It was probably Julia Roberts playing Erin Brockovich who popularised the fashion – which is still around – of showing bra straps outside a t-shirt.

One fashion trend following another, year after year, what is being aimed at is to get rid of female privacy. The task of covering women moves between burkas and bikinis, and whilst there are voices against the Islamic veil, viewed as a religious archaism or a symbol of women’s subservience to men, no one complains about the clothing of women in the West. What greater subservience to a male can there be than for no reason at all to allow him a view of thighs, shoulders, navels and breasts while walking down the street, and thus provoking an unprecedented surge of male lust? Not to mention the show which is afforded at the beaches, where women staunchly parade topless to the embarrassment and resignation of all others on the beach. These women would never dream of walking around like this in their homes, because it is so obviously vulgar. There is a middle way between burkas and vulgar exhibitionism. Are we women, or are we “females”? It is up to us to decide.

Lucía Rivera

Barcelona