A few days ago Nigerian Pastor, Kingsley Okonkwo, shared on his Instagram page about how he was going put up a post on the nakedness and ‘sexualism’ going on at weddings these days by bridal trains. His post drew many comments from people who seemed to share similar concerns. “Papa not just weddings o, its everywhere now. U go to d malls u see half naked girls everywhere. In some eateries ul see them with just handkerchiefs covering one or two places. On social media nko, same thing.... the girls are just going naked while guys are remaining clothed. Ul wonder what is happening with these girls today, no shame, no class, no privacy.....what we used to call private are now in public display.... it’s everywhere.... women need to start talking to women cus if man talk dem go say we too attack dem,” comedian and popular talented Nollywood actor, Michael Uba wrote. Another follower also wrote: “Pastor K, just yesterday, I was asking myself, how can this be addressed. Wahala de o. I saw one that their undergarments were all showing as they did this mad entrance dance. God of mercy. A wedding should be honourable. Yet, we wonder why divorce rate is on the rise, why we have more baby mamas than married women. I weep for my generation.” Dressing decently or otherwise is a matter beyond controversial. It’s a personal choice yet somehow, society gets to hold a stand. For some time now, clothing has been getting more casual, with standards rotating around individual feels and choices. But should it matter how we dress? There is no rational way to explain how relevant this is, says Rose Mukundente, an agriculturalist. Society has evolved but it still matters how we show up and present ourselves around people, she says. “I realise generations have changed and most of us are doing absolutely what we want. Decency, however, still holds relevance, especially when it comes to certain places like offices,” she adds. People judge, hence, it matters the type of clothes you wear, according to Solange Uwineza. She believes people should have a choice as to what and how they should dress, though this isn’t always easy. “People will always make assumptions based on how you dress. If you want to appear a certain way, it means you will have to dress a certain way.” Elsie, the author of Richly Rooted – Flourish Where You Are, shares that dressing has been getting more casual for a long time, but it seems like standards really began to plummet by the ’80s and ’90s. When I go into restaurants these days and see people dining in their tank tops and yoga pants, I feel like we’ve lost something. Whatever happened to dressing up? She wrote, adding that she suspects it’s a combination of the prevalence of lower-quality clothing (“fast fashion”) and a cultural mind set of casualness, not just in the way we dress but in the way we treat institutions and other people. “There are a lot of positive things that can happen when you start dressing nicer. But as I’ve thought about it, one key consequence stands out; respect. We get more respect from others when we dress well. Even more importantly, we learn an attitude of respect ourselves. When you dress up for something, you show respect for the place, the event, the people present…and that unspoken token of respect often leads to actually feeling more respect for those things.” Nonetheless, decency with dressing remains debatable, as it is with many other aspects blending with modern-day lives.
