To think that some types of 'western dress' e.g; high heels are as oppressive as the burka?

[malificent7]

Don't get me wrong; I have worn heels in the past in the dubious hope that they look 'sexy.' I have mostly ended up hobbling along at the end of the evening in pain and fed up, envious of those wearing trainers.
I do realise that women have a 'choice ' to wear garments such as heels, mini skirts and boob tubes but aibu to think that they are not garments of liberation but rather an over sexualised aesthetic imposed by the patriarchy.

I am not a massive fan of the burka and I do think that they have been enforced by the patriarchy for a different reason; to protect the modesty of the woman. I am very against the burka ban and I think Boris Johnson is a prick for his comments.

So both types of dress control women in different ways; the western dress to promote sexuality and the burka to hide it.

In short, women should wear what they want without government enforcement and comments from Boris and his ilk.

And before we talk about seeing women's faces when we talk to them and the obstruction to that that the burka causes; what about a full face of slap that many western girls embrace now?

Struggling to think of the last time a woman was confined to her home for not wearing high heels.

Any piece of clothing is oppressive if you're being forced to wear it against your will.

Completely agree @malificent7

Wear comfortable clothes.

The sky won't fall in.

I like how heels look although can’t wear them.

I do wear rather short dresses though but I don’t do it to look sexy but to be comfy (I hate the feeling of clothes).

I think with heels you may have a point in some instances because they are designed to be sexy but tbh lots of people just like being taller or having legs that look longer and therefore do it for themselves.

Struggling to think of the last time a woman was confined to her home for not wearing high heels.

I'm sure there are a multitude of abusive husbands doing this right now. Controlling what your partner wears/says/does is pretty common.

They would be oppressive if we were forced to wear them, but we aren’t.

I do realise that women have a 'choice ' to wear garments such as heels, mini skirts and boob tubes

Why did you put choice in inverted commas? Women do actually have a choice to wear them

Nope because we don’t force primary age girls to wear them

It also dosent hinder us from getting jobs and the majory of women will remove them swiftly without fuss if told it’s impacting on their ability to do their job

OP, exactly which parts of Western dress are oppressive?

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/21/government-rejects-ban-employers-forcing-women-wear-high-heels/

Johnson didn't say he supported a burka ban.

I think there has to be times when a woman is made to uncover for ID purposes, passport control for example, in court etc.

I wish I could wear heels, but I twist my ankle. I like to be a bit taller. I wear them for me, not for anyone else. Same as boob tubes - used to wear them when the embonpoint was a bit perkier - but need underwiring now. Women imo dress for themselves, or perhaps other women,.

As for the full face of slap = that doesn't stop you seeing the full face. I used to wear slap, then realised an extra 15 minutes sleep and more water did more for my skin.

I know everyone will say that western women have a choice not to wear certain kinds of clothes, but there is an expectation/social convention that women wear different kinds of clothes to men, and the clothes women are meant to wear are definitely less comfortable and practical than those men are meant to wear. It’s definitely not enforced anywhere near the way the burka is though!! But I can see why Muslim women living in the west might feel that being completely covered is liberating, if they are truly making a choice to wear it. Women’s appearance is a hot topic wherever we live isn’t it? I wish it wasn’t 😞

Buy covering every part of your eyes in my view your making yourself unemployable

And who has to pay for that the tax payer for a choice

The goal is to be modest I am told of eveyone is wearing people pink wigs and you choose to shave your head your standing out not being modest the norm in the U.K. is not for face coverings so if anything you are being an extravert by wearing this garb

OP the only incidents I can think of where heels and certain kinds of Western dress have been compulsory are in the working world. (This is the debate I'm thinking of - petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/129823)

In the case of the burqa in western democracies it is a symbol of the fact you can wear what you want, there as in regimes like Iran it is an illustration of the opposite.

I dare say this oft repeated argument usually comes from well meaning people.

But it's absolute cobblers. Absolutely no comparison whatsoever.

Here we go again.

OP, have you ever been to a country where women are not given any choice at all and live in fear of considerable retribution if they don't wear clothing dictated to them but the regime they live under?

Women having to wear high heels vs women being obliged to wear a burka? It's a bit like comparing someone on a diet with famine victims, really - one lot have a free choice and the other lot don't. If I choose to wear high heels I know I'm going to be crippled so I rarely do it. No one is making me. Even when I do, I frequently take them off and go barefooted when I begin to feel uncomfortable. Square that away with me being denied permission to leave my room in a hotel one of the countries where 'modest dress' is compulsory until I was wearing a long black cover-all. It's not even remotely similar.

scaryteacher

Johnson didn't say he supported a burka ban.

I think there has to be times when a woman is made to uncover for ID purposes, passport control for example, in court etc.
and yet their have been examples when the women refuse or people don’t want to be branded racists so don’t ask

The OP posts a bold title and then a thread that is larded with caveats that undermine the proposition of the title, i.e I don't actually mean what I said.

Buy covering every part of your eyes in my view your making yourself unemployable

Why? I've worked with many women who wear niqab and they seem perfectly capable. They don't lose their brains when they cover their face.

What are you on about?

I agree with bojo

The burka looks sinister and ridiculous and the reasons behind women wearing it are abhorrent.

I don't think most western clothing is particularly oppressive. Some of it is sexualised and I don't think we ever have a completely true choice when we have cultural pressures.

But on the whole most western women I see at work, on the school run, at the shops are dressed practically and comfortably.

It's been very hot here recently and most women I see are going round in flip flops or trainers, shorts and tshirts of nice dresses, leggings, hair tied back.

Nothing that would oppress them.

I've got to be honest I'm no Boris fan, but I think he only said what a lot of people are thinking. The burka is ridiculous, it must hinder the women so much and I bet most of the time the women are forced or at least pressured to wear it.

No, I don’t think they are directly comparable, because cultures that demand women cover up put much harsher penalties on those women.

Where it’s a free choice by the woman, to wear heels or to cover up completely, you’d have to look at the reasons why that individual feels compelled to do so. Some will be more similar than others.

Where I think there is an interesting overlap is the fact that, whether it’s heels or a boob tube or a burka, it’s all to do with society (and often to do with male attention) and the perception of women.