A woman’s dressing VS a woman’s attitude

As meenachis we’ve got enough of hearing machas saying that we’re inviting sexual harassment onto ourselves for not dressing modestly. They be like, ‘you bitches dress immodestly to seek attention from males and once males give you attention you all be like eve teasing and perverts, it’s your fault and you blame milk face boys!’ Thoda, pal kudikere paapa onnum teriyathe baba. (Look, a milk drinking baby, all innocent).

Again, I want to stress, sexual harassment against women is not caused by her dressing - one of the the causal factor is attitude and body language. A sexual predator seeks out a weak victim, one that is subdued, one that is easily scared, one that is slinking back fearfully, one that won’t raise an alarm, one that is in a vulnerable state eg: alone and mostly one that is easily manipulated into believing she is responsible for the harassment meted on her.

And, using an esque of my own experience evolution, this theory is as real as Najib screwing our nation. I was very body conscious in my early teens - all I did was try to hide my assets as much as I could by wearing shapeless and voluminous T shirts. I always carried books/file in my hands to cover my chest. Of course I was fearful and took every measure to slink away into nonexistence in my existence. All these that I did, covering up my body in whatever way I could never staved off unwanted attention and sexual harassment - in fact, it got worse.

Slowly, I began coming out from my subdued state; instead of bowing my head down, I walked with my head held high, taking long confident strides and sway my hands powerfully as I strut and guess what? Guys didn’t mess with me like they did when I was in baggy clothes, covering my chest, head, down. I started wearing whatever I want and wore confidence as my accessory and harassment drastically declined.

So, machas, quit pinpointing a meenachi’s dress to pin the compunction of sexual harassment right back at her. You ask why meenachis dress immodestly. Why should we answer you? If you can dress as you like, why can’t women? Above all, define modesty because what’s immodest to you is modest for someone else and vice versa. If you still say that dressing is the cause for rape and sexual harassment, please design an ensemble which when a woman wears it, no guy would want to harass her. If you vote for burqa, women dressed in it have been raped more than women who roam half naked in Amazon and Papua New Guinea tribes - in fact, women in such tribe suffer no sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment happens due to attitudes and power assertion - that is why children of both genders are raped and old women as well. It’s because they are weak and powerless and easily victimised, not because they wore that plunging V neck top and taffeta midi which are so immodest.

Get your facts and heads right machas.