Orientalism aside, if anything relgious modest dress makes your status as a woman more easily perceived. These people like to point to revealing outfits meant to show off womenâs bodies as this opposing equivalent evil but nobody is forced into wearing crop tops
i was raised kinda trad, long skirts, head coverings in church etc. its every bit as objectifying as wearing scrunched yoga pants or whatever -- your body is objectified to the point that even as a child, you are told that failing to obscure it /as much as possible/ can lead others to grievous sin. ie not covering your hair in church can distract men, take their thoughts down an unclean path, and take them to hell. and thats on YOU. it cultivates a profoundly cruel relationship with your body. i cant imagine the dynamic is particularly different just bc its not christianity...
i am coerced into wearing something like this and my sisters do the full burka plus niqab. let me tell you this has never stopped men from staring like their lives depend on it. ppl are fucking stupid
Though in a different but still important sense, *you* aren't being perceived. Simply because we can't know who *you* are.
What is actually being perceived is a template of a woman, a placeholder that is simply a mother, a wife, a background character depending on what's needed. And that's its own flavor of tragedy.
