Short Skirt & Long Jacket

So, for like 10 months I was living without a cable service at my home. No, no, I am not a psycho, anti-social, alienated recluse (apparently this is what I get to hear when I tell my friends ¯\(°_o)/¯ )

Last year when I came back home from US, I moved out with my mom (oh, the irony). There were plenty of things that had to be changed. One of them was to get the cable service or not. I didn’t care. But my mom did. Mom said no. I was like – Okay. She was like, hmmmm.

Actually, I did ask her why? Why on earth would you not want to see all those garbage dramatic serials that you loved watching couple of years ago? Why would you say no to those brainwashing & family-feuding drama? Why no now?

Actually, actually I didn’t get that dramatic. But, anyways,  her answer was – “I am getting old”.

My reaction was this

And she also said that both of us are anyways out working throughout the day and so it doesn’t make any sense paying for something that we won’t use it often. Those words – Tyler Durden would have been proud of my mom.

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.” – Tyler Durden, ~Fight Club

This is what she told everyone after that. This is what I said to all of my friends after that.

As days went by, we did, however, find a common interest due to lack to cable – movies. My passion for movies comes from my father’s passion for cinema. My mom, too, loved movies as far as I can remember going way, way back in time. My mom was a Bollywood movie fan whilst my father was a Hollywood movie fan. We had a color television and a VCR long before anyone else had in my neighborhood.

So, we started seeing movies on our Sony Bravia 32″ LCD. And we saw a lot together. Mostly around dinner time. I had no  problem in choosing movies from my 2TB collection (yes!). I collected all of these when I was in US using my 20Mbps internet connection! Oh, good ol’ days. I miss my 20Mbps of awesomeness.

I might write about some of the movies later. Without even asking, I know what genre my mom likes – science fiction & war action! She can watch a horror movie #likeaboss. Me? Well this  image.

Confess, you do it too.

I am sure you must be thinking what the heck all of this has to do with the title of this post and the video on top?!

Well, it just happens that the inspiration for this post (here comes another irony) is the advertisement I saw on my Tata Sky today. Yes, I did finally get the DTH cable from TataSky on Mother’s Day!

I know

Actually, it was my decision to get TataSky. I had to get it. For movies, you know. Also for occasional sports watching. And Comedy Central. Big Bang Theory. Archer. Daily Show with John Stewart. South Park. Seinfeld. Mad Men.

Frankly, I didn’t knew all of these shows were being aired in India. I was addicted to these while I was in US.

There is a reason why I got it on Mother’s Day. No matter how many times my mom has denied the need to have a cable service, I knew if she already had it, she wouldn’t mind watching some of the channels. It will keep her occupied when she has nothing to do at home. She, however, still, doesn’t want to watch any of the drama series which is absolutely fine with me.

So, now to the video – today I was watching Archer on Comedy Central and came across this advertisement from Fasttrack. The first time I saw the ad was a while ago, but when I heard it I immediately knew the song. It is from one of my favorite indie alternative rock band – Cake.

This seems to be an exaggerated lyrical song that is simply about finding the right girl – a girl who has a sense of opposition or contrast in her styles. It is about how men look for a particular women with certain details about them. Sometimes these details can be as specific as having a short skirt and a long jacket.

Cake, however, is pretty infamous for the double meanings of their songs. While I do exaggerate the possible double meaning, I do think that Cake is trying to be somewhat ironic with the short skirt/long jacket metaphor. What the short skirt/long jacket combination is truly representative of is the dual standard the male-dominated society has set up for women – the demand to be sexy and moral at the same time.

Well, one can also argue, that there is nothing wrong in expecting a girl to be progressive (short skirt metaphor) while at the same time be traditional (long jacket metaphor). This is especially, in my opinion, applicable to Indian women.

There is still plenty of good things in our traditions – family values, festivities, local food (versus junk food), etc. But one cannot turn blind to the ugliness of it too – amongst many being sexism and domestication of women.

Striking a balance between the two – being progressive and traditional – would be ideal and completely acceptable. I have hardly come across any girl that aspires to be a housewife these days. Most of them want to have as much independence in choosing a career and life as men generally have.

Here’s the lyrics:

I want a girl with the right allocations
Who’s fast and thorough
And sharp as a tack
She’s playing with her jewelry
She’s putting up her hair
She’s touring the facility
And picking up slack

I want a girl with a short skirt and a lonnnng jacket……

I want a girl who gets up early
I want a girl who stays up late
I want a girl with uninterrupted prosperity
Who used a machette to cut through red tape
With fingernails that shine like justice
And a voice that is dark like tinted glass

Well, anyways, I just wanted to share this song, which was actually the main reason for this post.

Oh, BTW, here’s a tongue-in-cheek sexist wisdom of the century.