Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Dressing up and down

There are a number of things that we simply take for granted and never think about. For instance, when we dress to go to work, we normally follow a pattern, a certain kind of dress, maybe we have selected items of our attire that are kept for the purpose. We dress differently when we go for, say, a wedding. It will be different for, say, an outing. We do take a lot of care about our dress, even if we are not generally very careful about dressing up by the standards of our society. I wonder how many people have thought about the need for being so choosy about our dress. Have you?

What I am going to ask here may shock you. So be prepared. Keep your thoughts about conformity, norms, social customs and so on far away from your mind. Done? Ready? Here goes:

Why do people wear clothes? ..... I mean, why do we at all wear clothes? Did your face change colours? Yellow, red blue ... ? Now you know what I meant. Hope the explosions are over. If so, just think of an answer.

Of course, the standard answer is there: How can we move about in society without clothes? That is preposterous, indecent, unlawful, atrocious, shameful, ... blah blah. Well, I am not interested in these answers. If all other animals in this world could get along pretty well without clothes, why should we, humans, homo sapien sapiens, have to wear clothes? Why do we have to hide our bodies from others?

Now, think of the consequences of wearing clothes. Clothes are used to project an image of oneself on others--an image that is not truly that of oneself. Think of how a rather ordinary looking girl/woman can make herself appear like a real beauty with the help of very pretty clothes (and, of course, makeup). Think of how a person can look imposing with the proper kind of clothes, and how some professors (very knowledgeable person, quite possibly) look like tramps because they do not care to take care of their clothes. And so on, and so on. Just think of how often clothes deceive us.

Think of how it might have been helpful if we were not wearing clothes. For example, someone would notice that there is an unusual discolouration behind one's neck, and the person would be able to meet a doctor before the discolouration developed into something bad. Some of us would also get rid of allergic reaction to synthetic fibres. Or escape the consequences of sweat remaining for a long time at some places. With all those disadvantages, we still wear clothes. Why?

Does anyone have any answers? Let me see. I will wait for some time and see what responses I get. Then I will give my reasons. Scientific reasons, believe me.