4. Work, Attitudes and Beliefs, and Social Changes : Clothes and Feminism

“Aaargh….Writer’s BLOCK!”. : (
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(after 30 minutes...)

The world changed a lot over the past 50 years. Since the advent of information technology boom, from the telephone to the internet, different ideologies, attitudes and beliefs has spread rapidly and clashed between the East and the West. As time moves on, people begin to learn to compromise on their differences and assimilate. Therefore, it is not surprising that it will have a tremendous impact in our social lives, attitude and beliefs.

One of the most noticeable changes is the clothes teenagers wear nowadays especially Asian girls. In the olden days, girls would dress themselves thoroughly with long dresses, baju kurung, cheongsam, sari or other traditional clothing. Now, such clothing is considered not fashionable and most girls would prefer a miniskirt paired with a short t-shirt without sleeves or tight shorts and cleavage shirts to reveal as much as possible. Teenage girls are easily influenced by the clothes that their pop idols, models and celebrities wear because they think it makes them prettier and more appealing to the opposite sex. Just browse through MySpace or YouTube and you will find the sites are littered with pictures of young girls gangly frame dressed in bra-tops, miniskirt or just their undergarments in tempting positions. One of the main reasons they do so is to attract attention and feel sexy. On the other hand, boys want to look macho in front of the fairer sex, so they to also follow the latest trends like skin head and punk. Most teenager boys have the wrong perception that girls only date bad boys, so they resort to bullying, fighting their teachers and even extorting money from others to get attention and look cool.

Another wave of change is the role of women in society. In the past, the fairer sex is always expected to do the housework and taking care of the baby while the husband is the breadwinner. Women are not given rights to study, work or vote in the predominantly male society. Decades after fighting for equal rights between men and women, women are no longer looked down upon and have equal rights to education, employment and politics. Nowadays, it is a norm that the husband and wife both work to earn money for the family. Recent studies has shown that there are more females graduates than male graduates even in top universities and women now hold important roles which were once dominated by men. However, feminist still argue that more has to be done before women can have equal rights like their male counterparts especially at work. Issues such as discrimination, equal pay, equal promotion, maternal leave, sexual harassment and rape have still yet to be solved but progress is being made. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that women now more respected by men and have a more important role to play unlike the early nineteenth century.

In a broader perceptive, globalization has brought other social changes that not only may or may not conflict with the eastern values of the people in Asia but between the Western people themselves. Western society changing values on trends such as the birth control pill, voting rights for non-land holders, and the ups and downs of acceptance of homosexuality are also examples of social change. Although social changes cannot be hindered, people should learn to accept the changes but stay true to their own beliefs and be proud of their heritage.