creates more mindless catastrophes,
tackles newer problems and also factors in astonishing inventions and
technological shifts within its steadier value systems.
Almost each creation, natural or man-made, has some role to
play or else it would not exist. Let us go through a few examples of how
lesser-noticed inventions and technologies often led to the consequential
adaptations and alterations of the female attire, even as they drew more
strength from them. These ‘little histories’ are usually smothered by more
dominating events like the suffragette movement, legal rights and remedies,
landmark judgments and the battles for economic independence.
In India, the stitched garment was really popularised after
Muslim rule was established in the 13th century. Though the needle was known,
flowing unstitched clothes were the norm in India. After the practical advantages
of the stitched salwar and pyjama were appreciated, they were adopted by people
in the Northwest and the northern parts. The salwar-kameez, however, spread to
most corners of India in modern times. It is quite a decent alternative to the
sari. As education and job opportunities for women opened up, its functionality
became an important factor in its popularity among students, working women and
as attire for travel.
Let us now travel to the West, where the 1880s was rocked by
the recently invented bicycle. Within a decade, women took to it and the
crossbar or top-tube had to be lowered considerably to permit them to pedal
along in their swishing gowns. It was surely the first major breakthrough in
women’s mobility and they could finally ride something and travel unescorted.
The cycle’s skirt guards covered the moving cycle-chains so that hemlines did
not get entangled, but more and more women realised that corsets and gowns must
go. This is when a few bold women started wearing shorter skirts and introduced
pyjama-type leggings called ‘bloomers’. They cycled around conveniently, but as
expected, society was shocked.
India imported its first 35,000 bicycles for men in 1910 but
the demand kept soaring more and more. The early talkie films considered it very
romantic for a woman to be seated on the cycle’s crossbar, between the two
extended arms of a man holding the handlebar and cycling quite merrily. Soon
after Independence, Indian companies like BSA, Atlas, Avon, Raleigh, TI and
Hero produced cycles in plenty. Models like the ‘Ladybird’ were to cater to the
new Indian woman who was not willing to be taken for a ride all the time.
Though the ladies’ cycles permitted sari-clad women to drive them, it became
clear that legging dresses like the salwar offered better control.
In the West, patriarchy kept discouraging women from wearing
pants and countries like the US and France actually had laws enforcing the ban.
But when women’s participation was needed during the two World Wars, Western
nations had no option but to accept women in pants. But it was still not a
‘feminine’ dress. By the 1960s, some women started rebelling and began wearing
pants in public. Fashion historian Lisa Santandrea, however, feels that it was
really a decade later “that pants become a symbol of freedom that women hadn’t
had before”. In 1934, jeans maker Levi Strauss had introduced its Lady Levi’s
jeans to better fit the female form, but these were worn within the family and
with peers. The post-war hippie generation brought it out as a public statement
of freedom, but society in India was not ready. Indians were charmed to see
movies where young women in tight salwars and body-hugging kameez cycled
together singing or were chased around trees by heroes.
By the time well-educated middle class girls went out to work
in large numbers, several inventions had lined up to help them. The huge tin
trunks were discarded by the 1970s, and even leather and other suitcases that
had replaced them were swept away by lighter ones of polyester. Women could
lift the lighter polycarbonate and styrene ones to luggage racks in trains and
planes. In the 90s, wheeled strolleys arrived—which meant no help was required
to roll along one’s luggage.
Then, in the 21st century, light backpacks were reinvented
with comfortable padded straps and better design. Women could easily sling them
on their backs, freeing both their arms. These backpacks were certainly more
commodious than ladies handbags, fashionable or otherwise. It was clear that
saris were rather difficult to manoeuvre when one travelled in public transport
with backpacks or had to traverse long distances. This is when jeans and
leggings joined the salwar-kameez in liberating women and enforcing gender
equality, not just talking about it.We need not grudge it if the young feel
that wearing frayed or ripped jeans seals their camaraderie and oneness with
the global youth. After all, they have to work together to mend the world we
have messed up and will leave behind.
(Please Click Here to read thearticle on New Indian Express Website)
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