Clothes Horse

Earlier this morning I started a blog about clothes and quickly realized that I had enough for a short essay. After I submitted my article to my editor (thanks, Mom) I realized how big a topic I had broached.
Henry Thoreau, author of Walden, wrote a great American essay using clothes as a metaphor for ideas. Like his other metaphors, it didn’t take much decoding to know that ‘coat’ is a stand in for ‘identity’.
Then there’s the more touchy topic of clothes and religion, but it comes to the same thing- you are what you wear. It was a big deal to the early Christians, by the way, that Jesus put on a cloak dyed a particular color of red. It was specifically the same color that priest-king Agamemnon walked on before Clytemnestra offed him.
Clothes are a big philosophical topic, but it doesn’t take much research to recognize that they aren’t just to keep us warm.
So why the derision about interest in Michelle Obama’s clothing choices?
You all saw this coming, didn’t you?
Sexism. If a topic is about women, sneering is required.
Nancy Sherer