Bengaluru-based freelance editor Shiby Varghese calls it a product of patriarchy. Varghese said that when she was studying in a Catholic college, in the first year, they started a rule which said female students were not allowed to wear sleeveless tops or shorts. “Basically, no showing of legs. One day, I was walking to class with a friend who was in capri pants. She was stopped by the Dean of science, a woman, who told her to change her clothes. She obviously did not have spare ones, so had to leave college, buy new pants, change, and then return!”
The incident created quite a stir in her college, and many students protested. “But nothing came of it. Later security guards were instructed to turn away female students if they wore anything ‘revealing’. We were also told to wear white and skin-coloured bras only, lest we ‘enticed boys’,” she shared.