Lowering hemlines with every birthday?

Just after the South Africa Film and Television Awards (SAFTA) last month, South Africa’s Sowetan newspaper featured a short piece about what the stars were wearing. The paper commented on celebrities Andile Gaelesiwe and Terry Pheto, who both wore dresses.

 

Of Gaelesiwe, the Sowetan wrote, “(She) showed up in a super-short dress that made her look like, um…” while of Pheto, they wrote that she looked “age-appropriate, fun, and classy in a short cream dress.”

 

Am I missing something? Their dresses both look around the same length to me – Pheto’s might even have been a bit shorter. Information given in subsequent articles added to the apparent controversy caused by Gaelesiwe’s dress choice. Gaelesiwe is 35 and Pheto is 23.

 

So my question is, at what age should my skirt be lowered to sit on or below my knee? Should it be when I feel “‘old”? Wait a minute, what age in particular does being old start at exactly? When should I “know better?”

 

The women who actually wear the items of clothing very rarely define the answers to these questions. It seems it is not about whether or not the woman wearing the clothes feels good or comfortable. What is society deems “appropriate” was decided long before these two women looked in their wardrobes and decided what to wear that glorious night of the SAFTAs. So, I ask, who exactly gets to decide what I can and cannot wear?

 

The writer probably meant for the article about the two celebrities to be light-hearted and entertaining, but this notion of age-appropriate dressing irks me somewhat. What concerns me is the loaded implications behind those very choice of words. If after a certain age (that nobody out there seems to be able, or want, to state), my choice of dress becomes “improper,” is it then considered proper of society to chastise or ridicule me in order to bring me back into the fold? Using what method?

 

Last year, a woman – around the same age as Terry Pheto – was sexually assaulted at Noord taxi rank for wearing a mini-skirt. Yes, there was outrage at this barbaric attack. However, outrage no matter how loud and public, does not necessarily resolve the underlying issues. It seems it is “fun and classy” to wear short dresses to awards ceremonies but out of line to wear them in public spaces in general, and taxi ranks in particular. I am confused.

 

A person’s true age does not always show on their faces or bodies. I am 24 but people often tell me I could easily pass for a 17-year-old (I have not quite decided if this is a compliment or an insult yet). I wonder whether, if Andile Gaelesiwe was not in the public eye and her age wasn’t known, if people would have had such an issue about the number of inches of cloth that covered her body?

 

Is it ageism? Or maybe another issue is at work here; if she was super tiny in size – this is not to say that Andile is “big” by any measure – would there have been such commotion about her outfit? Are we saying that women above a certain size or age should not wear short dresses or that only certain young women can wear short dresses i.e. 23-year-old Pheto as opposed to the 25-year-old woman assaulted at Noord Taxi rank?

 

The double standards and confusion this potentially creates for women and girls is troublesome. Essentially, there is a notion that whatever negative reaction society displays for wearing “inappropriate” clothing is acceptable, and somehow the wearer is to blame for the consequences.

 

In another article by The Sowetan later that week, some of the guests at the SAFTAs apparently commented, “She (Gaelesiwe) was probably in the market for a younger man after her divorce…” Please! As if everything that a woman does or wears in life is to do with a man.

 

The evasiveness of so-called age-appropriate dressing brings about only problems, with no clarifications, guidelines, or solutions. I do not agree with these restrictions that attempt to hinder the choices I make in my life. But if there are so called rules to the game, can someone please inform me of them?

 

The ramifications of age-appropriate dressing may not be overt, but for me the very notion has some serious implications. When the issue is interrogated properly, we may start to appreciate the kind of negative affect this can have on the community in which we live and the conflicting messages that we are sending to young women and girls in particular.

 

To me, either short dresses are in, or they are simply out.