Endnotes
for section 6
[1]
Since the acceptance of liberal
Christianity in the West there has been a colossal and continual rise in
the rates of murder, adultery, theft, drunkenness, drug abuse,
perversion, assault on women, and crime perpetrated by women:
“Increasing
crime appears to be a feature of all modern industrialized
societies, and no developments in either law or
penology
can be shown to have had a significant impact on the problem . . . Crime is least likely to be a serious problem in a society that is
economically undeveloped and subject to restrictive religious or similar
restraints on behaviour. For modern urbanized society, in which economic
growth and personal success are dominant values, there is little reason
to suppose that crime rates
will not continue to increase” (Britannica). [Note
that prosperity is only linked with depravity when men “make haste to
be rich” (Prov. 28:20), and curse God in their hearts and say, “I am
rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing” (Rev. 3:17).
Capitalist economies were developed among devout Protestant peoples; see
‘Shorter Catechism’, Q74,
Westminster Confession
of Faith, p307.]
“In
most Western societies the incidence of recorded crime
by women, and the number of women passing through the penal
systems, is on the increase; in the
United States, for instance,
the number of women arrested for property crimes between 1960 and 1976 increased by 276 percent – a
significantly higher rate of increase than that exhibited by other
groups. A similar trend is shown in English prison statistics: the number of women in prison under sentence rose from
538 in 1974 to 941 in 1984, an increase of 75 percent in 10 years. A
number of explanations have been offered for this trend. One suggestion
is that it reflects a real trend in the commission of crimes by women – that the changing social role of women, with
more women leaving the home and taking employment, expecting and
achieving financial independence, leads to greater opportunity for crime
and to greater temptation. An alternative explanation is that the
change in the apparent rate of female criminality merely reflects a
change in the operation of the criminal justice system – that crimes
committed by women are less likely than was previously the case
to be ignored by law enforcement agencies out of a sense of chivalry.
Even though female criminality appears to be increasing faster than male
criminality, it will be many years before women reach the same level of crime
as men” (Britannica).
It
is easy to mark the steps taken in
Victoria, and Australia
as a whole, toward the eradication of biblical
morals – including male headship – since the late nineteenth
century. For example, in 1880 the
University
of Melbourne
became the first Australian university to admit
women to lectures and examinations; by 1901 women became eligible to
vote in federal elections; and in 1908 women in the state of
Victoria
were given the vote, being granted the right to sit
in State Parliament by 1923. These seemingly innocent manoeuvres only
came about through the triumph of humanistic dogma over Scriptural
truths; they coincided with a host of other unbiblical innovations in
society, and God’s judgement followed. Note that the First World War
interposed between the emancipation of Victoria
’s women in 1908 and their being granted the right
to stand for election to State parliament in 1923. Further, in 1933,
about six years before the outbreak of the Second World War, the
‘Racial Hygiene Association’ began the first Australian birth
control clinic, and in 1966 – two decades after the war’s end –
married women were accepted as permanent employees of the Public Service
in Australia, and in banks the following year. 1967 was the year
in which Victorian women were first permitted to serve on juries. A
Victorian judge ruled in 1969 that abortion to save the life or health
of the mother was permissible, despite the fact that abortion had been
proclaimed illegal in 1958 by the Victorian crimes act. In 1971 the Bank
of New South Wales became the first bank in
Australia
to grant loans to women without a male guarantor;
and in 1975 the “Family Law Act” was introduced into
Australia. This Act abolished the rights of the father as
legal head of the family (taking sole custodianship of children from
him), removed the husband’s responsibility for his wife’s
maintenance, and introduced ‘no-fault’ divorce. Also in 1975,
Victorian women lost the right to exemption from jury service on the
basis of their sex. 1980 was the year of decriminalisation for sodomite
(homosexual) practices in
Victoria; and capital punishment (cf. Gen. 9:6) was
officially abolished by the Federal Government in 1985.
