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Clothing Standards 03-01-2004 01:26 PM
Deuteronomy 22:5 - The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.
The above words were written when both men and women wore dresses. Both men and women wore what we now often refer to as robes. When the writer suggested that men and women wear different garments, the suggestion was not that the garments must be totally different styles, such as pants verses dresses and skirts. The writer of these words wanted men to wear more masculine garments and women more feminine garments. What made the garments masculine or feminine was only true for that time as styles always change.
The first problem with the above verse is that an individual with an ulterior motive most likely added it. It is very possible that the writer did not like the fact that some men wore robes that matched women's robes. The writer most likely felt that his manhood was threatened.
The second problem is that this is the only verse in the Bible that discusses what garments to wear and this verse did not stop men from wearing robes (dresses) at the time it was written. If the people who so carefully obeyed the laws of the Torah did not stop wearing robes (dresses) then we are most likely misinterpreting the text by preventing women from wearing pants and men from wearing skirts and dresses in today's society.
Women fought hard to wear pants and have only been doing so for fifty years, but no man or woman questions a woman in pants. Our society has created standards and even terms for how we dress. A man who wears a skirt or dress is described as cross-dressing, but the same is not true for a woman who wears pants.
A woman can and often does wear any type of clothing that she chooses. Women have not only invaded men's closests, but even call some of the styles that they wear men's cuts or men's pin stripes. There is no term for a woman who wears men's cuts or men's pin stripes. There is nothing embarrassing about a woman wearing a suit and there should not be. Women's suits come in either skirts or pants.
Men have only been wearing pants for two hundred years and before that, men wore britches and stockings for two hundred years. Out of the thousands of years of wearing clothing, men have only worn some version of pants for four hundred years.
Men wore stockings with britches before women ever wore stockings. Yet a man in stockings is a cross-dresser? How can this be? Women's styles come and go, but men do not have this luxury. Both men and women should have ever changing styles. Men are finally getting a chance to wear new styles.
Women should not feel guilty or be chastised for wearing pants nor should men for wearing skirts and dresses. This one verse of the Bible is used to create standards that were never intended by God and are not necessary. God put Adam and Eve into the Garden of Eden naked. When God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden, God provided them with clothing. Adam's clothing was not described as different than Eve's clothing. The factors that differentiate man from woman are physical appearance and social interaction, not clothing.
Styles and standards change with time and words loose their meaning. The word cross-dresser will soon be a word of the past and men will return to wearing skirts and dresses as they have for thousands of years. Women do not need to change their standards.
Happy Skirting!!!
Troy
bravenet.com