Our Ladies’ Clothes—And the Unclothed Native’s Mind

Unclothed Native’s Mind

WE have had several letters from Rabaul residents about the Miss Rabaul competition—and whether it is a good or a bad thing in a predomin antly native community. There seems to be two schools of thought about this, as there are about most things in the Terri tory to-day where society is roughly divided into those who arrived during the

Eddie Ward era (Behinds) and those who knew it before 1942 (the Befores).

One section feels that in a whole world orientated towards Glamour and the Body-beautiful and Legs (especially Legs), it is just as right to have a beauty compe tition in Rabaul as in Sydney—for, frankly, if the young woman' of to-day does not appeal to the senses what the heck is there left for her to appeal to?

Others feel that in a place like Rabaul, where the natives have always been so phisticated, it is not wise. The natives cannot be expected, they say, to know that exposure of the female form is a legitimate means of raising money for charity in the more civilised parts of the Western world—all they can see are white girls parading around in a minimum of cloth ing and even going up on to a platform so that the onlookers can get a better view.

Middle-of-the-roaders think it would “not have been so bad” if the parade had

been held in a hall. But the cement dance floor of the New Britain Club is in the open air and there seems to have been n.i way of keeping native onlookers away.

In New Guinea there has always been a certain pre-occupation with the amount of clothing a European woman might wear in order to uphold her share of the white man’s burden. A newcomer was usually briefed by a kindly fellow passenger in the ship that bore her northwards to the Promised Land and she was usually told the sad story of some female who was stood on the mat by the local District Officer and sternly ordered to add a few inches to her tennis shorts. If such trivia were part of a DO’s duties, one is forced to the conclusion that his job would be a staggering one in these days of plung ing necklines, bare-top looks and what not.

Much depends upon the woman inside the clothes; some are capable of looking wanton in a neck-to-knee Mother Hub bard. The old idea in keeping European women in adequate clothing was that lack of same unhinged the native. We have, however, never heard a native make any pronouncement about this. There has

never been any evidence, to sho\y that, while they apparently remain proper little gentlemen back in their villages where their women very often wear nothing, they are thrown all into a tizzy at sight of a piece of European female leg.

To repeat, it is not just a matter of dres sing or undressing, but more a matter of behaviour, particularly the behaviour of men and women when together. There were numerous cases of native men as saulting European women before the war in Rabaul; there probably have been some cases since. Reasons behind each of these incidents arer more than mere scantiness of clothing.

That is in general. The convivial at mosphere of a ball, a parade of attractive girls in scanty clothing, frankly got up to appeal to the senses and nothing else, is probably something else again. Now, having stated the two sides of the ques tion we leave it for Rabaul to decide.