Compare with the
following extract from Senior
Legal Studies:
“In
the last [19th] century it was considered immoral for ladies
to use face-powder or to ‘paint their faces’. If skirts allowed a
glimpse of leg, this was immoral . . . Obviously, we now laugh at
nineteenth-century ideas of immorality as mere prudishness . . . At one
time a strict censorship existed in
Australia
on books and films. Works of literature, not at all
pornographic but considered to be indecent or obscene because of certain
words or situations in them, were readily available overseas but not in
Australia. In recent years this censorship has relaxed to such
an extent as to be almost non-existent. Standards have changed radically
as to what is permissible on stage, film and television. Words that once
would have led to prosecution for indecency are now almost commonplace
in the media. Moral standards change with the passing of time, and can
change rapidly, leaving once-relevant laws lagging behind social
attitudes. This leads such laws into a position of being ridiculed or
ignored, which is detrimental to law as a whole” (Daphne Anzarut, Senior
Legal Studies, The Macmillan Company of Australia, 1984, pp257,
258).
[2] Australia’s
rising divorce rate is example of this disorder:
“While
divorces were rare in the past, their occurrence has become more
widespread and accepted” (Marantelli,
S. E., et al, Legal Studies for year 12, p373). But child
murder – in the form of “abortion” – is one of the most horrific
examples of the chaos in modern families.
South Australia
was the first state to legalise abortion: “Abortion
in
South
Australia
has shown a three fold increase during the last 30 years. In 1999 there
were 18 abortions for every 1000 women between 15 and 44 years, compared
to 6 abortions for the same age group of women in 1970. Abortions have
been legal in South Australia for the past 30 years [i.e.,
since 1970] . . . The committee appointed to examine and report on
abortions notified in South Australia, recently reported that there were
5660 abortions in 1999. These statistics are only for surgical abortions
. . . A substantial majority (98%) of
S.A.
abortions in 1999 was based on the mental health of women, with only 2%
of abortions claimed to be for fetal abnormality. For those abortions
for fetal abnormality, about half were because of chromosomal
abnormalities, with the rest for other reasons such as drug use . . .
Significantly half of the aborting women have never been married, about
one quarter are presently married and the remaining quarter are
divorced, separated or in a defacto relationship. Evidence about
abortions indicates that relationships rarely hold together after an
abortion so that the prospects of happiness for these 5660 women would
appear to be remote . . . What this report highlights is that not only
is the abortion rate increasing in Australia but that we have one of the
highest abortion rates in the world. The social implications of an
increasing number of women involved in an abortion, at ages commencing
at 14 and repeated throughout their reproductive years can only be
guessed at. But as the South Australian report indicates, we as a
community can expect an increasing number of women (and men) who are
badly affected by abortion and can expect an increasing number of cases
of breast cancer, broken families and traumatised women who find it hard
to have normal relations with men” (David Perrin, ‘Family Update,’
The
Australian Family Association,
March-April 2001, p7).
[3] “In
Europe,
many people feared that morality had crumbled completely. Before World
War I (1914-1918), women had worn long hair, ankle-length dresses, and
long, cotton stockings. But in the 1920's, many wore short, tight
dresses and rolled their silk stockings down to their knees. European
women abandoned their corsets and some even wore trousers. On both
continents, women cut their hair in a boyish style called the bob and
wore flashy lipstick and other cosmetics. Couples danced cheek-to-cheek
to blaring jazz music. The United
States
and the
United
Kingdom
experienced the age of the flapper (young women who flaunted new styles
of dress and unconventional life-styles). A
serious French periodical blamed that country's economic problems on
France's
dance craze. It argued that the nation's postwar reconstruction lagged
because the French were dancing instead of working. In
France
and
Italy,
young women went out by themselves, and some got engaged to marry
without seeking their parents' permission. In popular literature, sex
became a common topic. Talk of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theories
spread from Austria
to
other countries” (World Book, 1999).
The
following extracts are from A
People and a Nation - A History of the United States (Norton, M. B.,
et al, Houghton Miffin
Company, 1986):
“By
1900 mass-produced clothing had also enabled a large segment of the
population to become concerned with style . . . Long sleeves and skirt
hemlines receded . . . At the turn of the century, long hair tied at the
back of the neck was the most popular style. But by the First World War,
when many women worked in hospitals and factories, shorter, more
manageable styles had become acceptable” (p542).
“Whether
they worked or not, all types of women were exposed to alternative
images of femininity. Short skirts and bobbed hair, regarded as signs of
sexual freedom, became common among office workers and store clerks as
well as among middle-class college coeds. Several studies claimed that
sexual experimentation, including premarital sex, increased among young
women during the decade [1920s]. The most popular models of female
behavior were not chaste, sentimental heroines but movie vamps . . . And
though not everyone was a flapper, as the young independent-minded woman
was called, many women were clearly asserting their equality with men”
(p694).
