Of Long Bare legs and naked waists

 

 

Looking at the commotion created by the various 'moral' groups over the cheerleaders' dresses in the IPL, one is struck not by the ignorant posturing by people who should have better things to do with their lives than do skirt gazing, but by the striking difference that is made by culture and tradition over what are 'moral dresses' and what are not.

In any case, its an established fact that most of the people who protest about skin exposure are self-righteous moralists who feel immensely inadequate in their own sex lives and who find aggression always a good defence to hide behind. But that's another case altogether.

Consider this. If we had women dancing in Ghagra cholis and dancing some traditional folk dance, these same moralists would not have had a case; even if the dresses had involved a lot of navel and naked  midriff show. Its fascinating how naked midriff and a deep neckline can be considered as traditional and hence 'respectful' dress while naked legs are not. The moralists would not have had a case because the general population would have not found anything amiss in the dresses.

Just because show of naked legs were never a part of our traditional dress while naked waists are (Hell, the latter are an integral part of our wedding dresses!!!). Naked waists would be considered dangerously titillating in many cultures and would be banned for the baleful influence it might have on the poor 'defenseless' men!!!

If we had naked legs as part of our tradition, the naked legs would have not raised an eyebrow.

Even many of our traditional dances have gyrating movements which seem perfectly fine with us and considered a part of our cultural heritage. The same dance would have been considered vulgar half a century back in lots of western countries. A lot of our dances were even branded as 'devil dances' by Victorian purists.

What the moralists of our time must understand that everything in culture is relative and subject to de-sensitisation. Show enough legs for 20 years and no hair, men would lust after hair.

But the self-righteous never learn. That's their first attribute.

So it goes.

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