CJ Morgan wrote: "I want to know why men pay ridiculous amounts of money for thin strips of material with which to throttle themselves while wearing ridiculous business suits in the Australian summer, when most women don't."

Thoreau's observation is still accurate. "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." They are fit to be tied.

Polycarp
Perhaps we should look at the issue in more anthropological terms. Those from white Anglo-Saxon origins for the most part, dwelled in cold climates thus covering up was about survival and coping with harsh winters. Equally those from warmer climates were dealing with the opposite problem, excessive heat, and thus had no qualms about wandering about half-naked.

It is not surprising that we have evolved over the years to incorporate what was a biolgical response into a sociological one.

It is now 2008 and we can move on.

Polycarp.... get a life...if all people are intereted in church or bible study is what a woman is wearing or not wearing they really do have a reponsibility to train their mind to raise just a little above their navel and concentrate on what they hould be concentrating on instead. Men of faith hould be training in purity and have STANDARDS OF THEMELVES which are higher than what you are currently giving them credit for. On the other hand if all you wanted to do wa raie a contraversial topic...you certainly have raised a ruckus.

I'm finally coming to the inevitable
conclusion that the situation is
indeed not only hopeless, but a
waste of time.

We can all put out arguments forward,
answer the questions until we're blue
in the face... to no avail.

When someone decides not to see the
glaringly obvious, it becomes the
hardest thing to try to explain it.

as Ayn Rand once said,

"Reason is not automatic
Those who deny it
Can't be conquered by it..."

It is not often that I agree with CJM but on this occassion I do. I once read that the tie was invented by some bloke who was going to an important function and discovered food stains on his shirt front, so the tie was invented for a prctical reason. Ties are ridulous!

Polycarp,
I disagree with your original post. Recently I was at a large airport waiting to meet someone and while waiting I noted that few women wore dresses or skirts, by my reckoning 95% wore slacks and on another occassion at Sydney,s Central station all the young womwen were wearing slack or jeans. They may dress more provocatively when going out for the night,etc. but for general day dress it now seems slacks are the go. I think that is for practical reasons.

Interesting developments to b sure.

Fraccy.. Veronika didn't really answer the question, she just stated her view..

"Women show legs and cleavage cause our legs and cleavage are part of our bodies. Rather nice parts."

Well she kind of answered it, but her reasoning is pretty errr tardy.
If we used her reasoning, then we (blokes) would be pumping up b4 we front up to wherever and showing off our 'nice bits' because they are 'rather nice'...hmmmmmm

Veronika. Yes.. cleavage (breast exposure) and legs (particularly the errogenous zones) as you put it seems to be sending the wrong message i.e. "we ARE in fact sex objects and here..look at meeee" :)

I think a better message is "We are people.. and you can SEE that I'm female, you can also SEE if I'm attractive to you overall...and I'd prefer that we keep the suggestiveness for our intimate moments and contexts to the exclusion of others"

Banjo's comment about most females wearing slacks.... yep.. probably right, but it must surely depend on the season? (Pelican)

Back to Fractelle. Agreed, there is no single reason, but I think the most prominent would be as follows: (a purely human perspective here)

1/ We (blokes) still like to regard females as opportunties to spread our genetic footprint.
2/ Females know this.
3/ They fit in with this due to socio-psycho-genetic pre-disposition and dress accordingly in the interests of mating.
4/ The more they dress alluringly, the more we blokes are likely to compete for them.(Thus weeding out the frail ones)
4/ The fashion industry has exploited the above and made a lot of money out of it.

On TIES? ooooooo.. the last time I wore one was... errr.. decades ago.
My standard outfit now is a windcheater and Yakka multi pocketed work trousers.. even to funerals.(and Church)

2 FOCUS POINTS.

I wish to emphasize that ultimately,

a) our attire should reflect a committment to much deeper values than carnal or transitory pleasure.
b) We need to always resist pressure from fashion zarrs to conform us to anything of that nature. (carnal/transitory)