We don't dress the women! The media does.

There was a discussion over a podcast recently.  Ladies from the world over were calling in to relate their experiences with jogging around their neighbourhood. Callers from Asia and Africa invariably complained that it was a great challenge. They had to endure all the stares, heckling, uncouth remarks and the visual undressing to complete their feat. The discussion hovered on about overcoming this hurdle. Unfortunately, it looks like the mindset of the people of that need to be changed, not the activity.

Back home, I was indulged in a solemn discussion with a bevy of young lassies regarding how their way of dressing would be determined by other people's expectations or rules. Invariably all of them, the selection group being from the educated urban young adult ladies, agreed that it is their prerogative how they should dress. They quoted the weather, the milieu of the intended occasion, appropriateness to their own judgement and, of course, fashion sense. They reiterated that dressing is an individual's unique way of expression and a human right too. So, other people's expectations do not count, it is their own. Nobody owes anybody anything. 

Well, it is fine and dandy if everyone are quite all right when everybody respects each other and agrees that they could be more than one way to skin a cat. Problems arise when one sets their own values as the only yardstick upon which others should toe the line to. And the Neanderthal quantities of Man are left to roam with a free rein!

The silver screen, especially from Bollywood have not it made simpler over the years. The depiction of the main heroine galavanting around the countryside in the skimpiest of attires gyrating their bodies provocatively to ear-catching leg-thumping tunes, responding positively so easily to masculine advances objectifies the female species as showpieces without a mind of their own. On one hand, the culture pressures one to be dressed in a particular way whilst the other expects one to act in another.

As long as this mindset is not changed, the incidences of honour killing, elders sanctioned revenge rape and unfair justice to the fairer sex will remain at status quo. 

Humanity still prevails

Killer dog’s owners make appearance at victim’s funeral
By LOSHANA K. SHAGAR
loshana@thestar.com.my

Words of comfort: The dog owner’s parents (right) console Lim while
Hon Mun (left) is seen in the background at the Gui Yuan Crematorium
in Petaling Jaya Wednesday. — Raymond Ooi/The Star  

PETALING JAYA: Barely 24 hours after 74-year-old Yip Sun Wah was mauled to death by a neighbour's miniature bull terrier cross, both families came together in the spirit of forgiveness.
The body of Yip, who celebrated his birthday 11 days ago, lay in a brown coffin at the Gui Yuan Crematorium in Petaling Jaya. As his family members grieved over his tragic death, the family that owned the dog that killed Yip early Tuesday morning came to pay their last respects.
They seemed apprehensive at first as they were unsure of the victim's family's response, but were embraced by Yip's wife Lim Yoke Kim, 73, and their eldest son Hon Mun, 51. Yip also leaves behind three other sons and two grandchildren.
Hon Mun said although they were bitter at first, it dissipated when the family came.
“Nobody wanted this to happen, but we do not want this to linger and cause pain to everyone in the years to come.
“It's good that they (dog owner's family) came, we can see that they were very sincere and that's all I could ask for,” Hon Mun said.
The dog owner shed tears as did her parents and a friend who came with her.
They lit joss sticks and prayed before Yip's photograph, after which both families gathered for a 10-minute talk.
Hon Mun said he last saw his father just 45 minutes before he was killed while jogging in the neighbourhood.
“The last thing he said to me was thank you for the food and money'. One moment I was talking to him and the next moment he had left me.”
Yip, a former signboard maker, was described as a friendly person who would wave to people while jogging.
Right after Yip was attacked, a passer-by used his mobile phone to contact Hon Mun, who rushed to the scene.
“It was a horrifying sight to see your loved one lying motionless on the road in a pool of blood,” he said.
Earlier yesterday, Hon Mun sent an e-mail to his neighbours thanking them for their assistance.
In the e-mail, he expressed the wish that dog owners would learn to be more responsible for their pets.
“If my father's death can be a wake-up call to all dog owners, his death would not have been in vain,” he said.
Yip will be cremated at 2pm on Saturday at the Gui Yuan Crematorium here.

N.B. Just when you you thought people are becoming self-centred and egoistic, there is more than  a shimmer of light - there are people who forgive and 'love thy neighbours' as stated in the testaments. I am truly teary eyed by looking at this photo FG.