[4]
The following account details some of
the reversions to primitive culture, and the brazen advances in sin,
committed in the name of fashion during the 20th century:
“Hemlines
remained at the ankle, but so-called hobble skirts, which were very
narrow at the bottom, briefly became the fashion shortly before World
War I (1914-1918) . . . Other designers also created hobble skirts, but
Poiret [a Parisian fashion designer] made some that were so tight they
had to be slit from the hem to the knee. These slit skirts were
criticized as being immodest because they showed women's legs. Young
women were becoming less shy about defying conventions, however. Poiret
also created extravagant costumes influenced by the East, including harem
pants (baggy pants gathered at the ankle). Most women wore these
trousers only at home. Still, it was the beginning of the end for rules
that prevented women from wearing masculine clothes . . . After World
War I young women increasingly adopted radical new fashions, including
short skirts, short hair, and makeup. Hemlines had begun to rise
noticeably in 1915 but then stabilized at mid-calf. Slowly creeping
upward, skirts reached the knees only for a brief period, from about
1924 to 1928. Stockings went from black or white wool or cotton to
flesh-colored silk or rayon—all very noticeable as skirts grew
shorter. By 1929 hemlines had begun to fall. But the exposure of the
female legs was one of the most revolutionary developments in
20th-century fashion. In the
United States
and
Canada
the 1920s was the era of the flapper, a young woman
who embraced the radical new clothing fashions. Flappers wore short
dresses that were straight up and down . . . Many women cut their hair
short in a chin-length, straight hairstyle known as a bob. Over their
bobbed hair, they wore a close-fitting, helmet-shaped hat called a
cloche. A frequently heard complaint was that women looked like boys.
But the facial makeup that flappers adopted with enthusiasm contradicted
this view . . . Pants had long been acceptable for women as sportswear
or informal party wear, but only in the late 1960s and especially the
1970s did women adopt them for daily wear in the business world. The
acceptance of the pantsuit by the business world reflected women's
increasing social and economic power. In the 1970s Halston, Calvin
Klein, and other North American designers made trousers an integral part
of the working woman's wardrobe. In France Saint Laurent also emphasized
tailored pantsuits for daywear” (Encarta
Encyclopaedia, 2004).
[5]
Puritan
men were often distinguished as “Roundheads” because of their short
hair:
“.
. . like the men of late years, since long hair has been so much worn in
this nation, about fifty years ago, the Christians that walked by the
rule of God's Word, and wore their hair agreeable thereto, were by the
rude rabble mocked and called Roundheads, and hunted after by
pursuivants; so that on a Lord's Day, where they saw men with short hair
go into a house, then they like the Sodomites, old and young from
every quarter compassed the house to take them and abuse them; some they
imprisoned, some were banished, and some afore in Queen Elizabeth's
days they hanged, namely Mr. Henry Borrow, Mr. Greenwood,
Mr. Penry; so that he that departed from this evil, long hair, of
later years, for this cause made themselves a prey” (Thomas Wall,
To Defend the Head from the Superfluity of Naughtiness, London,
1688).
[6] The
following is a selection of costume descriptions from around the world:
Africa
–
Arab
lands (Middle
East
and North
Africa):
“Women's garments usually consist of a floor-length dress and a
headscarf or hood. In areas where Islam is a strong force, women may
wear a veil in public. Many women wear Western-style dresses or slacks.
They rarely wear short or sleeveless dresses or let their hair hang
free. Traditional men's clothing might consist of a full-length robe, or
a cloak over some combination of shirt, vest, skirt, and loincloth. Some
farmers wear baggy trousers. Many men also wear a turban, skullcap, or
kaffiyeh – a loose, folded headscarf, often held in place by a
decorative cord called an agal, also spelled iqal. Today, many men wear
Western-style clothing, especially in the cities. Some men combine
elements of Western and traditional dress” (World
Book, 1999).
Egypt
(Ancient):
“Egyptian clothes were generally made of linen and were very light.
Men habitually wore short kilts, which were practical both for the
climate and for hard work, their skins having adapted to the sun. Women
wore clothes that covered most of their bodies. These included long
close-fitting dresses and tunics, which became increasingly ornate with
time” (Encarta, 2002).
