Clothes make a man?
I can’t begin to count the number of times I have been asked the question – “Why is that Indian men are never seen in Indian clothes, but we can see Indian women wearing salwars and sarees quite commonly all over the world?”
I wonder about the same too…
posted by Miya @ 4:03 PM
13 Comments:
Simple: men need some "fat" in the hip region to make sure the dhothi stays on!. I wear pyjama kurta for indian events/functions, although its north indian attire.
I dont complain about what women wear.
Valid question!!
I wear 4 muzham veshti and travel in the tube and bus when i am going to temple. I feel perfectly comfortable. It is just in the attitude of people that indian wear are uncomfortable.
Also, i suggest my friends and cousins to either go for saree/half saree or for western wear. The former is your identity and latter is your work compulsion.
I am of the view that a salwar is a symbol of slavery, a legacy left by the burka advocating Islamic rulers.
Blaming men for all the troubles in the world?
Would you be willing to accept a man that's not chauvanistic? Or would you categorize every Indian male you see as an MCP; a boorish, dominant wife beater? You just seem so angry at the male community. You got to give them a chance - just look around and you'll see more gentlemen than wifebeaters.
What's your opinion of the men of the West?
Actually Anonymous, I don't hate men or am 'blaming them for all the troubles in the world', though they can be attributed to most :-)
I have a genuine question as to why is that Indian Men don't wear our traditional clothing more often in an everyday setting? Why is an Indian male wearing pants & shirts, or suits & ties more acceptable than women wearing jeans or skits or any 'western' outfits?
> What's your opinion of the men of the West?
Human nature is the same everywhere! Doesn't matter where you come from!
You can actually generalise that question to the society of any developing country today.
If you ask me, in all such societies, women were (are) put under the magnifying glass. The society measures womanhood on yardsticks like "Accam madam, nANam, payirpu", (you will know if you are a TN-ite) while such things are not for men. One may be tempted to conclude that its because the society is male dominated.
Until as recently as 50 years ago, even the more advanced societies were not excempt to such things. With my experience in living abroad and talking to people, I would say that "old-fashioned people" from even advanced societies like the UK and USA would say a woman wearing a jean is "less preferrable" than wearing a skirt. This has changed there now, but the society is still male dominated. So, I would say that such things are because, people want to "stick to the past" or "safegaurd the tradition". And there are more such people in a society like ours.
>"I am of the view that a salwar is a symbol of slavery, a legacy left by the burka advocating Islamic rulers."
Arn't shirts/trousers in india atleast in part due to the brit rule?
What do we plan to do abt that now? Nothing because shirts/trousers are comfortable, manageable and accepted. (well we could try something like changing Bombay VT to CST... duh... big deal... did less ppl died of starvation....)
Its sad that educated ppl have such corny ideas.
i think we shd take this more objectively. i think indian women should be feeling more fortunate that they were not forced to change their attire as a result of slavery. indian men are now like tamed dogs ( just to please you with analogy :) ) who like the dog collars. men as they imitated their masters and fashined their attire after them have gotten used this western attire.
but as the world has evolved today and everything western makes better sense than anything oriental/ethnic, some women might ask this question and treat this another example of women's subjugation.
personally i like women in almost anything they want to wear :)
Well, thats a nice question..I think that women feel confident in their sarees because sarees have a lot of art work and stuff which are instantly admired my foreigners (or whoever!). And it is a natural tendency for women to like being in lime light at least for a brief period of time! (Im not a chauvinist)
But, dhottis sometimes are mistaken as bath robes and that puts a guy in an awfully embarrasing situation (I was in such a situation once :( ). So, I think guys dont prefer that apart from being less comfortable to wear (if not used to it )
This is my opinion..
Why we are befooling ourselves..there are lot many people..both men and women ..in India,who don't have any idea about finding their next meal...for them clothes never matter...they wont have any designer preparing the best outfits..whatever they have, they are wearing that..u may be calling them conventional...Chod do ye sab..
i find the question completely valid , but rather than getting all frothy about it , i suppose its better thinkin what we can do about it , let us all males get together & try go wear genuine indian wear , 8 muzham vesthi.......
Hello Ramya,
Came to your blog from vatsan's.
Are you the Ramya I knew from Srec??
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Hi Ramya...
I didn't read all the responses
May be somebody else might share my idea...
Ok..What i feel is ?..Men don't care much about clothes...we just want to look OK.....so our ancestor men started adapting themselves with pants and shirts which they found more comfortable than the traditional ones and they just didn't care much abt it...I think ladies take care of their clothings like.. colour, make ups and MORE IMPORTANTLY JEWELS.....nobody can disagree this... Women love Jewels...So our type of indian clothing is closely related to several things like that..and women could not come really out of that.....so ..for instance if u take our indian functions...
Tell me frankly...Do u feel better with western dress?...I don't say that u cannot be looking grand in a western dress but u know better how to make yourselves look better with indian dress ..Am i right...??!!!!!
The point is we don't care much abt clothes so we adapted easily..and indian women well..not only indian women..women care a lot abt it so they cudn't easily adapt to the dresses which are comfortable with them..
Again here..I am not saying that veshtis or lungis are not comfortable ..but I just say that pants and shirts are comfortable in the current situations so men adapted to pants and shirts..even i would like to wear veshti..but have to go through some difficulty to have it on my hip all the times...:-))
Ok..now ..Why men are being ridiculed with indian dress???..This is a normal human behaviour...People will be ridiculed if they do something different than others...they won't be ridiculed if everyone at the party wears a veshti..;-)
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