The moral code attached to attires

WOMEN wearing what they feel like wearing, and being chastised or worse for the same, is a tired refrain in Indian society.

- SHARANYA MANIVANNAN

In the not-at-all -distant past, asserting the right to dress as one wishes to (or needs to, because of factors like the weather, not factors like cultural conditioning) was itself regarded as a bold move. Fortunately, more and more of us publicly and privately make this assertion now — and are more often, though not always, met with support. In the last fortnight, two such instances made it to the press.

One involved the actor Sai Pallavi, whose sister had shared images from a holiday, including one in which they had been in beachwear. The images drew criticism that the actor, known for her “homely” beauty and demeanour, had decided to become “glamourous”. In the other instance, which went viral online, a 20-year-old law student named Janani was verbally harassed by vendors at a flower market for wearing a sleeveless kurta.