(no subject)
This really moves me. I think it's beautiful.
In other news, I'm going to revisit the issue of covering vs. drawing attention to yourself with a story.
In the summer of 2004, I taught English in China. I loved my Chinese kids, they were amazing. Respectful, engaged, as sweet as they could be. I loved it. Our group of teachers taught two sessions, one in the city and one in the country. The city kids were largely the children of Party members, wealthy and educated. They spoke English pretty well and were confident. The country kids were older, having had less English classes, and much more shy. In my class, I had one little girl who was incredibly shy. She was ten or eleven, very sweet but would never draw attention to herself in any way. Well, one day she came in wearing the worst shirt in the world.
It was designed to look like two shirts, one a long-sleeved white undershirt and one a short-sleeved pink shirt over top with a circle cut out around the breasts and it said D Cup Fetishism. I choked. I called her over and got my TA over to help make it crystal clear and I said, "Sweetie, do not ever wear that shirt again. Ever. Anywhere. Please burn it." My TA was an English major and spoke English quite well and she questioned me, "What's wrong with it? What does that mean?" I didn't have the heart to go into a discussion of it, so I just said, "It's complicated, but it's completely inappropriate." In China, it's popular to wear English words, even if you don't know what they mean, much like Americans will wear(or tattoo) Chinese or Japanese characters.
Oh, it made me so mad. WHO MAKES THAT? WHO DOES THAT? It was clearly a little girl's shirt! It wouldn't even FIT D-cups! What sort of sick person was in charge of designing that?? My poor student. Even someone who spoke English fluently probably wouldn't know what that meant. But anyway, to me that shirt emphasizes the difference between covering and modesty.
In other news, I'm going to revisit the issue of covering vs. drawing attention to yourself with a story.
In the summer of 2004, I taught English in China. I loved my Chinese kids, they were amazing. Respectful, engaged, as sweet as they could be. I loved it. Our group of teachers taught two sessions, one in the city and one in the country. The city kids were largely the children of Party members, wealthy and educated. They spoke English pretty well and were confident. The country kids were older, having had less English classes, and much more shy. In my class, I had one little girl who was incredibly shy. She was ten or eleven, very sweet but would never draw attention to herself in any way. Well, one day she came in wearing the worst shirt in the world.
It was designed to look like two shirts, one a long-sleeved white undershirt and one a short-sleeved pink shirt over top with a circle cut out around the breasts and it said D Cup Fetishism. I choked. I called her over and got my TA over to help make it crystal clear and I said, "Sweetie, do not ever wear that shirt again. Ever. Anywhere. Please burn it." My TA was an English major and spoke English quite well and she questioned me, "What's wrong with it? What does that mean?" I didn't have the heart to go into a discussion of it, so I just said, "It's complicated, but it's completely inappropriate." In China, it's popular to wear English words, even if you don't know what they mean, much like Americans will wear(or tattoo) Chinese or Japanese characters.
Oh, it made me so mad. WHO MAKES THAT? WHO DOES THAT? It was clearly a little girl's shirt! It wouldn't even FIT D-cups! What sort of sick person was in charge of designing that?? My poor student. Even someone who spoke English fluently probably wouldn't know what that meant. But anyway, to me that shirt emphasizes the difference between covering and modesty.