There is a fine line between appropriate and inappropriate. A lot of gray and not such a hard black and white distinction. In my opinion anyways. For example, a recent conversation with some friends brought to question the appropriateness of leggings worn as pants. Most people sided on the inappropriate side; me, I emphatically sided with appropriate. But of course there were those who fell in the gray area of the circumstantial—it depends on who is wearing the leggings as pants to determine whether or not they are appropriate or inappropriate. I agree; there should be some kind of legging discretion and perhaps some friendly fashion policing because bodies were not designed for any one particular cookie-cutter fashion. So, unfortunately not every “in” thing should be worn by every single body. I believe all bodies are beautiful if adorned appropriately, but that is a different tangent that I will run with some other day. For now I just want to attend to appropriate versus inappropriate. So, using the example of the leggings for further illustration of the complexity of appropriateness, appropriateness shifts with one’s life experiences, namely age. In 10 years I will perhaps view the legging issue differently; and perhaps I will deem it inappropriate for me to wear leggings at 35 years old. Though this is highly doubtful because before leggings were “in” I wore them with everything. I didn’t really like jeans. I like the freedom, comfort and flexibility of leggings. In my opinion spandex is one of humanity’s greatest inventions. Jeans are too stiff for my taste though I started to wear them a bit in high school because my siblings gave me such a hard time about the legging fashion. But to their credit I did wear ridiculous patterned leggings with entirely non-matching patterned tops, so it was all just a big mess. So, I don’t think they were so much against the leggings as much as the unmatching look. I will have to post some pictures sometime. But for now moving on… Appropriateness is shaped by one’s place in life. For another example, men might find women wearing leggings entirely appropriate because they accentuate the female form (which my belly dancing teacher told me is the most beautiful figure in the whole universe) and cling to the curves of a woman’s body which some perceive as seducing men (or women to be fair and all inclusive). So, then in that case while some might like legging fashion for how it silhouettes the female figure, others might for that very same reason see it as inappropriate. To apply this to my personal life: in my future job as a preacher I might have to give some serious consideration of this legging tension. Perhaps leggings could be used in my sex appeal evangelism methodology (more on that later) to entice people to church, but then it might not bode well for the more conservative, modest church goer who would see leggings extremely inappropriate for the minister to be wearing. So, does that mean I must give up my love for leggings?! Is my wardrobe subject to the standards of inappropriate/appropriate of my church culture? Because while I, at 25 years of age, do not see anything inappropriate about my wearing leggings, my congregants perhaps might not think it so appropriate of a pastor to wear leggings. But is it any more appropriate for a young woman of 25 to be forced to shop and wear shapeless, old women clothes? Is it appropriate for the church to preach against the body–to not appreciate God’s handiwork of the human body? The body is beautiful, and a body can look classy and appropriately beautiful in leggings. But I return to the body, and I don’t want to keep the conversation of appropriateness isolated to the physical body. Everyday there are appropriate and inappropriate decisions to make and conclusions to come to, and what is and is not appropriate is subjective to the individual, but there are some status quos of appropriateness that seem to shape our collective, societal consciousness, making what appropriateness very complex.
Appropriateness
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