Sub-Saharan
Africa:
“In western
Africa
and regions near the
Sahara,
many men wear a long flowing robe or baggy trousers and a loose shirt or
tunic. A small cap or turban is also customary. Many African women take
a length of cloth and wrap it around themselves into a dress. They may
also wrap a cloth around the head in the style of a turban or scarf” (World Book, 1999).
America
(North and South) –
Inca
Empire (based in
Peru, c.
1438-1532): “Inca men wore loincloths
and tunics, plus cloaks in cold weather. Women wore long dresses and
draped square shawls called mantas over their shoulders” (World
Book, 1999).
“The
actual garments were simple: a basic loincloth for both
sexes and, over this, a short tunic for men and an ankle-length dress for women” (Britannica).
“Although the quality of clothing varied, poor and rich and even
the emperor dressed in the same basic fashion. Men wore breechcloths,
sleeveless knee-length tunics, and cloaks or ponchos. Women wore long
dresses and capes fastened with a pin of copper, silver, or gold” (Encarta Encyclopaedia, 2005).
North
and South American Indians:
“In Mesoamerica
and
Peru,
men wore a breechcloth and a cloak knotted over one shoulder, and women
wore a skirt and a loose blouse; these garments were woven of cotton or,
in
Peru,
sometimes of fine vicuña wool. North American hunting peoples made
garments of well-tanned deer, elk, or caribou skin; a common style was a
tunic, longer for women than for men, with detachable sleeves and
leggings”
(Encarta
Encyclopaedia,
2002).
North
American Plains Indians:
“On the Northern Plains,
men wore a shirt, leggings reaching to the hips, moccasins, and a
buffalo robe . . . Women's clothing consisted of a long dress, leggings
to the knee,
and moccasins” (Britannica).
North
American Plateau Indians (parts of western USA
and
Canada):
“Plateau Indian men
often wore robes, and women wore dresses”
(World Book, 1999).
Asia
–
Afghanistan:
“Baggy cotton trousers are a standard part of the Afghan villager’s
costume. The men wear long cotton shirts, which hang over their
trousers, and wide sashes around their waists. They also wear a
skullcap, and over that, a turban, which they take off when working in
the fields. The women wear a long loose shirt or a high-bodice dress
with a swirling skirt over their trousers; they drape a wide shawl
around their heads. Many women wear jewelry, which is collected as a
form of family wealth” (Encarta
Encyclopaedia, 2005).
Bhutan:
“Traditional clothing is worn throughout
Bhutan. Women wear the kira, an ankle-length dress made of
a rectangular piece of cloth held at the shoulders with a clip and
closed with a woven belt at the waist; underneath they wear a
long-sleeved blouse. Social status is indicated by the colors of the
kira, the amount of decorative details, and the quality of the cloth.
Men wear the gho, a wraparound, coatlike, knee-length garment with a
narrow belt” (Encarta
Encyclopaedia, 2005).
Cambodia:
“Women usually dress modestly in cotton shirts and
ankle-length skirts” (Encarta
Encyclopaedia, 2005).
Ancient
China:
“Rich and poor people in
China wore very different clothes. Poor men would wear
baggy hemp trousers, with a loose shirt over the top and a fur-lined
coat in winter. The women wore simple dresses made from wool in winter
and cotton in summer . . . Rich men and women wore robes of silk tied at
the waist with a large sash . . . Small babies were carried on their
mother’s back in a fold of her dress until they were old enough to
walk” (Robert Nicholson and Claire Watts, Ancient
China, Franklin Watts, 1991, p24).
Hmong peoples (southern
China, northern
Laos, Myanmar
(Burma), Thailand
and
Vietnam): “Today the women of each
subgroup wear distinctive traditional clothing. White Hmong women wear
plain, white skirts. The skirts of Blue or Green Hmong women are highly
decorated with needlework. Striped Hmong women wear shirts with blue and
black stripes encircling their long sleeves. Differences in men’s
clothing are less notable. The traditional Hmong men’s costume
consists of a black tunic and black wide-legged trousers” (Encarta
Encyclopaedia, 2005).
India:
“Clothing styles were well established in
India
by
3000 bc . . . The classic
Indian clothing styles include the sari for women and the dhoti
for men. The sari, a long piece of fabric, is made of
cotton or silk,
often elaborately decorated with dyed, woven, or embroidered patterns.
It is wrapped around the body and worn with a short, fitted bodice” (Encarta
Encyclopaedia,
2004).
