Viraja ji, with respect - and perhaps I am misreading you, my apologies if so -, you made this post about "Women in Western Clothes" and the OP didn't specify that you are addressing only Indian Women. Regardless, even if you had, you (and Yesudas) are making observations on Western ways of dress, which thus opens the thread to all people who wear that dress - most especially those in the culture that form of dress comes from. We do have a right to respond to assertions made about it, after all, just as you would about any assertions a westerner would make about traditional Indian garb.
How do you know that ajreddy is not Indian? "Reddy" is an Indian surname.
I think your point about a major part of how we feel in certain clothes being our own upbringing and the culture in which we are raised, is key. It's the same as how I was saying I feel exposed in Sari but not in Shalwar - I was raised wearing jeans and am uncomfortable in western-style dresses. I see Sari as dressy because it is a kind of dress, which we in the west wear when we want to "dress up", but also because to my western eyes and sensibilities, even the most simple and plain Sari is very elegant and beautifully draped. I just don't think I can ever see them as "every-day simple wear" - a cultural thing for me.
A cultural thing for me as well is that I feel more ego when in Indian garb, either I am worried or I feel dressy, both ego. So again, your point here holds. My apologies if I didn't articulate that well before
I think that wherever you go in the world, in every society, there will be snobs and they will act like snobs. Those girls in your school, if there had been no western dress, would have worn high-fashion and expensive Indian dress and
still been snobs. I don't think it is the clothes that make the person, it's the karmas and neural patterns inside the shell of these bodies that make the person. If someone is prone to being self-important in this birth, then they will be, just as some are prone to being bullies and some are more retiring and modest; all regardless of dress, money, hair, whatever.
It is possible to wear western dress and not be taken by ego, it is possible to dress modestly in western garb as well. What makes the difference is there are the same kind of people all over, and they will end up cutting the same forms no matter what they wear. And there are always those that will push the envelope of what society tend to like, because that's part of how culture grows, evolves and changes. Sometimes it's ugly to some of us and not so great, but there is always good with the bad.
Lastly, I would like to apologise for bringing up the fine line of "blaming the victim". While I think it's a valid discussion, I think it also opened up some strong feelings and some responses that were less than respectful. I feel you may have been lashed out at wrongly, Viraja ji, because I brought that to the discussion. I am very sorry for that. For the record I didn't see where you might have done that in this thread, to my reading.
~Pranam
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