{"id":489,"date":"2016-06-05T12:15:03","date_gmt":"2016-06-05T12:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=489"},"modified":"2016-06-05T12:15:03","modified_gmt":"2016-06-05T12:15:03","slug":"feminism-body-positivity-women-underwear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=489","title":{"rendered":"At Home in My Panties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

T<\/span><\/p><\/div>

here was this one time my neighbour \u201ccaught me\u201d without pants. I had just moved out of my family home, and my top-floor apartment had a huge terrace which, unfortunately, housed the building\u2019s water tank and everybody\u2019s dish antennae. My neighbour, a perfectly nice woman who rarely interfered with me, had come up to ask if she could get a cable guy to the terrace to fix her dish.\n\nI, having just woken up, sleepily threw open the door wearing a long T-shirt and a scowl. Her sunny face froze slightly, before she leaned forward and hissed, \u201cGo put something on.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s a line I\u2019ve heard several times. When I lived with family, I remember the gardener would come and tend to the plants every week, including the ones in my balcony. I was usually asleep in my shorts when he came and before he came in, a maid would rush in to ensure a sheet or blanket was covering me entirely.\n\nI didn\u2019t move out with the express intent of losing my pants anytime I felt like, but it was one of the top five reasons. This inevitably happened when I had a thong wedgie and was looking for a corner where I could extricate and scratch in peace. I figured, if I had my own place, I could have any damn corner I chose. Hell, I could scratch myself in the middle of the living room in broad daylight!\n\nBodily independence, along with the financial and psychological, plays a large role in people occupying their own spaces than is often apparent. Women, especially, I\u2019ve found, can be single, working, independent, etc, but the physical self still bows to deep-seated constraints, even at home.\n\n

Like my space, I don\u2019t need my body to be pretty or decorative unless I\u2019m feeling it. Let it be draped over furniture and floors, fluid, skin and bone and bulges.<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\nIt starts with how you sit, what you wear (or don\u2019t wear), how you should conduct yourself physically when other people are around, and how much you should smile. There\u2019s a specificity attached to all these acts and the quantities must be restricted.\n\nI didn\u2019t agree. So I moved out into my own pad and a lot of people chipped in, telling me it was \u201cgood practice for marriage\u201d. But because I wasn\u2019t just Female Moving Out of Home, I was Female Moving Out Alone, the questions became more pressing. What would I do all by myself? Wouldn\u2019t it be lonely? Did I just want to party more?\n\nTo them I wanted to say, \u201cNo, I didn\u2019t want to party.\u201d I just wanted to watch Romedy Now and eat chips in my underwear. I wanted a space where I didn\u2019t have to worry about being under someone\u2019s constant gaze, sleep as late as I want, smoke in my living room, leave my jeans and bras on the couch for a whole night if necessary, have sex anywhere in the house. A space where I could be as lazy\/hairy\/sexual\/asexual\/zoned out as I chose. Where my body has its own safe space.\n\nThere\u2019s a reason behind all those memes that show the comfort of a woman who removes her bra after a long day. It is liberating in more ways than merely physical, but even the physical symbols of being at home in a space are important, whether sitting with your legs splayed, your skirt or dress riding up, uncaring of whether you\u2019re even clothed\u2026 these are things worth fighting for.\n\nUnfortunately, you\u2019re still answering the door to security guards and dhobis and delivery people, who are nearly always male. And, while there are times I\u2019ve marched to the door in a single, tattered piece of clothing, there are many more times where I\u2019ve pulled on my track pants.\n\nI moved out, not to learn how to create a home for a husband, or make the perfect space to be admired by others. I\u2019m asocial and I tend to love coming home to my own space. I take entire days off from work where I do nothing but lie on my couch in socially inappropriate positions. Where I don\u2019t brush my hair or smile or talk to anyone. I\u2019m terribly particular about cleanliness, but I like the clutter of 10,000 books and 25 spare towels, just because they\u2019re colourful.\n\nLike my space, I don\u2019t need my body to be pretty or decorative unless I\u2019m feeling it. Let it be draped over furniture and floors, fluid, skin and bone and bulges. Let the follicles and the unpainted toenails be visible. Let there be space for us, to show as much or as little as we want.\n\nI have a strong feeling the main reason women don\u2019t live alone, apart from economic disparity, is that people are afraid we\u2019ll get too comfortable with ourselves, our bodies, with walking around in our underwear, and knowing we\u2019re strong.\n\nMy house has never been a people-pleaser on purpose. My body has, on occasion. And that\u2019s okay. As long as I can be silent and messy and alone and unclothed whenever I want.\n\nMi casa es mi casa.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I didn\u2019t move out of my parent\u2019s house to party hard. I just wanted to watch Romedy Now and eat chips in my underwear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[733,710,19,734,735],"class_list":["post-489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gender","tag-body-positivity","tag-feminism","tag-india","tag-romedy-now","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nAt Home in My Panties<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I didn\u2019t move out of my parent\u2019s house to party hard. 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