A week ago, the phrases “Kelly Clarkson puppet bird fiasco” and “Shane Gillis butthole shorts controversy” would have been meaningless gibberish. Alas, we live in perilous times, and the internet will not let either subject die a natural death.
The women of Instagram have taken up arms against Gillis, who spoke for every normal person in America when he observed on Saturday Night Live this week that many women go to the gym dressed like streetwalkers.
“Have you seen the shorts? Those neon … They’re like artificial-bait colored. And the wrinkles —the wrinkles go like around the cheeks and all combine at the butthole,” he joked. “And don’t look. You’re not allowed to look. For real, don’t look, because they are filming.”
To prove him wrong, women took to the internet to post pictures of themselves in revealing athletic wear and also to insist that they absolutely do not want any male attention at all.
Of course, most of these women obviously do want male attention, whether from their fellow gymgoers or from men on the internet. But I suspect plenty have also convinced themselves that they aren’t dressing and posting for male attention so much as they’re doing it just to prove that no one can tell them not to. They are asserting that a woman’s “right” to express her sexuality through provocative clothing trumps any duty she has to society, and above all to the half of society that possesses a Y chromosome.
It’s the Lululemon set’s version of a homeless guy dropping a deuce in the park to prove that he can do what he wants and no one is going to stop him. They are partaking in the sacred ritual of “taking up space,” and daring some closed-minded Karen to tell them no.
The booty shorts problem is not just about the sexual reaction that sexual clothing inevitably provokes, and the way that degrades men, women, and their interactions with each other, although that’s all obviously true. How you dress shows either respect or disrespect to your surroundings and the people around you.
Women should not wear underwear to the gym for the same reason men should not wear swim trunks to an upscale restaurant. And no one should wear pajama pants to class, the grocery store, or anywhere past their mailbox. Dressing and conducting yourself well is a means of recognizing your own dignity and the dignity of those who must interact with you. Modesty is an essential part of that but only a part of it.
The gym is a space you share with the public, or at least with a lot of other members of the general public who pay dues to be a part of this particular association. It is not your personal space and you should not treat it as such. This is the same basic social etiquette that also teaches you should not block a public sidewalk to film your outfit of the day. Nor should you litter, talk on speakerphone in public, or poop on the sidewalk. If you want to live in a society, these are basic duties you owe to your fellow man.
Gillis’ comparison of scantily-clad gymgoers to prostitutes may have been crass, but both share an attitude of contempt toward the imposition of social decorum. Both perceive their own expression and their right to solicit a particular reaction as superior to the norms and customs that would confine them.
This is why public shaming is necessary in a healthy society — of all antisocial behaviors, not just of the sartorial variety. You should be turned away at the door of a fine restaurant if you show up dressed for the water slide. You should get dirty looks at the gym if your areolas are hanging out (not a hypothetical example, unfortunately). Men who dress like little girls should be expelled from not just women’s bathrooms but polite company. We should not be forced to share city parks with drug addicts who scream threats at passersby and leave bottles of urine on public benches.
The same goes for antisocial behaviors that are commonly accepted in certain foreign cultures and imported to America. Anyone engaging in practices like mutilating young women or littering in public spaces should quickly encounter social pressures making it clear that such behaviors are not indulged here.
Ideally, public shame is self-policing. If you know you’ll get kicked out or get dirty looks for your inappropriate behavior, you’re more likely to avoid it altogether. Unfortunately, this only works when the threat of facing public shame is credible.
The best vehicles for enforcing this shared duty are usually mothers, fathers, friends, church ladies, older siblings, mentors, and others who inhabit the same small platoons of society that you do. A lot of the women Gillis is talking about probably needed more of Mom and Dad insisting “you can’t wear that out of the house” in high school. That Shane Gillis on SNL is the one left to make the case indicates many, many lines of defense society once put in place around young women have given way.
Elle Purnell is the assignment editor at The Federalist. She has appeared on Fox Business and Newsmax, and her work has been featured by RealClearPolitics, the Tampa Bay Times, and the Independent Women's Forum. She received her B.A. in government with a minor in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @_ellepurnell.