If I understand magickman and chevalier, they aren’t saying that you’re disgusting as a female if you’re not wearing skirts and heels, they’re saying that if you dress well - and generally a decent skirt and some low heels make us look well dressed - you will be more attractive.
Yes, not always, but as a rule yes. I don’t know about Magickman, but I’m not getting stuck on heels and skirt - you may well replace it with something equivalent or a general idea of classy smart casual.
That’s true, and completely unoffensive. If you go out in sweats, you look sloppy, and sloppy is not well dressed.
Yes. Obviously, if you’re at the lakeside, operating a fishing knife while chasing away a halfwild cat, you aren’t going to look impeccable. I don’t really have a huge problem with people being somewhat dishevelled - my chief gripe is just stuff that doesn’t match or stuff that’s plain ugly. I think many people will point out that this is very subjective, but I believe that when I say “ugly”, it rings a bell, because people want at the same time to follow the fashion which tells them to look ugly, and to be seen as pretty, which is something they took from home in more properly ordered times. So a girl could wear army boots with black leggings and a short white skirt with pink polka dots and a dressy shirt with a non-dressy denim camisole over it, oversized earrings and adopt a facial impression you would expect from a carricatural jail warden. To that I say no. Obviously, my example is overdrawn and normally people don’t go that far. However, they go too far already and it’s bad, it’s not good.
I remember a girl who went to the post office in her usual clothing - army pant and a big tee-shirt, with a buzzed head and combat boots. She looked bulky and scary. But when an old man saw her and shook his head in disgust, she was hurt and offended. She told me he was judging her for not looking like the women he remembers from the forties and fifties. I think he was judging her for looking sloppy. For not caring enough to make herself attractive, but wanting to be seen as attractive anyway.
Yes. A Christian needs to control disgust directed towards a human person, his neighbour, but this doesn’t invalidate the cake mechanics, i.e. wanting to have a cake and eat it.
One can always expect basic human respect and hope for a bit more, regardless of the way one bears himself, but choosing a style is subject to the same laws of choice and consequence.
Obviously, as said above, situation does matter.
If a woman doesn’t care about looking good, fine, but she can’t expect anyone to think she looks good, because face it, she generally doesn’t. The same goes for men.
Yes. These days, some people seem as if they were trying to pick the ugliest mismatch while showing off, which makes it a form of dressing up. This must be a social thing, some kind of wide-spread subculture.
I don’t understand, why is it condescending to be recognized as a female? We should never be ashamed to be women.
Definitely. You’re kinda the cherry on the cake in the species.
One time she came from the gym in sweats. Even in sneakers and sweats she still maintained that air of perfection in dress. The sweats fit her well and she still looked rather classy. We all snickered “____ was in sweats!!!” but inside we were in complete awe of how she looked so perfect coming out of the gym.
Yes, I was trying to turn attention to that too. Appropriateness for the occasion is a good thing, obviously, without getting stuck on etiquette. Being classy, as opposed to trying to look ugly, offensive or whatever else is hip these days, that’s key.
I like my jeans and I have cute sweaters.
Great for you. Girls look cute in those on casual occasions.
But I agree with the sentiment of posters about what guys wear. Guys shouldn’t be wearing jeans either, if they don’t want women to. Nice kackis and button down shirt on a guy is the equivalent to, say, a peasant skirt and nice sweater/shirt.
I commend your sense of proportion. Incidentally, what you mentioned is the way I dressed throughout pretty much all of my late teens and early twenties. By the way, there are jeans and jeans, and jeans are appropriate on some occasions. Anyway, I don’t have any particular problem with people who wear jeans and t-shirts on most occasions. My problem is with the general dressing down, abandonment of dressing up, putting ugliness in the vogue and no longer trying to look pretty or handsome. “Ugly” is a word I’m getting more and more comfortable using.