“Many
men wear a dhoti (a simple white garment wrapped around the legs). The dhoti forms a sort of loose trousers. Some men wrap the
garment around themselves like a skirt. In northern
India,
some men wear long, tight coats with trousers. The trousers are wide at
the top and fit tightly from knee to ankle. Many Indian men wear turbans
of various shapes.
Most Indian women wear a sari (a straight piece of cloth draped around
the body as a long dress). They place its loose end over the head or
shoulder
. . . Many of the women of northern India
wear pyjamas (full trousers) with a long blouse and a veil.”
(World Book, 1999).
Ancient
Japan:
“The earliest Japanese clothing styles are preserved in haniwa, earthenware
funerary statuettes from as early as the 3rd century AD,
which have flared jackets for both sexes, with wide trousers (hakama)
for men and pleated skirts for women. The nobility adopted Chinese-style
court dress during the
Nara
period (710-794), principally the long robe. In Japanese hands this
became the kimono, which perpetuates particularly the women's styles of
Tang dynasty
China.
Dress for the nobility evolved during the Heian period (794-1185) into
elaborate multilayered costumes, with hip-length wide jackets and baggy
trousers for men and long trailing robes for women which entirely hid
the body” (Encarta
Encyclopaedia, 2002).
Korea
(North & South):
“Traditional clothing for women consists of a long, full skirt and a
tight-fitting jacket. For men, traditional clothing consists of
loose-fitting trousers, shirts, and jackets”
(World Book, 2005).
Turkmenistan:
“Traditional dress for men includes a white shirt, dark trousers, and
a red robe. Some men also wear a shaggy sheepskin hat. Women typically
wear a long, loose dress trimmed with embroidery” (World
Book, 1999).
Uzbekistan:
“Throughout
Uzbekistan,
people wear both traditional and Western-style clothing. Traditional
dress for men includes long robes and black boots. Women sometimes wear
bright cotton or silk dresses and silk scarves” (World
Book, 1999).
Europe
–
Britain
(Ancient):
“About 2000 B.C. [the Bronze Age] a new race invaded England . . .
they wore a woollen cap, a loose tunic, and a cloak, while the women
wore long dresses . . . But about 500 B.C. came a new race of invaders,
the Britons . . . The men wore a loose tunic and trousers, and brightly
coloured plaids were common” (I. Tenen M.A., History
of England from the Earliest Times to 1932, Macmillan and Co., 1935,
pp4, 6).
Greece
(Ancient):
“Ancient Greek clothing consisted of unsewn lengths of linen or wool
fabric, generally rectangular and secured with a fibula (ornamented
clasp or pin) and a sash. Typical of such garments were the peplos, a
loose robe worn by women; the chlamys, a cloak worn by men; and
the chiton, a tunic worn by both men and women. Men’s chitons
hung to the knees, whereas women’s chitons fell to their ankles. The
basic outer garment during winter was the himation, a larger
cloak worn over the peplos or chlamys. Women dressed modestly in ancient
Greece,
and in many areas they wore a veil whenever they left the house” (Encarta
Encyclopaedia, 2002).
Portugal: “Most Portuguese in both cities and
rural areas wear clothing similar to that worn in other countries of
Western Europe. But some rural people dress in styles similar to those of their
ancestors. Berets, stocking caps, and baggy shirts and trousers are
common among men. Many women wear long dresses and shawls”
(World Book, 1999).
Rome
(Ancient):
“The Romans wore clothing based chiefly on that of the Greeks. The
Greek chiton and himation became the Roman tunic and pallium for men and
the stola and palla for women. The tunic varied in length but was short
for soldiers. The stola hung to the floor. It was worn over a long tunic
called the tunica talaris, a short shirtlike garment called the camisia,
and a tight, corsetlike band of cloth called the strophium. The pallium
and palla were outdoor garments that the Romans could use as blankets if
necessary” (World Book,
1999).
“A
large piece of material wrapped around the masculine body as a cloak,
the toga served a similar function as the Greek himation . . . The basic
masculine garment was like the chiton; it was called a tunica . . .
Longer tunicas were
worn for important occasions . . . Feminine dress was very like the
Greek, with the Roman woman's version of the chiton called a stola”
(Britannica).
Scandinavia
(Ancient):
“Most Viking men wore two basic garments – trousers that reached to
the knee or ankle, and a long-sleeved pullover shirt that reached below
the waist. Viking women wore loose-fitting dresses that were made of
linen or wool and hung almost to the ankles” (World
Book, 1999).
