#DressLikeAWoman – has been nonstop trending these past couple of days. President Donald Trump, with his brash and unconventional disregard for traditional moral codes, has unsurprisingly succeeded in angering women yet again. Under the new Administration, President Donald Trump has said that the men are required to ‘dress sharply’, while the females are required to ‘dress like a woman’. Like many of his policies with unclear intentions and vague guidelines, President Trump has failed to define clearly what he regards as ‘dressing like a woman’ to be. If I may be so bold to infer, judging by President Trump’s notorious past of degrading women with his ‘locker room banter’, I would not be surprised to guess that the meaning behind his words is quite plain: dressing seductively or revealingly to flaunt a female’s femininity to please the eyes of all hot-blooded males.
My outrage is relatable and shared by women internationally. Each time our gender makes a giant leap forward, there will always be an ignorant misogynist who will undermine the accomplishments of all women, setting us a couple of steps back.
We are in 2017! Nowadays women’s rights are being championed globally and women are making waves with their various achievements; it is disheartening to see that the most powerful man, with the most influential office in the world is not fully supportive of equal rights between men and women. As trivial as it seems, uniform defines an individual’s identity as an external representation of it. No matter which uniform a woman dons, it signifies the back-breaking work performed by a woman for the betterment of society, especially when working in a male-dominated industry where they are exposed to sexist remarks daily, intentionally or not.
As a woman, an expression of tiredness can be misinterpreted as an expectation for preferential treatment. As a woman, it is often necessary to keep your head down and work four or five times as hard compared to male counterparts to prove to yourself and others that your capabilities are not limited by gender. Yet as much as these women set increasingly-high expectations for themselves, society is advocating the mindset that women ought to be wearing tight pencil skirts and bust-enhancing blouses to become eye-candies to fuel the fantasies of the males. In the 21st century, it is a giant step backwards for women to be objectified like this, known for their physical assets and little else.
However, as Michelle Obama likes to put it, ‘When they go low, we go high.’ As women, we are called to set ourselves apart by striving to make a difference every day even when we do have to go that extra mile (or two) to prove ourselves. If we don’t actively fight for our gender, no one else will.
