What we Wear

The clothes we wear are dependent on where we live.  If it is freezing cold, we wear as much as possible to keep warm, but when we live somewhere very hot, we wear a lot less.  But there are other reasons for some countries’ clothing.  For instance.  In several middle eastern countries, we see women covering themselves from head to toe.  And like me you might wonder why?

I think to discover the reason we need to go back to the days when most of the people in those countries were nomads.  They wandered around as tribes or family groups from place to place trying to find food for themselves and their animals.  The animals not only provided food, but milk and yarn for clothing.  The animals were the life blood of the groups that roamed.  Therefore the groups had to keep moving to find vegetations, which was sparse, for their animals.

There were largish cities, and I say largish because they didn’t house millions of people as cities do today, but maybe many hundreds.  And these people were generally craftsmen or businessmen.  They supported the nomadic tribes who came to purchase and exchange foods and articles, using the cities’ markets to trade.

That part of the planet was dry and sandy.  That part of the planet except near the rivers, suffered from sand storms.  That part of the planet, encouraged people to stay out of the sun during the heat of the day.  Things there haven’t changed as far as the heat. but many more large cities have been built and have water through mechanical

pumps and desalination, where salt water is purified making life a lot easier for the population. 

During those early days, women and even men were encouraged to cover up to protect themselves from sunburn, and also keep their hair in good condition.  Everyone had long hair.  Very difficult to cut hair neatly with just a sharp knife.  So, it was normal for male and female alike to wear long robes and head covering.

Three religions that are still current began in the Middle East.  Islam, Christianity and Judaism.  Islam and Christianity are based on Judaism.  According to our current calendar Christianity began around two thousand years ago.  It spread across the world, and women especially, wore head coverings to show they were members of the Christian faith.  If you check the fashions of say the 1400s in Europe you will see women with head covering.  No woman would be seen without it.  As far as attending church even when I used to attend as a teenager, us ladies were always expected to wear a hat.  Thankfully something called a whimsy came into fashion, which was just a bit of netting under a bow sitting on one’s head.  After that, women stopped wearing hats to church. 

Nuns in the Catholic church up until the 1980s always wore head to toe covering.  Something similar to what many of the female Islamic believers wear today.  It was a way of showing they were Christians.  Finally, there was a realisation amongst the Church hierarchy that the outward show of what one wears wasn’t necessary to be a Christian.  Many Islamic nations have followed suit.

But there is another problem with strict rules to what clothing we wear.  It is very similar to forbidden fruit.  One always wants to discover what it is like, especially when one cannot have it.  Think of a child that is told not to touch something when it is hot.  They will still touch it to discover what hot is.  They soon find out. 

Now consider the men and women.  When everyone has to cover up it raises the interest in what we look like under our clothes.  Let me tell you a story.  A couple of years ago I was on a cruise around Australia and landed at Maroochydore.  As I walked along the street, I was amazed at the girls walking around in just a bikini.  In fact, I was taken by surprise when I saw a group of several guys, with one girl who was well endowed and only wearing a brief bikini, standing and talking.  The girl and the guys were discussing something.  I have no idea what.  What interested me was the guys didn’t seem to notice the girl was wearing next to nothing.  Obviously, they had grown up in this climate and everyone was used to seeing girls scantily dressed.  I studied the faces of each of the guys.  Not one was interested in how this young girl was dressed.  She was taking part in this conversation, and the boys were listening to her as if she was one of them.

What does this prove?  Our imagination sees more than what is really there.  Once you have seen what the clothes cover, it doesn’t really have any impact any more.  In many hot climates such as Africa and the middle of South America, the women of certain tribes never cover their breasts.  But in Western Society our girls wear a brief top. 

So, what is the fuss about clothing or the lack of it?  Not much.  Men seem to be more excited when women wear clothes that hint of something forbidden.  They  might not be so interested if us ladies regularly showed all those sagging and fatty areas which we can camouflage with clothes.   I guess we all just have to learn to control our desires.  And that is the female as well as the male.  It is all part of accepting who we are and what we are and being aware that our body parts can only excite if you let it.

Clothing is merely a way of keeping the body warm.  How we wear it, depends on fashion and temperature.  How we view it is up to you.

Julie Finch-Scally ©