Comments on: On men & mini-skirts

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:44:59 +0000

BIBLE PRINCIPLES OF DRESS FOR CHRISTIANS

July 1, 1986 Issue
by George Vergara

And I want to quote Isaiah 47:1-3 in order to further understand what God sees as nakedness and immodesty. “Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen.” This God describing the downfall of Babylon with the figure of a woman. Notice that at the point God describes her as having the leg bare and the thigh uncovered God says she is “naked” and her “shame” shall be seen. This is why short dresses, shorts, “peek-a-boo” slits in skirts, etc., are sinful–and this is why I as a man do not wear shorts, skimpy tops, unbutton the top buttons of my shirt or go bare-chested in public as some of our people do–this is nakedness and it is shameful. I hope that in this immoral age we live in our people do not become so accustomed to the nakedness around them that they lose their own sense of modesty.

In conclusion, we serve God in body as well as in spirit (I Cor 6:20); this would include our dress. The Bible does not contain a formal dress code, but gives principles of dress that let us make judgments and “test what is best” (Phil 1:9,10). We want to please God, not ourselves (II Cor 5:15), so we want to clothe our bodies in a way that pleases God. The four principles of dress are:

(1) maintain the male-female distinction; (2) consider the effect our clothing has on our influence; (3) make sure our clothing does not “offend” anyone, and; (4) be sure our clothing is modest in God’s sight. I believe these principles can be used for any article of clothing whether you are a man or woman or whether you are young or old.

May God bless you in your desire to better serve Him in the Lord Jesus Christ.–OPA.

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By: caroline

caroline — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:17:40 +0000

Let us speak about things that are practical. Only a fool swims in a crocodile infested and expects to throw the human the Human Rights Charter at them when they attack. A person should have the sense to judge when it is appropriate to wear something. Remember this is Harare and the one of a few places where they wear very short mini skirts is the Avenues in the evening and when selling certain services. Don’t try to justify your lack of sensitivity to local morals by saying Zimbabwean men are uncivillised. Ziva mapfekero epanzvimbo. How can you say you are comfortable when everyone is orgling you?

By: Panganai Toperesu

Panganai Toperesu — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:54:50 +0000

Varaidzo’s article about mini-skirt has opened up a space for enlightment to our community as Africans and the line of development we should take and being conscious of (ubuntu). Modernisation or civilisation is becoming blinding concept to the so called educated copy cats of other cultures, behaviour, habits,etiquete or even language. Yes for me right now am using english language not that i take it as a privilege but for the purpose of communicating to diversified people who can not understand my beautiful shona language. For they say no language no development and no identity. Becoming a foreigner in your own land. Without much digression, as Africans we should learn to adapt rather adopt. From the above commments especially from our beautiful sisters it clearly shows that there are some ideological gaps that need to be filled to shape and mould an educated and diginified African person who will think and act like an African in her endeavour for development

By: joachim garikai

joachim garikai — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 20:27:15 +0000

The world we live in is about repredentations,it’s about images and imaginations and more often than not its the images we create,the (re)presentations we make of ourselves which determines whether we will be remembered as people who did something for the better of humankind and it is the same which can also condemn us to the dustbins of history.
As a media oriented person I found myself rereading most of the comments on Varaidzo’s narrative and am sure most will agree with me that it stirred a honest’s nest.
One thing is however becoming explicitly overt,most of our female bloggers are ideologically bankrupt which itself explains why their contribitions are replete with misguided emotionalism where “feeling good” is the best condition for womenkind regardless of generational ramifications,the domino effect.
In my narratives on the socio-political and economic dynamics in Zim I have argued that any programme of action should transcend the limitations of partisanship,imagine if we were to take nakedness/semi-nakedness as the ultimate in measuring our contributions to making this world more palatable for women,would the next generation look at our tombstones with admiration or contempt?
We want to correct historical misconceptions about women and playing into the hands of patriach won’t help.I remember in my study of history Napoleon Bonarparte saying wome should only be educated to the extent that they will be able to take stock of the cutlery.As women are we socialising ourselves into fitting into such ideological straitjackets or do we strive to show our best?
Judging from the myriad of responses on this platform I think we are a long way off course,someone better go up there and switch on the lights on the lighthouse lest our women commit mass suicide.

By: Joachim Garikai

Joachim Garikai — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:49:14 +0000

Panganai’s comment is quite insightful and he touches on the various dynamics at play in the whole gendered discourse etc.

What our women folk deliberately fail to realise is that militancy has a platform where it is suitable so is advocacy and simple diplomacy.No one is really against women wearing what they want but whatever it is they do put on should not in the same process erode their dignity.

Women are not an island surrounded by a sea of black stupid males,they are their own worst enemy.How many times do we hear women themselves saying ‘that’s disgusting’?Countless times if we are to be factual.

That women sometimes dress outrageously is not an opinion but a fact and if you are to be honest to yourselves sometimes its’s sickening.

We can look at the world and say but they are doing it,but we are not the world.We are who we are first before we are them.Acculturation and a lack of identity has condemned women to apemanship through their lopsided perspectives on the Macdonaldisation of the world in the guise of globalisation.

Let’s look at South Africa as a case study since some are using it as the typical utopian society for women.How has this blinded assimilation of western conceptions of beauty and womanhood destroyed the very heart of their society.

Ameriacans keep their culture,we want to assume their all in the name of freedom but unfortunately we also lose our humanity.

There is a tacit awareness among all of us of what is right and what is wrong.Let that be the yardstick we use in our daily engagements.

Miniskirt marches will never bring the much needed female empowerment at best it can only bring tolerance which is not enough in itself.

By: Panganai Toperesu

Panganai Toperesu — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 10:10:38 +0000

I liked the diversity of comments, from radicals to liberals and conservatives, but the bottom line is that Kubatana.net opened up space for us to express our opinions. It is a right of a person to express one’s self some from enlightment pespective and other from lack of depth which give them myopic focus on issues of gender and development.

Paulo Freire in his pedagogy of the oppressed warned the oppressed that in their struggle to attain fully humanism they must be carefull of switching poles after attaining their liberation. That means becoming also the new oppressors a common blunter for many revolutionary people. Frantz Fanon pointed out that the goal of the oppressed is to be like the oppressor. That means that the war waged by the oppressed is a war of envying the oppressor, and this is where we have a vicious cirle.

When women are fighting for emancipation from partriarchal grip of oppression, it must be noted that this fight is aimed to attain full humanism and the very reason why such enlighted men join in the struggle. Our fight is focussed on removing the oppression system that hinders people from becoming who they want to be in an equal basis of gender.

But gender and development should not be abused to strip people from their identity as a people. Africans are a people also with their own identity they have to fully be conscious of that perspective. Modernisation or civiliasation is not about borrowed culture, habits and tradition, but its all about elevating one’s culture, habits, tradition and language (evolution of these pillars of life) for development towards full attainment of humanism.

In short i say men and women are the same before God and both are children of God. Empowerment and capacity building must be cross cutting for both. Adocacy and lobbying must be focused on the correct mind-set and transformation towards achieving full humanity by both women and men which should be inclusive of all spheres of life.