[How to] Women: Are trousers desirable or just fashion wagon?

Why do many women often wear “dress pants” or “suit pants” in office, institutions of learning, at parties, in church or at funerals where etiquette would dictate that she wears a formal dress or a dressy skirt, blouse and jacket. Trousers have been mostly been embraced by young girls and ladies, as an example, wearing pants in Rwandan universities has become a more or less a uniform to many and if much observant, for every three students, two of them are putting on pants which raises concern to ask, why the trend? The idea of trousers on women was first daunted to Western consciousness by the “Haute Lesbiennes” of Hollywood - Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Jean Howard, etal. These ladies had two things in common. Firstly they all had sensational figures, and secondly they were heterosexual, and therefore wanted to look more masculine. The vast majority of women here do not share either of these traits, which makes it puzzling that they seem to want to imitate the ‘Haute Lesbiennes’. Trousers were also given a boost during the Second World War, because many women worked in factories, where trousers were more practical. After the War, trousers remained an item in women’s wardrobes particularly in the country - but they were rarely worn in town and never at formal occasions. During the miniskirt era, trousers bided their time, but in the 1970’s, with the rising influence of feminism, women were persuaded to look as much masculine as possible. And for centuries now, trousers have been not just an item in women’s wardrobes, but a uniform to be worn every day. If one walks down a street in London or New York, the proportion of women wearing trousers to skirts is believed to be 10:1. In Paris the proportion is lower - perhaps 5:1, and many of the best-dressed women in Paris never wear trousers in town. In Milan the ratio is more like 3:1. But everywhere in the Western world, trousers are predominant. The interesting thing about this phenomenon is that, because women cannot see themselves from the rear, the majority are unaware that trousers are very unflattering to their bodies. Trousers are made for men’s bodies, which are mostly straight up and down. Women’s bodies on the other hand consist of curves. Women have big bottoms – those that have these kinds of round bottoms always look very stunning in trousers. Trousers reveal and highlight every inch of a woman’s lower body and women in close-fitting trousers seen from the rear seem to be almost in the nude from the waist down wards. Countless women who would look lovely in dresses or skirts are embarrassingly unattractive in trousers. Reasons why African tradition still strongly detests women in trousers is because they are not nearly as pretty or as aesthetically pleasing as skirts and more importantly, trousers are not feminine, and it is femininity that attracts men. The more women dress like men, the less attractive they are to men. Just as it is men’s masculinity that attracts women, so it is women’s femininity that attracts men. Suppose, for example, men decided tomorrow to wear skirts and stockings. Would women find that attractive? Would they find that sexy? The answer is obvious, and applies also to how most men view women in trousers (although in the Anglo-Saxon world few men have the courage to say so). Joseph Ngarambe a student at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) said there are many women who wear trousers because they don’t think their legs are very good. This is a mistake, because women’s legs are essentially sexy. If a man finds a woman attractive, he will find her legs sexy even if they are not perfect. He said that its behaviour that flies against common sense, and flies against the normal human desire to please. Most importantly it goes against one of the basic elements of civilization, of always trying to look one’s best. According to Evelyn Uwitonze also of KIST, says that wearing a trouser is something normal, common and a sign of modernity. “There no problems associated with that and to me I just think that even the society feels okay and comfortable to a person dressed in a good pant” she says. She said that some ladies feel smarter in pants than in skirts and as for students who walk for long distances; they find it much easier in pants than in shirts and dresses. Also sports women argue that they cannot do it in skirts. Interestingly others feel that trousers especially jeans are very protective in incidences of rape, could this justify why many happening women and ladies are often clad in these very unnecessarily tight jeans? Ends