The clothing we wear resemble our identity as a person and they create various expressions of who we are. These various representations can have different meanings in terms of class, context, generations, and religion. The incorporeal of smart dressing are the idealities, will and mindsets while the corporeal is material and embodied. The notions of corporeal and incorporeal intertwine together for the incorporeal to make the corporeal real. In this essay, I will explore how the ideas of smart dressing in modern Asia have different meanings through classes, context, culture, and history from the lens of various scholars and my personal experiences. Moreover, I will address how smart dressing is idealized through women with disabilities and a female politician which bring essence to how this promotes stigmatization, inclusion and exclusion.
The exclusionary aspect through the choices of clothing
The clothing we choose to wear creates a statement of our culture and religious identity which the scholar Susan Dewey notes in her chapter “Fashioning Modern India From Indo-Chic to “India Incorporated.” She expresses how women in Mumbai use fashion as a way to show their privileged knowledge about the world which increases their social mobility (Dewey 68). This privileged knowledge can be shown through young girls dissociating themselves from the conservative girls by wearing skirts, crop tops and modernized salwar kameez. This in turn, creates exclusionary ideas of who belongs and who doesn’t in terms of looking at dress wear. I personally see this exclusionary pattern through some Bollywood movies where modern women who wear chic Indian wear is always differentiated against the lower class girls who dress conservatively.
Disabled women’s smart dressing in accordance to feminization and stigmatization
Drawing on the concepts of corporality, it can be seen in the Bengali culture through the notion of gender. From the chapter, “Fashioning Selves: Femininity, Sexuality and Disabled Women in India” by Nandini Ghosh, the fulfillment of being a desirable women, wife and mother is idealized through the body, appearance and functionality (Ghosh 56). The essence of smart dressing is learnt through messages by women and media such as advertisements and television. Ghosh addresses how women with disabilities request technicians to make adjustments to mobility aid that will adhere to the feminine dress code to look more feminine(Ghosh 60). An example of this is seen through one woman expressing how she can wear her calliper inside her salwar kameez and how she bought fashionable shoes to go with her callipers (Ghosh 60). The notion of smart dressing is varied through the extent of the disability where one will determine the kinds of clothes to wear which will bring great movement. An example of this can be seen through skirts where it is tailored to be pulled up by the thighs where it is modest and provides great mobility. The incorporeal mindset of disabled women produces this stigma, which is that they don’t need to dress up as they are not normal women who express the feminine notions. This incorporeal mindset makes the corporeal real as some disabled women dress conservatively as they don’t want to create more attention to themselves as they are already marginalized.
Female politician smart dressing resembling a nation promoting inclusivity
The context of smart dressing can be seen through politics as well. The dressing of Wu Yu who is an independent female leader with high level political power is addressed in the chapter, “Sport, Fashion, and Beauty New Incarnations of the Female Politician in Contemporary China” by Louise Edwards. Wu sees stylish dressing as a “national duty” as she represents all women in China (Edwards 154). The corporeal notion of Wu is well liked through her exercising male power alongside femininity. Edwards expresses how there are workshops for women in China on how to dress nicely which shows how the incorporeal of Wu’s dressing is made into the corporeal through workshops on how to dress. Looking at history from the cultural revolution, women in the political sphere who dressed up was seen as a crime. Looking specifically at China now, it can be seen that female leadership projects the nations status of women through the style of dress (Edwards 155). The sexualized corporality is dismantled through the ideality of Wu representing herself as a mature woman by not dying her grey hairs (Edwards 155).
The interrogation of smart dressing through boundaries and different contexts
In Nazia Hussein’s article “Bangladeshi New Women’s ‘Smart’ Dressing: Negotiating Class, Culture, and Religion,” she describes how women’s smart dressing in the Bengali culture resembles their class which is seen as not fixed but a fluid identity. The ideality of the new women is seen to be educated and free from domestic labor (Hussein 101). This mindset is corporeal through media such as advertisements where they show new women in the workforce with makeup and styled clothes (Hussein 101). Smart dressing has these boundaries where there is a mark between very western and sexual fashion, which is idealized as inappropriate and is commonly worn by the wealthy upper class (Hussein 109). Another boundary within middle aged women is avoiding sarees that have a sleeveless blouse as it is seen as sexualized in the Bengali culture. One example of smart dressing is wearing the “smart hijab,” which can be worn by women in the workplace that promotes professionalism with religious practices (Hussein 110). The stylized hijab can be worn in westernized wear such as a long skirt shown below.
The ideality of smart dressing is addressed through specific contexts such as age. It is seen that some older women wear clothes such as the salwar kameez or desexualized westernized clothes like skirts (Hussein 110). Smart dressing through wearing western dress can be seen as appropriate for older new women when being outside the country for work. Smart dressing as employees can be seen as a requirement for specific workplaces. Examples of these organizations are advertising and public marketing (Hussein 112). Also, some jobs advertisements in these organizations mention the requirement of smart dressing. Now days, young women in the workforce wear cultural clothing like sarees to cultural events as it is seen as “ethnic” wear for the events (Hussein 105). In my experience, since I was small, I only wear Indian clothes when I go to weddings or celebrating festivities such as Diwali. An example of wearing Indian clothes to events, is seen from a song from a movie I watched called “Hasee Toh Phasee,” where it is the wedding song of the season. The female character is very well educated who wears westernized clothes but can be seen wearing a yellow lehenga in the cultural festivity.
When we shop, we pick certain clothes out of the store, and those items make an imprint in our identity. The clothing we wear resembles who we are as a person which can be subject to change throughout our life. Smart dressing can bring out different meanings through class, context, culture, and history which was expressed through the notions of corporeal and incorporeal representations in modern Asia. I have shown through the various scholars and my own experiences how smart dressing can show these patterns of exclusion through privileged knowledge of dressing. The stigma of disabled women who are not seen as normal feminine women, and the inclusivity of dressing through a female leader’s power of addressing the nations status which was expressed throughout.
References
- Dewey, Susan C. “Fashioning Modern India: From Indo-Chic to ‘India Incorporated.’” Asian Popular Culture in Transition, by Lorna Fitzsimmons and John A. Lent, Routledge, 2013, pp. 59–74
- Edwards, Louise. “Embodied Modernities.” Embodied Modernities: Corporeality, Representation, and Chinese Cultures, by Fran Martin and Larissa Heinrich, University of Hawai’i, 2006, pp. 146–161.
- Hussein, Nazia. “Bangladeshi New Women’s ‘Smart’ Dressing: Negotiating Class, Culture, and Religion.” Rethinking New Womanhood: Practices of Gender, Class, Culture and Religion in South Asia, by Nazia Hussein, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp. 97–121.
- Kohli, Mansi. “Trendy Hijab Styles To Flaunt At EID 2015 Party Celebrations.” FashionLady, FashionLady FashionLady, 2 Mar. 2017, https://www.fashionlady.in/trendy-hijab-styles-to-flaunt-at-eid-2015-party-celebrations/37544.
- Nandini Ghosh, “Fashioning Selves: Femininity, Sexuality and Disabled Women in India,” Diverse Voices of Disabled Sexualities in the Global South, by Paul Chappell & Marlene de Beer, Palgrave Macmillan,2019, pp. 55-73
- Sony Music Entertainment India “Punjabi Wedding Song Video – Parineeti Chopra | Hasee Toh Phasee.” 21 Mar 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuTx6Q4151s