THE EDITOR, Sir:
I ASSEVERATE that women are undoubtedly the most persecuted specie on planet earth! They are blamed for every conceivable ill and treated accordingly: women are responsible for the entry of sin into the world, breakdown in relationships and homes, marginalisation of men, growing of churlish men and now their perversion.
Yet, despite all of this they dare to love, trust, forgive, care, show kindness and tenderness. They are gracious, charming, pacific, intelligent and undeniably beautiful skimpily dressed or suffocatingly covered. Indeed, they epitomise what God is! Shakespeare says, "There is nothing either good of bad, but thinking makes it so." And Jesus Christ says, "But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her in his heart." Matthew 5: 28. "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed," James 1:14.
Man is, therefore, responsible for his own perversion and not the woman in her skimpy dress. The Bible says we should not fornicate. To me this means I must see a woman not simply as an object of my sexual satisfaction and flit from one to the other, as I like. A woman must be respected at all times and in all circumstances. If, when I see a skimpily dressed woman all I can do, is lust, then I am in a very, very bad way. Norms and mores will inevitably change because human society is an evolutionary one. What remains fundamentally unchanged is how we treat our one another.
At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I hardly think a skimpily dressed society showing brotherly love one to another, forgiving one another and caring for one another would meet the disapprobation of God. I, therefore, dare say that covering-up of the body is more about our insecurities than of morality. Man is insecure about his ability to control his libido so he requires the woman to cover-up.
On the other hand, a woman who is ashamed of her perceived imperfection, covers-up and decries those who show no shame of their imperfection. I do believe if we all look less at ourselves and more into ourselves, things might just be better. Think about it!
I am, etc.,
E. ELPEDIO ROBINSON
elpedioart@anngel.com.jm
12 Laurel Drive,
Kingston 10,
Jamaica W.I.
