Women on the street: night & day / spirited & ghostly
Clothes most definitely do not make the woman, but they do reflect a context and make a statement. Most women are neither unabashedly sexy nor hidden to the point of anonymity. They wear neither rhinestone-encrusted stilettos nor hot, heavy robes that encase them from head to toe.
If these clothing options were abstract, freely donned, that would be one thing, but each resides within societies whose track record for female empowerment is, well, less than perfect.
At a social gathering once, while leafing through a photography book, and coming on the image of an ultra-orthodox Jewish woman in wig to conceal her hair and "modest" clothing to disguise her body, I loosed a disparaging groan. A man, looking at the book over my shoulder, informed me that I had no right to judge another culture. I countered with a list that included infanticide, female genital mutilation, and the death penalty for homosexuality.
I am such a delight a parties—always invited back.
Those are both outstanding photos, Terry. Dressed for the male gaze and completely hiding from it of necessity (with a man at the center). I'd like to see you make a book/exhibition of photos on this subject. Then another showing women and girls unburdened by male expectations. The recent news story about the guy in France (Dominque Pelicot), who for more than a decade drugged his wife of 50 years and invited men over to rape her, has exposed the deep, hateful sickness of misogyny, so common that more than 70 local men participated, young and old. None of the men who knew about it (a larger number) reported it to the police. There are so many appalling stories in the news, but that one immediately sucked the wind right out of me.
You can come to my party anytime!