1. 70 ELLE.MY
RADARFEATURE
What do these 10 women have in common?
Malaysian feminists tell Samantha Joseph why it’s
time to pay attention to headlines about hemlines
DANGEROUSLENGTHS
ELLE. MY 71
sexually gratifying men. Not only that, I resented the fact that
because of this assumption my right to wear what I like was
taken away from me and placed in the hands of some unseen
authority, whose members have clearly spent too much time
thinking about exactly how long a woman’s skirt can be before
it’s deemed ‘distracting’.
In fact it’s become something of a trend. If you haven’t guessed,
the thing the 10 women pictured left have in common is that their
short skirts might get them barred from Malaysian public offices.
The overarching issue is that while there are dress outlines for
those in government employ, there are no such guidelines for
civilians using public services.
In June, Suzanne GL Tan was given a sarong to wear at the
Wangsa Maju Road Transport Department (RTD) because a guard
claimed her skirt was shorter than the dress code allowed. Tan took
to social media to air her grievances, which quickly went viral. But
that was small beans compared to criticism of Southeast Asian
Games gymnast Farah Ann Abdul Hadi for wearing a leotard her
detractors found “immodest”. This one earned us international
headlines, none of them good.
Other cases have seen women being asked to cover their
legs with towels during hospital visits. There was also the case
of a woman who wasn’t allowed into an Ipoh council building
because she wore a sleeveless top. The common thread here, of
course, is that it’s women, and only women, being subjected to
the so-called dress codes. Isn’t this attention simply sexist?
”Some dress codes can be sexist towards women, especially if
the reasoning is flawed,” says Suri Kempe, Programme Manager
for Gender, Equality and Women’s Empowerment at the United
Nations Development Programme. “For example, if women are
told to dress a certain way for fear they may ‘distract’ members of
the opposite sex, then yes, those dress codes are sexist. Personally,
I’ve observed that many men wear slippers when conducting
business at the RTD, but I have yet to hear about a person being
denied service because of his shoes. Why is it more important to
police women’s hemlines than it is to police men’s footwear?”
The arbitrary nature of dress codes calls into question their
true purpose. Safety is an acceptable reason to stop someone
wearing a belt of grenades from entering a public building, but
what risk do shorts pose?
“What is the reason for having a dress code?” asks
Umadevi Rajah Denram, a social worker with the Women’s Aid
Organisation (WAO). She says the usual reasons of “ensuring
public peace” and “because the authorities say so” don’t cut it
anymore. “To me, it discriminates against a woman’s right of
choice. You’re taking away her right to choose what she wants to
wear and how she wants to be.” In the same vein, many protested
France’s decision to ban hijabs from state schools.
Goh Siu Lin, President of the Association of Women Lawyers
Malaysia, also urges women to consider what the objective is,
and suggests that the selective nature of dress code enforcement
and commentary certainly looks like sexual objectification.
“An example is Farah Ann. If she wasn’t objectified by
whoever was looking at her, her leotard wouldn’t be an
issue,” Goh says. “And by just that one comment, that person
I
’m a working student, which means I often go to class straight
from the office. And at least once every semester, without fail, I’m
stopped by guards at the university library who tell me my skirt
is shorter than the dress code allows. Clothes that are perfectly
acceptable for the office are apparently not acceptable for a public
library. It took me a while to pinpoint why I was so livid whenever
I was stopped, until the last time, when a female guard told me my
dress was too short and my black tights ‘distracting’.
I realised what I resented was the insinuation that my clothes
reflect my morals, and that I was dressed for the sole purpose of

2. 72 ELLE.MY
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is preventing so many little girls who have aspirations to be a
gold medallist in swimming or gymnastics from pursuing their
interests out of shame. So you’re actually preventing women
access to certain sports. What next? It prevents women from
achieving their fullest potential.”
She goes on to add that practices such as dress codes
that single out women teach them that if they don’t dress
properly, they don’t deserve access to certain things. “It’s
so ingrained in us to blame women that often we don’t
even realise it,” she says.
The idea that women need to be told what to wear
often starts in school — in classrooms, libraries, varsity
clubs and sports events. It teaches both sexes that women
are first and foremost sexual beings, and that it’s okay to add
or subtract value from a woman based on how she dresses.
From there it’s a short skip to a culture where what a woman is
wearing is considered by many as evidence of whether or not
she is inviting assault, molestation or rape.
It’s even more disheartening when you hear a woman
repeat this belief, especially one who herself has been abused
by a man. Chrissie Hynde, frontwoman of The Pretenders,
recently revealed that she was sexually assaulted by a
motorcycle gang member when she was
21. She went on to say: “However you
want to look at it, this was all my doing
and I take full responsibility… If you
don’t want to entice a rapist, don’t wear
high heels so you can’t run from him...
Who else’s fault can it be?”
This internalised misogyny is
heartbreaking to hear, and it’s reinforced
by the attitudes of men in positions of
power. When we look at our country’s
leaders, it’s perhaps not surprising that so many people see
women as less than human. One late leader once said that if a
woman didn’t cover herself properly she deserved to be raped.
When a SUKMA (Malaysian Games) official was gang-raped by
three athletes in 2013, a government minister was quick to
point out the evils of alcohol (the victim had apparently been
drinking). There was no talk of introducing harsher rape laws
to deal with the perpetrators.
Malaysia’s unofficial dress code isn’t really about clothes.
It’s about the way women are treated and thought of in our
society. It’s about power and control.
Whenever these issues are brought up, there is always
resistance to the idea that there is a fault in our system.