Scottish
Highlands:
“For at least eight centuries Highlanders, both mainland and in the
islands, wore the tartan plaid as their primary article of clothing. It
was a great piece of cloth, some six yards by two, and reminiscent of
nothing so much as the Roman toga. The Highlander wore it over an
undershirt – a long light garment, knee-length – and he donned the
plaid, am breacan feilidh, in rather complicated style . . . Trews [a form
of trousers] were favoured for wear at sea or while riding a horse . . .
women wore their version of the plaid, a graceful thing called the arisaid,
usually white, fastened by a high leather belt. A married woman always
wore a simple head-covering” (John Macleod, Highlanders
– A History of the Gaels, Hodder and Stoughton, 1996, pp103, 104).
“By
this ancestry each was a duine-uasal,
a gentleman of the blood of Angus Og . . . They wore tartan trews and
plaid, instead of the simple kilted plaid of the common people . . . A
gentlewoman, a bean-uasal,
wore a linen kerchief on her head, her hair plaited in a single lock . .
. her arisaid, the white plaid of Highland women, was belted with
leather and silver. The arisaid reached from her throat to her feet,
said Martin Martin [17th century Skyeman]” (John Prebble, Glencoe,
Penguin Books, 1968, p36).
Middle
East
–
Iraq:
“Most labourers prefer traditional clothes. For men, these garments
include long cotton gowns and jackets. Traditional dress for women
consists of a long, concealing gown and a scarf that covers much of the
head”
(World Book, 1999).
Kurdistan
(comprising parts of
Armenia,
Iran,
Iraq,
Syria
and
Turkey):
“Kurdish men wear shirts and baggy trousers with sashes. Kurdish women
wear trousers but cover them with a dress” (World
Book, 1999).
Lebanon:
“Most
Lebanese wear the same styles of clothing as do people in Western
nations. But some rural people still wear traditional Lebanese clothes.
Some peasant women, for example, wear colourful long dresses with
ankle-length trousers underneath. Some elderly Druse religious men wear
woven multicoloured jackets and white headdresses”
(World Book, 1999).
Ottoman
Empire
(based in
Turkey,
c. 1300-1922):
“Traditional men's dress comprised a shirt, trousers, jacket, and
boots. The trousers were of the very full, baggy type (similar to the
Middle Eastern chalvar), fitting
tightly only on the lower leg. A deep waist sash, the kusak,
bound the body over the junction between trouser and shirt. The jacket
was a short one, worn open, and was decoratively embroidered. In cold
weather a caftan would be worn on top of these garments . . . The
traditional Turkish cap, the tarboosh, resembles an inverted flower pot
and is made of cloth or felt . . . The dress for women in the
Ottoman Empire
was very similar to that
worn by Muslim women in the
Middle East
. It consisted of a
knee-length, white, sleeved chemise (gömlek) . . . The usual
full trousers (chalvar) were accompanied, as in men's dress, by a
decorative waist sash (kusak). Over these garments a waistcoat (yelek)
and long gown (anteri) were worn . . . Outdoors the enveloping
cloak (tcharchaf) and veil (yashmak) were obligatory, and
decorative pattens (kub-kobs) kept the elegant slippers out of
the mud of the streets” (Britannica).
Yemen:
“Some Yemenis, especially those in the cities, wear Western-style
clothing. Many others wear more traditional Arab clothing. The men's
garments include cotton breeches or a striped futa (kilt). Many men wear
skullcaps, turbans, or tall, round hats called tarbooshes. Many of the
women wear long robes, black shawls, and veils”
(World Book, 1999).
[7]
“In mainland
China
the communist revolution of 1949 brought strict
directives on dress. Styles were to be the same for everyone, whether
man or woman, intellectual or manual labourer. This drab uniform was a
blend of peasant and military design. It consisted of a military-style
high-collared jacket and long trousers.
Men's hair was short and covered by a peaked cap. Women's hair was longer but uncurled. Shoes had flat heels. No
cosmetics or jewelry was permitted. Traditional Chinese cotton was used
to make the garments; colour designated the type of worker. After about
1960 a slow Westernization set in, permitting a variation in colour and
fabric. Dresses were introduced for women"
(Britannica).
