The world of fashion is ever-evolving; it’s hard for fashion lovers to catch up with the trends. Fashion-loving urban youngsters consume these trends as an obsession, but for some others, it seems utterly ridiculous. Let’s take the example of the current obsession with ripped jeans. The youngsters get mocked for new trendy fashionable clothes; at times it’s very much uncomfortable when your normal is not their normal. You can see more of it in rural and semi-urban areas.
I visited my hometown in Kerala sometime back, where I was mocked for wearing ripped denim jeans. I got mocked for wearing ripped jeans by elders. When will we decide to be the kind of society that doesn’t mock any new change? When will we grow out this pudgy bully, who points and laughs at anything new which they can’t accept or digest? I don’t know. It’s not something which is terribly bad but this is not something we should be doing either.
I was asked if it’s an old jeans. Don’t I have money to buy a new one? I was taken aback by the kind of reaction – I was advised to wear something modest and decent! I even had some people come to me and ask me why I dress so funny. This made me think that talking about what one wears is not just subjected to a particular gender.
I heard growing up that a girl should walk out of the house ensconced in a bubble wrap, she shouldn’t wear anything which grabs too much attention. But it has now turned out to be something which weighs on all genders equally. Who says we don’t have equality huh? We all are expected to be modest and humble in every sense.
I think maybe it’s a knee-jerk reaction. When people are confronted with something that totally surprises them, they react weirdly make passive aggressive comments that you can’t bear.
Would it make sense for people to argue that modesty doesn’t require one to dress in a particular way? Maybe a couple of decades back such self-imposed code of conduct made sense. We live in progressive times, you can’t go around suggesting that one shouldn’t walk down the street in particular set of attire nowadays.
I feel that modesty and decency go beyond one’s dress choices, it’s something which reflects one’s behavior. If that’s the reason you are wearing something, you shouldn’t. I know that I often fail to act with dignity, maybe not because of my choice of clothing, but for a thousand other reasons.
You might ask me- how does it matter? First of all, I don’t care – but it’s never a pleasure to get mocked. I feel that style is a very personal thing. People really need to be mindful of that. There’s so much insensitivity and ugliness out there. It’s high time Malayalis get rid of the fake morality to do moral policing on someone else for something you can’t have or get.