Excerpt
Contents
INTRODUCTION
CONCEPT OF INDECENT DRESSING
Meaning of Indecent Dressing
Types of Indecent Dressing
REASONS WHY SOME UNDERGRADUATES STUDENTS DRESS INDECENTLY IN NIGERIA TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS
EFFECTS OF INDECENT DRESSING AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN NIGERIA TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS
Theoretical Framework
CONNSLLING ROLES FOR CURBING INDECENT DRESSING AMONG UNDERGUATES IN NIGERIAN TERTIARY INSTITUTION
Conclusion
Recommendations
REFERENCES
ABSTRACT
This paper examined the issue of indecent dressing among undergraduate students in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Indecent dressing is one of the major problems that is eating up our youths, especially female students. The paper looked at meaning and types of indecent dressing, reasons why some student dress indecently and its effects on undergraduates in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Counselling roles for curbing indecent dressing were also discussed. It was recommended, among others, that parents should sit up to their responsibilities and tertiary institutions should adopt dress codes for their student.
Keywords: Indecent dressing, peer group influence, modernization and counselling role.
INTRODUCTION
Dressing originated from the time Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves and made themselves aprons to cover their nakedness after eating the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:7). This shows that human beings are social animals blessed with degree of intelligence. Our mental ability enables us to cover nakedness. Therefore, dressing is an act of putting on clothes. Importance of wearing clothe on the body is in order to protect, beautify or adorn it. Clothes are one of the basic necessities of man. In its widest sense, it includes a great range of material that man wears or applies to the body. Clothing includes dresses, shoes, jewelry, hairdo and make- up. Clothing is also used to show people’s status and the roles they play in society (Obeta & Uwah, 2015). They further explained that the clothe someone decides to wear influences the impression people have about such an individual. It also tells about the family such a person comes from. It can also affect the person’s comfort and self-confidence. The dressing pattern of an individual is a kind of “sign language” that communicates a complete set of information and is usually the basis on which immediate impressions are formed (Omede, 2011).
A dress is therefore said to be indecent when it has provocative or stimulating influence on almost all those that happen to view it on the user (Egwim (2010). Although, there are no universally acceptable ways of dressing, dresses are meant to serve some definable purposes, notwithstanding one’s country or region. They are part of people’s culture and they define their tribal or ethnic identity. Apart from dresses being a means for cultural identity, they are for ornamental or aesthetic purposes, for protection of the body against harsh weather conditions as well as for covering the intimate part of the body (Omede, 2011). These purposes are important especially as they form major aspects of a person’s personality. Indecent appearance has come to characterize the dress pattern of many students on the campuses of higher learning in Nigeria.
There is hardly any higher institution of learning in this country that is not faced with this nauseating problem. The way students on these campuses of learning particularly, the female ones, dress seductively leaves much to be desired. What the girls call skirts that they wear is just “one inch” longer than their pants. When they put on such dresses, they struggle to sit down, find difficulty in climbing machines, cross gutters as well as pick anything from the ground. Apart from the skimpy and tight fitting nature of these dresses, they are again transparent; revealing certain parts of the bodies that under normal dressing patterns ought to be hidden away from the glare of people.
In the case of boys, their pattern of dress is different. It makes them to look so dirty and very unattractive with unkempt hairs and dirty jeans having pockets of holes deliberately created around the knees and the lower part of the trousers allowed to flow on the ground because they go through their heals into their legs as socks (Omede, 2011). The waist of their trousers are lowered and fastened tightly at the middle of the two bottom lobes to reveal their boxers (pants). And when they are walking, they drag their legs and one of their hands particularly, the left one, cupping their invisible scrotum as if they will fall to the ground if not supported. Many of them because of how they dressed had at one time or the other become victims of rape, lured into prostitution, used for ritual purpose, unable to complete their education or training and also engaged in other ancillary social and moral problems like cultism and lying to mention these few. Although, there are no universally acceptable way or ways of dressing, dresses are meant to serve some definable purposes, country or region notwithstanding. They are part of a peoples’ culture and they define their tribal or ethnic identity (Omede, 2011).