[8] “It was only with the rise of Christianity,
and 600 years later Islam, that modest covering of the female form
became compulsory. St. Paul wrote to Timothy that
women should not display, ‘that women should adorn themselves modestly
and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls
or costly attire but by good deeds, as befits women who profess
religion.’ . . . Once Theodosius I made Christianity compulsory in the
Roman Empire
in 381, Christian views on modesty dominated women's
appearance, with the exception of the imperial court . .
. Meanwhile, western
Rome
suffered barbarian
invasions and centuries of disorder, until it broke up into separate
kingdoms. Once these new courts had established themselves, it was only
a matter of time before they, too, started trying to outdress and
outshine one another. The Anglo-Saxons, for example, wore loose clothes,
but after the Norman Conquest a change followed. By the 1090s members of
the Norman court had
started wearing tighter-fitting clothes . . . Although abbots and
bishops objected vehemently, the new fashion for displaying the physique
continued unabashed . . . by
1588 Elizabeth I of England had adopted the open-fronted Medici ruff,
and the exposure of the woman's throat returned as a permanent feature
of court style. (Puritan ladies of course concealed the neck completely,
but they tried to avoid fashion styles and trends)”
(Britannica).
The
laws and customs of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire were strongly
influenced by biblical principles – Christianity was officially
sanctioned and immorality largely abjured:
“From
the Romans the Byzantines inherited their basic clothing forms, the
tunic and toga for men, and the stola, a type of long dress, as well as
their shoes and their hairstyles . . . By the end of the Roman Empire
the toga, which had once been required wear for Romans, was worn only on
ceremonial occasions. The Byzantines, who tended to prefer simple
flowing clothes to the winding and draping of the toga, did away with
the toga altogether. They chose as their most basic of garments the
dalmatica, a long, flowing men’s tunic or shirt with wide sleeves and
hem, and the stola for women. Unlike the Romans, the Byzantines tended
to be very modest about any display of flesh. Their garments were worn
close about the neck, sleeves extended all the way to the wrist, and the
hemline, or bottom edge, of their outer garments extended all the way to
the ground. They layered their clothing, with men wearing a tunic and
trousers under the dalmatica, and women wearing a long undergarment
beneath their stola and an outer garment called a paludamentum, or long
cloak” (p261).
“Byzantine
women, in keeping with their culture’s modesty, never appeared in
public with
bare arms” (p266).
“Men
tended to wear their hair short . . . Women wore their hair quite long .
. .” (p267).
[Sarah
Pendergast and Tom Pendergast, Project Editor Sarah Hermsen,
Fashion, Costume and Culture, vol. 2, Thomson Gale, 2004].
[9] The
transforming effect of the Gospel on the dress of new converts was
especially notable in
Africa, Australia
and the Pacific islands in the 19th century. In
Hawaii, for example, where Calvinistic preaching resulted
in many conversions, women adopted modest long-sleeved and loose-fitting
dresses, men began to wear trousers and loose, untucked shirts, and the
Hawaiian king and his government passed laws prohibiting adultery and
enforcing Sabbath observance. According to Britannica,
“The women [originally]
wore short skirts (pa'us)
and the men tapa loincloths (malos). In 1820
New England
missionaries
compelled the native women to replace their hula skirts with long dresses
(holokus).” To this day, in
Australian Aboriginal communities once touched by mission work, older
children even when swimming tend to wear normal clothes, which “appear
to be no hindrance to them in the water. Boys usually wear shorts and
the girls cotton dresses or skirts and tops” (John and Sue Erbacher, Aborigines
of the Rainforest, Cambridge University Press, 1991, p29).
Although
in the early 1900's European and American
women “rarely wore trousers, and their skirts almost always covered
their ankles”,
in those places
it was no later than the 1920’s that
“standards of feminine modesty had changed to the point that women
began to wear both trousers and shorter skirts”
(World Book, 2005).
Australia
followed suit, and the
current situation in non-Western countries is often preferable to that
in the West:
“People
almost everywhere [in
Papua
New Guinea]
wear shorts of European design. Some women retain traditional skirts,
but most of them wear simple dresses” (World Book, 1999).
“Most
Samoan men wear a shirt and a lava-lava, a piece of cloth wrapped around
the waist like a skirt. Most of the women wear a long lava-lava and an
upper garment called a puletasi”
(World Book, 2005).
