When the first one passed, you ignored what you saw. By the time you were confronted with the fourth woman’s bra screaming, “Look at me,” it was hard to pretend your eyes weren’t being assaulted.
It wasn’t simply a strap slipping out. Entire bras--hooks, eyes and labels--made their presence known from the top of sundresses and camisoles. Worse, the color of the bras rarely matched the outerwear. The exhibitionists weren’t just young and uninformed; they appeared to cover the range of ages and socio-economic classes.
You confess to thumbing through the pages of Vogue, Essence and other publications where women routinely are told what to buy—without regard for whether an outfit will look good on them. But, you are no fashionista. You could have missed the announcement that the exposure of a bra or the top edge of panties to perfect strangers has become a statement of American womanhood.
Did that notice come after Calvin Klein made the near naked hunk sporting briefs in his ads the symbols of manhood? (That was long before urban fashion followed suit, and boys began wearing pants that exposed their underwear.) Was it sent before Victoria strutted her secret across television screens in households throughout the world?
Ara Dozier--wherever she is--must be having a fit. Your seventh grade social studies teacher often counseled her female charges about the beauty of an under-exposed woman. Mystery, she asserted, is one of a woman’s most powerful weapons.
Decades ago, a posse of feminists forged a national movement they said would, among other things, recast women as more than a bunch of Marilyn Monroes, waiting for the breeze from the ground grate to raise their dresses. They have achieved just the opposite, giving birth to a brigade of hooches, revealing copious cleavages and unappealing midriffs over too tights pants.
What happened?
You want to be clear: You are no prude; no feminist; or what author Alice Walker calls a womanist--man-eater lite. You are an open-the-door, pull-out-the-chair, carry-the-bags, and pay-the-check kinda woman. You like pampering a man—the right man, of course. Yes, you have a brain, and use it often.
Women set the standard for society by forecasting their values; what they are willing or not willing to accept; and how they present themselves in public and in private. If they are off course, then there’s a huge problem. A bunch of women seem to be without a compass, lost in some Penthouse ad; they’ve been there far too long. The bra thing is one of many examples.
Last week, fashion experts reported this fall’s clothing will echo consumers’ economic concerns. The clothes, they say, will be of more somber hues. There will be a return to the classics: designs with simple, clean but elegant lines. You shout hallelujah, and hope the sisters will be back on track, soon.
