On the week of March 31, I gave up my yoga pants and comfy T-shirts to conduct an experiment to observe how the South community would respond if I started dressing as “promiscuously” as my gut would allow me.
In order to make it to Early Bird PE on time every day, I have to be out the door by 6:50 a.m. at the latest. At 6:50 a.m. from November to March in the Chicagoland area, the weather outside is freezing, hence my natural aversion to dress nicely, or anything outside the parameters of comfortable and warm, to school on a regular basis.
So on the first morning of my “experiment,” I struggled to find pieces of clothing that would come off as “promiscuous” because my style tends to be on the more casual side. Within five minutes of my search, I was ready to call the experiment off, but the slightly better half of me told me to stop being a coward and put on a tank top and shorts.
Much to my surprise, I clearly wasn’t looking noticeably risqué that day because no significant comments were made on my outfit. I had underestimated what “slutty” would look like in the eyes of my peers and was thus stressed at how I would manage the rest of the week.
From the advice of fellow Oracle Editorial Board members, I needed to pick out pieces of clothing that would show more skin or bring attention to my chest. After a good half hour of rummaging through my closet, I decided to match up a crop top and skirt with slits down the sides of my legs – both of which I would normally complement with more modest clothing.
A few friends asked if I was “dressed up” for some occasion, to which I replied that I was “simply trying something new.” And though I can’t really say I was looking particularly provocative since I nudged my skirt up close to the end of my crop top out of insecurity, I was blatantly slut-shamed for the first time that day: “You look like a promiscuous mess!”
Along with this startling comment, I noticed that more people, especially girls, took double takes at my outfits throughout the week. When I wore heels, my peers pointed them out and questioned my reasons for wearing them.
The overwhelming amount of attention I was receiving, mostly negative, eventually made me defensive. My initial plan was to keep the purpose of the experiment a secret, but by Wednesday, I started slipping the truth as a means of rationalizing my “unusual” change of style. And through the peers who found out about the experiment, I found out that there were people who discreetly made remarks about my new look: “Why does she look like a slut today?” and “Yeah, she looks like a whore.”
Prior to this experiment, I didn’t want to wear crop tops and ripped tights with shorts and five-inch heels to school because of the discomfort it would cause me. But now that I’ve been through a week of dressing provocatively, I want to cover up even more because I know I’d be criticized and judged otherwise.
Why is it that people concluded that I’m promiscuous solely off the basis of revealing clothing? Do my personality, hobbies and interests not matter at all in prescribing a label to my character? If a pair of heels adds the finishing touch in making me look like a promiscuous, are all the women in this school, in this world, who wear heels one too?
Some may argue that decking out in risqué raiment draws unnecessary attention to women, but it poses no harm upon anyone and is a completely reasonable way to creatively express oneself. For those who think women need to dress more modestly to refrain from distracting men, I would argue that men don’t have to look at women – they can divert their eyes and attention towards anything else if they really wanted to. Furthermore, women are equally capable of lusting after men based on what they wear at any given time, which is why it doesn’t make sense to me that fingers are only pointed at women in terms of dress code.
There is a danger behind assuming that all women who dress in a more revealing manner are “asking for it.” It’s a style, just like some people choose to dress more athletically or preppy than others. If I ever did choose to start showing more skin on a regular basis, I would only do it because I felt more bold than usual when I dressed this way. But my morals and values wouldn’t change with my physical appearance – I would still be the same person that I am in sweatpants and a T-shirt.
Just as wearing comfortable and modest clothing doesn’t automatically make me a quiet and reserved person, what one chooses to wear is only a minor factor, if at all, in determining the quality and nature of an individual as a whole.
“It was so totally out of character to see this child in some of the clothes she was wearing…You’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but boy, I’ll tell you it really tested me.”-Joanne Kennedy, Instructional Assistant in IMC.
“It caught me by surprise because I had never seen [her] dress like that before. But I thought it was scandalous and revealing to the point where I wondered what had prompted that change in clothing for [her]. -senior Jake Adams*
*Name has been changed
“I felt uncomfortable for [her] by the dirty looks [she] was getting, and I could sense that [she] was uncomfortable as well.” -senior Inaara Tajuddin
