Distressed clothing; those ubiquitous ripped jeans in particular are not for me. However, I have no quarrel with fashion victims who choose to be seen wearing clothing that looks as though it was retrieved from the rubbish tip. I see such sartorial choices not as a character flaw but the expression of individuality and, paradoxically also as the endeavour to fit in. The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Tirath Singh Rawat however, was expressed his disapproval of ripped jeans.
Apparently if a woman wears ripped jeans and appears in public, she is passing on poor values to her children. This was the gist of his words.
Predictably there was swift backlash against the CM’s words which were seen as misogynistic.
The reaction to the words of the chief minister was for many women to post pictures of themselves in ripped jeans of all sorts.
Is it ripped jeans per se, or mothers in ripped jeans – what exactly is the problem, some women seemed to be asking.
What a woman wears is her business, and hers alone said women on Twitter.
How about being shocked by actual women's issues?
The fact is that clothing doesn’t determine character.
This thought occurred me as well: why was the CM checking out the woman so closely, from top to bottom; that he noticed every little detail of what she wore?
Many women posted pictures of themselves in different types of attire to assert their right to wear whatever they like.
We in India have a proud and ancient culture of strong women. Are ripped jeans all it takes to destroy that culture, asked the tweeple?
Numerous tweets pointed out that wearing ripped jeans is better than having a regressive mindset.
It was also clarified that women will wear what they want to – including a saree – using the Pawri meme.
Some decided to go ahead and buy the thing – just because.
Some tweeted this ‘topless’ photo.
Many people pointed out that Indian culture and philosophy is very accepting of personal choices in terms of clothing or lack thereof as in this case. So why are only women rebuked for their clothing choices?
Public urination, adding to a garbage problem, spitting and breaking traffic rules are far bigger problems for society than people who choose to wear ripped jeans.
Photos of RSS members in their khaki shorts were tweeted by some opposition members along with the #RippedJeansTwitter hashtag. Now if only the opposition could be his vocal and this united in raising their voices against the bad laws and policies of the government – stuff that actually matters.
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