Women and traditional dress.

Mum I am similar, I like long flowy skirts and often find jeans especially really uncomfortable.

In Bristol, about a mile from the city centre. I am not denying that people wear that sort of attire, but not daily.... and it's fashion not culture/religion and so vastly different. In order to be a 'good' Brit you don;t have to conform to being objectified.

Posie, I see women wearing stuff like that everyday. Where do you live? In the countryside prehaps?!

CRIKRI, I can only speak for myself, but I NEVER wear trousers because I could never find any that I felt comfortable in. I found trousers far more restricting to me than the loose flowy skirts I wear now. I think my hips just aren't the right shape for trousers. This may be the case for other women, too.

And in the UK I've seen many a boy struggle with the trousers halfway down their arse constantly pulling/pushing them up or down to achieve the best position.

And? It's not all is it? It doesn't make them a better Muslim/African/Romanian and so free choice in UK. No order or religion is telling these girls what to wear, not everyone wears it and it's not all of the time.

And the huge difference between men wanting 'their' women to have more cultural ties than them is pretty common, whatever suits men basically. Many a burka clad woman or hijab covered woman is married to a man in Western attire.....I've seen it all over the world.

Not sure where you live Posie, but that last hot weekend we had, I saw quite a few women and girls wearing tiny skirts and what are I believe called "crop tops," which looked very similar to what were referred to as boob tubes about 30 years ago. Basically, it's a garment made of stretchy fabric with either no straps or thin string-like straps where the fabric stops either midway between the bottom of the bust and the navel or around mid stomach.

Surely what it is called is irrelevant. When I've seen particularly young women and girls wearing similar tight, brief garments, they do seem to spend alot of time pulling and pushing them around to maintain some coverage, which signals to me that they aren't exactly comfortable and they do seem to prevent them from engaging in some physical activities.

In any case, the point I think Ivor was making is that sometimes "traditional" clothing for men or women can often be more comfortable and practical than the outfits seen as "mainstream" in the UK.

Personally speaking, considering the anatomical differences, I've always wondered why it is that men don't always wear skirts and women don't always wear trousers, but there you go.

Oh here we go...the [yawn] rubbish about girls wearing boob tubes, when have any of you seen a girl wear a boob tube, it's not the eighties!!! And even if they do is it everyday? like traditional uniform dress.

OP, this definitely applies in Japan.

of course, hardly anyone wears kimono as everyday wear anymore (except the geisha and maiko in Kyoto etc.)

but for special occasions (coming of age, weddings, funerals, New Years day, summer festivals....) it is mostly women who will wear a traditional kimono/yukata, and hardly any of the men.

The Coming-of-Age ceremony at 20 years does see an increasing number of young men in hakama

My DH became interested in kimono a few years ago and bought one or two to wear - he wore them at New Year etc. going to the shrine, and people kept stopping him to ask if they were filming a samurai drama somewhere and was he an actor?

KIKRI - I absolutely agree with your comment above. Often traditional dress (such as African dress) is very lightweight and cool to wear in the hot weather. Here, (I'm English btw but OH is of African descent) You see women struggling to walk in ridiculous heels,tiny skirts and boob tubes etc...not to mention seeing girls walking out in the snow on a saturday night with nothing on!!
That is far more constricting and demoralising than many traditional dresses from other countries.

Men have far more to gain from fitting in with Western counterparts and far more to gain when 'their' women don't.

we went through an exercise at work looking at traditional dress around the world for a children's activity. we wanted a balance of male and female and choose them based on how 'interesting' the outfits were. we ended up with:

a SE asian female
an african female
a scottish man
a south american man
a middle eastern man

we could have easily found an interesting south american female costume and an interesting male african costume, but there's no real scottish equivalent and among the middle eastern cultures the women generally wear much more standard clothing and the men much more diverse by ethnic group.

im pleased to say-"ive been letting down the side"ever since.

looking at this from a diffrent angle[hope no one minds]
women who dont adere to conform to traditional clothes.
a long time ago i used to wear saris all the time[i was a k devotee]
and as a british woman-this didt go down too well at times[actually a lot]with some-mostly some men.
they took it as me"crossing sides/letting the side down and i got called things like lover[sorry]/prostitute ect-i certainly wasnt seen in a good light.
believe it or not-even the fact that i had a pierced nose "proved"to them that i was a prostitute[it was a bit unusual for a white skinned woman to have a pierced nose let alone wear a sari]
roll forward a few years......i have noticed that some british women are seen as "letting the side down"if they convert to muslim[ive heard it said]
given also-that some men dont like women dressing/looking like a fella......
and we have lots of media ect stuff promoting womens clothes[eg "sexy"clothes]......
men still dictate what women can and cant wear and consider women as property[im on about some men]

I don't think the OP is saying that wearing traditional clothes is a bad thing. She is just noticing that it is more common for women not to wear westernised clothes.

In terms of clothes worn in UK hospitals, UK traditional work clothes worn by women were impractical and UK traditional work clothes worn by men and women were unhygienic. It was ridiculous that doctors (mainly men in the past) used to walk around speaking to patients while wearing lab coats or that nurses used to wear those pin on caps.

A lot of the reason that clothing in medical professions has changed is because of infection rates.

KRIKRI - True. Lots of people would still like to see nurses in dresses and tights even though nursing is a very physical job. Likewise, why do female cabin crew need to wear skirts?

I think "traditional" forms of female dress in "mainstream" British culture can also be uncomfortable and constricting. There are many professions that require women to wear skirts or dresses, often with heels, even where such attire is not comfortable or practical for the role performed. There was also the recent case of the woman sacked for not wearing make for her role as a shop assistant.

Mind you, I can't imagine a tie is that comfortable, nor is a suit on a hot day.

No worries colditz. I think a lot of people are a bit dazzled by how pretty saris look but the reality is they are a pain to wear. Because it's just a piece of material that is wrapped around you, you constantly worry that something or someone will pull on it and it will unravel. The only way around this is to tie it very tight (which hurts) or use pins (but then you're afraid it will tear if it is delicate material).

I know what you are getting at OP, women cover up in order to be respected by men, and protected from them. Usually part of religious beliefs.

Ive just been reading "Society Becomes Corrupted When Women
Wear Masculine Clothes" the claims in this document are the biggest load of bollox ive ever read!

Oh. Sorry for ignorance.

colditz, I've worn both saris and bras and I don't think it's at all comparable.

Most of the Indian women I have spoken to find saris difficult to wear, uncomfortable and impractical. My grandmother's generation who have worn one every day since adulthood probably do think it's a case of just getting used to it, but I know my mother who wears one to most events that require dressing up would agree with me that they aren't great everyday wear.

Also I don't know a single Indian woman under forty who can tie one without help. I don't remember spending much time learning how to put on my bra (nowhere near as much time as I have spent trying to learn how to tie a sari with no success).

Karma, WRT the sari, you can say the same about a bra. Yet most women wear one, and your are often working maually while they do so.

Doesn't anyone remember how uncomfortable and 'weird' their first bra was?