Body Blog Post #3

 I proceeded with the body practice of wearing dresses with the clarification. The feel-good vibes from the first week is partially gone. In wearing skirts or dresses, I feel increasingly inconvenient. I am always conscious about keeping my thighs together to avoid a “wardrobe malfunction” and unwanted peeking at my private parts. In addition, dresses are not as comfortable as I thought they would be. Over the two week period, I felt chafing over my thighs, and I have to significantly slow down my walking speed which is very inconvenient for a person who has a large stride. I began to have some questions in mind, such as how could people equate gracefulness with slow and steadiness? I just don’t have that much time to be pretty with more important tasks in mind! If we put this scenario into context, I think certain gender stereotypes can deprive bodily freedom of woman (and men of course). People should not be expected to behave in certain ways to befit a type of gendered aesthetics. Instead, they should allow to behave in the ways they think they are beautiful and comfortable.  

Over these periods, some of my friends asked me why I was wearing dress for the whole week and I told them about this experiment I am doing for this course. I also find it uncomfortable and embarrassing because people start to notice that I have been wearing the same sets of clothes for a short period of time. Whereas I have observed that males are less questioned when they don’t have a wide range of wardrobe choices, women are expected to be pretty and be well-dressed, one of the features being having a wide range of choices for their clothes. It is interesting to draw inference and observe how social norms manifest themselves with different expectations for men and women. 

I will continue with this body practice for a while but I am kind of surprised with this rather negative and different reaction I have compared to my previous blog. I wonder how will I react next week.  (347 words)

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Body Blog Post #2

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