There will always be people saying, “Why do you have
to make such a fuss?” and “You don’t have to get so
emotional about it” and comments left on social media
along the lines of “You should change your ways before
you burn in hell” or “If you don’t want to be treated like a
whore, don’t dress like one.” Such attitudes take the easy
way out, and again place the blame on women instead of
making the effort to scrutinise the systemic beliefs that have led
to their creation.
Malaysian fashion designer Man Chien entered the debate on
dress codes with her most recent collection, which she showed
at KL Fashion Week 2015 in August. Specifically it was her
#NOCOVERUP dress that got people talking. “The statement
was intended to go beyond just the oppression of how women
dress,” the designer and artist told ELLE. “What I had in mind
when designing it was human enslavement, mind control
and perceptions of the naked body. I wanted to stimulate
people to question more,” she explains. Man Chien also
placed silicone nipples on some of her other pieces as an
exercise in the exploration of taboo body parts. “Nipples
are prohibited on the runway, but painted ones don’t seem
to stir any controversy. We are fed the perception that
female nipples should be kept private. But why? It should
be questioned.”
We risk becoming numb to everyday sexism because we’ve
accepted it as just part of life. That is not acceptable. If we
unquestioningly absorb the idea that we need to be told what
to wear, then how more likely are we to accept being told
what to do, or how to act?
Sometimes the sheer amount of pressure to conform,
‘suck it up’ and just accept the status quo can make women
feel like their only real choice is to give
up their choice. In Singaporean social
anthropologist Vivienne Wee’s study ‘The
Politicization of Bodies in Indonesia’, she
writes: “The view that a woman who
does not cover her aurat is ‘deliberately
tempting men’ and thereby causing social
disorder has been preached in sermons,
books, workshops, websites, and
elsewhere for some time. Women who
believe this may feel guilty for not having
covered up. So, after they decide to cover up, they may feel at
peace for having done their bit to save the world, as it were.”
Allowing this pressure to unduly influence our choices as
women means we accept a system where we are rewarded
or punished based on erroneous links between clothing and
morality: If you wear a sleeveless top, you don’t get access
to public services. If you wear a tight skirt, don’t complain
if a sleazy co-worker harasses you. Because what you wear
makes these things your fault.
This isn’t a condemnation of Malaysia. We aren’t
the only nation that attempts to regulate what people,
especially women, wear. High schools in Canada and the
US that have attempted to introduce dress codes that target
female students have been hit with petitions and protests.
Just this August, students of Pasadena High in Pasadena and
Grissom High in Alabama protested their dress codes, and at
Woodford County High School in Kentucky a parent took
to social media to express her annoyance after her daughter
was sent home from class because her outfit “showed her
collarbone”, according to the school.
The basis of the students’ protests is the fact that their clothing
choices are limited because those in positions of power have
“Safety is an acceptable
reason to stop someone
wearing a belt of
grenades from entering a
public building, but what
risk do shorts pose?”
'No Cover Up'
by Man Chien
'No Cover Up'
(in Chinese),
by Man Chien
PHOTOGRAPHY:IMAXTREE.COM;CORBIS/CLICKPHOTOS;ANDYKHO
— Umadevi Rajah Denram, Social Worker at Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO)
“By controlling how a woman dresses, you are controlling her
rights. When the authorities think this way, and they come up with
a dress code, what are they saying to the public?”
sexualised the bodies of female students and therefore taken it
upon themselves to “protect” the rest of the school from them,
implying that women’s bodies are things to fear.
As Jessica Valenti, founder of feminist blog Feministing,
pointed out in her Guardian column last year, “rules for boys that
prohibit certain kinds of jewellery or hoodies have nothing to
do with their sexuality, whereas rules that seek to literally cover
women’s bodies absolutely do.”
“They tell women how many inches above the knee our
skirts can be, but do they tell men how many inches long their
pants need to be?” asks Tham Hui Ying, Vice President of the
Association of Women Lawyers Malaysia. “Or how tight an article
of clothing is — tight pants are a thing now for guys. For women,
tight skirts are a no, but for men you don’t see any mention.
When you look at it that way, the sexism is quite obvious.” And
checking for ‘tightness’ is another problem in itself, she says. “It’s
a power thing. What I find most disturbing is the way the guards
look at your skirt.”
Is it okay to make women uncomfortable because they don’t
dress how they have been told to? Our federal constitution states
that there should be no discrimination according to gender.
Clothing dictates that only apply to one sex are called sexism.
Sexism limits freedom. And the limiting of freedom is something
all of us should be concerned about. 
Dress codes have long interfered with women’s rights. Here’s a snapshot of some of the protests that women have staged against them.
BODY TALK AROUND THE WORLD
SPAIN 2015
Thousands of activists marched the streets of Barcelona on
International Women’s Day, demanding freedom and equal rights as
women, bearing slogans such as “My Dress Doesn’t Mean Yes” and
“We Are Free — We Dress How We Want”.
MEXICO 2011
To protest harassment because of the way
women dressed, Mexican women took to
the streets chanting the slogan “No es no”
— no means no — in what they called
The Walk of the Hookers.
IRAN 1979
Women participated in the Iranian revolution,
but did not anticipate their support for
Ayatollah Khomeini would mean that once
in power, he would strip them of equal
rights. Women protested the dress code that
forced female government workers to cover
themselves according to Islamic principles.
KENYA 2014
After a woman was assaulted and stripped of her
clothes, women in Kenya banded together under
the hashtag #MyDressMyChoice to protest blaming
women’s choice of clothing for incidents of violence.
LONDON 2011
SlutWalk began in Canada as a response to victim
blaming for sexual crimes, after a police constable
advised female university students not to ‘dress like
sluts’ to avoid rape. From Canada, it spread to America
and Europe. Now the SlutWalk is an annual event.