Sunday, July 13, 2014

Conservatives want young women to cover up more

Some conservatives won’t be satisfied with how young women dress in the U.S. until they’re covered head to toe in burkas.
They find a bare shoulder or too much leg offensive.
What follows are some recent examples of what I’m talking about.
In May, a 17-year-old Virginia girl was kicked out of the Richmond Homeschool Prom because several fathers complained that her dress triggered “impure thoughts.” The student, Clare Ettinger, said the dress met the prom’s “fingertip length” dress code.
Two women acting as chaperones confronted Ettinger and told her that her dress combined with her dancing made several fathers supervising the dance uncomfortable.
“I’m not responsible for some perverted 45-year-old dad lusting after me because I have a sparkly dress on and a big ass for a teenager. And if you think I am, then maybe you’re part of the problem,” Ettinger wrote in a guest post on her sister’s blog.
Media coverage of the incident included reports by NBC News, the New York Post, WWBT and Gawker.
Another incident that made headlines this spring was the Utah high school that Photoshopped yearbook photos to add more clothing to girls. The editors digitally covered bare shoulders and cleavage and, in at least one case, removed a tattoo. (See examples at Uproxx and Cosmopolitan.)
In a sexist double-standard, last year’s Wasatch High School yearbook included a page called “Wasatch Stud Life,” which featured photos of male students pulling up their shirts and showing their underwear. (See articles by Jezebel and Cosmopolitan.)
Adults in Utah must be especially conservative about young women’s clothing.
In June, a female reporter with the Ogden, Utah, Standard-Examiner was barred from the courtroom for wearing a sleeveless blouse. She put on a colleague’s winter coat and returned to the hearing she was covering.
(See the article that started the fuss in the Standard-Examiner. Jim Romenesko was among the media who followed up on the story.)

Photos: Claire Ettinger prom photos (top), edited and unedited Wasatch High School yearbook photos.


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