“Western-style
dress is common in
Apia, but more traditional clothing prevails in rural areas [of Samoa]. This includes
the lava lava (wraparound skirt) for men and the puletasi (long dress)
for women. Religion dominates much of Samoan life. Almost everyone wears
white clothing on Sundays in observance of the Christian day of rest” (Encarta
Encyclopaedia, 2005).
“The
men [of Fiji] wear skirts called sulus, and the women wear cotton
dresses. On ceremonial occasions, the women may wear grass skirts. Most
native Fijians are Christians”
(World Book, 2005).
“Most
Indian women wear a sari . . . draped around the body as a long dress.
Its loose end is flung over a shoulder or used to cover the head. A sari
is usually worn with a blouse. Unmarried women and young girls,
especially in northern
India, commonly wear long flowing trousers called a
shalwar and a long blouse known as a kameez. Tribal women wear long
skirts. Many Christian women in the south wear Western-style skirts and
blouses. Some young women in cities, especially wealthier women, wear
jeans” (World Book, 2005).
“Many
Guineans, especially those living in cities and towns, wear clothing
similar to that worn by North Americans and Europeans. However, most
people still wear traditional clothes. For men, the traditional garment
is a loose robe called a boubou. Women wear a blouse with a skirt made
from a piece of colored cloth tied around the waist” (World
Book, 2005).
“Zambians
disagree about whether women should wear contemporary dress or the
traditional long skirts adapted from the garb of 19th-century European Christian missionaries. In cities western clothing is widely accepted, but in rural areas most women wear the chitenge,
a piece of fabric wrapped around the body to form a long skirt. Such
traditions remain strong, even as Zambian women exert greater influence
in business, education, and the marketplace”
(Microsoft
Encarta World Atlas,
1998).
[10]
Many non-English-speaking peoples are now also capitulating to
Western immorality, despite the misery and social destruction wrought by
such selfishness. But observe
Greece
in
the 1960s:
“Life
in the large towns is changing rapidly and becoming more and more like
that in western Europe and North
America.
But family life throughout
Greece
is
still very close, and few young men or women leave home until they
marry. The husband is still very much master in the family home, and it
is still unusual, even in Athens, for a woman or girl to go out to the
cinema or to a café by herself, or even with a girl friend. Throughout Greece
marriages are still often arranged by the parents. The young couple do
not go out together, and until they are married they meet only in their
parents’ company. This may seem very old fashioned, but families are
at least as happy and stable as elsewhere in the world” (Francis Noel
Baker, Looking at Greece, Adam and Charles Black, 1967, p16).
[11]
“In the 1900's, women began to wear
looser, lighterweight clothing. The changing styles – especially in
leisure and sports clothes – gradually uncovered different parts of
women's bodies. Legs were bared in the 1920's, abdomens in the 1940's,
and thighs in the 1960's. Today, women wear less clothing than in any
other period since ancient times. For a few years around 1910, women
wore hobble skirts. These skirts were so tight at the bottom that a
woman could hardly walk. Clothing became simpler and less formal during
World War I (1914-1918). In the 1920's, women adopted the ‘boyish’
look. Dresses were straight and unfitted, and they ended at, or a little
above, the knee. In the 1930's, some women began wearing slacks
(trousers).”
“During
the late 1800's and early 1900's, men [tennis] players wore long-sleeved
shirts and trousers, and women wore ankle-length dresses. Such bulky
clothing limited a player's movements. Today, men wear short-sleeved
shirts and shorts. Women wear minidresses or blouses and short
skirts.” (World Book, 1999).
“The
most important moment in the modernization of female dress was when
women cut off their skirts for good. That was just before World War I,
about a decade before the second most important moment, when they cut
off their hair for good. These two radical acts made irreversible
transformations in female appearance . . . No matter how low or high
women's hemlines become or how much their hair length varies, the point
of all such changes – including those in store for us next fall [i.e.,
autumn] – is to show that women have the choice to lift their skirts
and crop their hair. Before the 20th century, they didn't.
Long skirts, like long hair, had been required for women by religious
law and general custom since time immemorial. During the 600 years when
fashion developed its own history, both skirts and hair were considered
immutable, even when fashion went to extremes. There were moments of
deviation – the bloomer costume, for example, with full trousers
showing below short skirts – but they never lasted long. The arrival
of women's legs in the first quarter of this century was a genuine
shock” (Anne Hollander, fashion columnist for
Slate (an American magazine), June 1998).
