Analysis Of Pamela Divinsky Stop Telling Women What To Wear

In “Stop Telling Women What to Wear,” Pamela Divinsky compares the right of autonomy concerning one’s clothing choices to the dress-codes and regulations instilled by schools, workplaces, and the government, focusing on the controversy surrounding what women can and cannot wear. Divinsky uses this to draw attention to these institutions’ obsession with women’s appearances, and the fact that lawmakers and boards should have no say in the matter, referencing arbitrary dress codes, and most notably, the injudicious and unmindful passing of Bill 62. She laces her article with a subtle tone of scorn towards those who are “distressed” by the niqab, reprimanding their unjustified “discomfort” and prompting them to “get over it,” awakening them to the reality that their petty and paternalistic legislation even further oppresses and profiles women, and endangers their agency and rights.
Divinsky makes quick work of multiple anti-niqab arguments, offering simple and feasible solutions that would appease both sides, and describing their opposition with belittling words such as “discomfort” and “disturb,” likening their concerns to the trifling remarks of an old-timer who is bound by their outdated dogma. “For many, opposition to the niqab is harder to pinpoint,” she subtly ridicules, implying that their uneasiness is irrational and has no valid grounds, as they themselves do not really know why they are so opposed to it, but they “just are.” Divinsky shows anti-niqab readers