Apart from dresses being a means for cultural identity, they are for ornamental or aesthetic purposes, for protection of the body against harsh weather conditions as well as for covering the intimate parts of the body (Answer.com, 2011; &Articlesbase.com, 2011). These purposes are important especially as they form major aspects of a person’s personality. But as important as these purposes are, they have been defeated by the generation of Nigerian youths (Articlesbase.com, 2011). Their dress patterns are most times anti-African, and are invented. They usually dress in a manner that does not show that they are responsible (Nigerianfilms.com, 2009). The African culture and particularly that of Nigeria encourage modesty in appearance as do the Christian and Islamic religions where the larger population of these youths claim to be worshipping God. This un-African dress pattern among the youths of this generation has generated lots of concern and worry among the citizenry of the country. Religious institutions as well as institutions of learning are not resting on their oars to watch this immoral act being perpetuated, but they speak against it. For instance, Fareo and Jackson (2018) reported that at the Adamawa State University rules were made that any Students who dress indecently to lecturers should be sacked from lecture halls. But on this very campus students still dress indecently. In the same vein, in Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam Campus, where this study is focused, it seems that the introduction of a dress code was misinterpreted by the students to mean they should dress indecently. This is because what became obvious with students in this college after the introduction of this dress code was the alarming and arrant ways that they began to dress indecently. One is not however surprised because what is typical of most Nigerian administrators is always a wide gap between policy formulation and execution. Indecent dressing even though is not accepted as the normality, is seen to be gaining ascendancy. One then wonders what becomes of the society tomorrow with the caliber of students that are being trained. If rules are made for people, they suppose to be adequately informed why such rules are made. It is for this very reason that this paper attempts to counsel students about the cause and effects of dressing indecently as well as suggests solutions that could remedy the further spread of this immoral act on campuses of learning in Nigeria.
CONCEPT OF INDECENT DRESSING
Meaning of Indecent Dressing
Every culture according to Articlesbase.com (2011) has its dressing code that may vary according to cultures. Despite this variation, one thing is certain and that is that every culture has an acceptable dress code. So every dress code that deviates from the one acceptable to the community especially as it affects the set moral standard or judgment of the community is termed indecent. The terms-decency and indecency-have so much to do with the morality of the individual person and as judged by others. A dress is therefore, said to be indecent when it has provocative or stimulating influence on almost all those that happen to view it on the user. It is according to Source Magazine on Line (2011), any outfit that shows too much skin. Egwim (2010) referred to indecent dressing in a more specific term as the attitude of someone, male or female that dresses to showoff parts of the body such as the breasts, buttocks or even the underwear particularly those of the ladies that need to be covered. This exposure is obviously a deliberate act to look sensuous, tantalizing and stimulating so as to draw the attention of the opposite sex and is more prevalent among singles (unmarried women and men). This form of dressing is provocative, improper and unacceptable (Source Magazine on Line, 2011). These dress patterns are morally offensive and reveals the high rate of moral decadence in the society of our time.
Types of Indecent Dressing
Some institutions of higher learning have prescribed dress code which students are required to adhere to. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Anambra State, in her student’s Handbook and Academic Regulations stated that “As an Academic Training Institution, the Management decided not to condone indecent dressing on campus. Towards this end, a dress code has been recommended by the Academic Board and approved by Council for students’ compliance as follows:”
Female Students:
According to this Handbook, no female student is to put on any of the following attire on the campus of the college:
1. Sleeveless tops
2. Body hugs
3. Short Knickers
4. Transparent clothes
5. Head gears e.g. Canopy head ties
6. Bogus fashion jewelries
7. Spaghetti tops
8. OFF shoulders
9. Wicket Straps
10. Mono Straps
11. Mini Skirts
12. Dress and Skirt with slit above the knees
13. Tight trousers and dresses
14. T-Shirts and jean which carry immoral messages
15. All clothes that reveal sensitive parts of the body such as the burst, chest, belly, upper arms and buttocks
16. Rosy Chicks
17. Eye Shadow
18. Excessive Lipsticks
19. Rastafarian hairstyles
20. Nail attachments
Male Students:
Male students are not to wear the under-listed on campus:
1. Shirts or any wear revealing the armpit
2. Short Knickers above the knee when not required
3. Head ties
4. Earrings
5. T-Shirts and jeans which carry immoral messages
6. Kaftans without trousers
7. Long and bushy hairs and beards
8. Braiding
9. Permed hairs
10. Jerry curls
11. Plaited hairs
12. Dreadlocks
Some of the attires mentioned above may not be inappropriate when worn in some circumstances but they are not meant to be used in school premises.
[...]