Day 3: Patriarchy and Boeremeisie

While on the way home yesterday I stared contemplating what these short shorts mean. So I did some research and found an interesting blog from the Engelsman in Afrika, he writes about boer attire here. http://kevdieenglesman.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/boer-attire-the-lowdown/

According to Engelsman in Afrika in Boer Attire: The Lowdown. He found that and I quote “Moving southwards to the shorts, or ‘kort broek’. This item of the boer uniform can be described as ‘tight-fitting’ and little more than ‘minimalist’ in nature, displaying expansive portions of a boer’s thigh sections. It is rumoured that Alpha boer males will display more thigh flesh than their Beta male counterparts, however the statistical population which I have studied has delivered inconclusive results to confirm this fact. It is true however that the boere use thigh exposure to attract mates. To the boeremeisies dat kom van Bloemfontein af (and other similar boere strongholds), the sight of a man’s exposed (and possibly hairy) thigh is irresistible. Traditional shorts colour is again khaki, however to hide pee stains, which are extremely noticeable whilst wearing khaki, a wider variety of colours are available, ranging from forest green to navy blue. Like the shirt, boer shorts would never feature on an episode of Fashion TV.”

So my thigh muscles will be directly related on how much of a man I am and how many females I get. Too bad I don’t fill those as much. It all makes sense to me now, why my boet said I should rather wear long pants, at least that way I can still have some form of masculinity left and some chase with the boeremeisie.

This being said, I do have become somewhat more patriarchal in my views. It might be due to subconscious ideology that I am not particularly aware of as yet, or maybe my natural boer instinct are just kicking in. To provide for family and self, food, shelter, protection. I also felt a slight sense of pride for an instant followed by shame shortly after.

I even switched to Radio Sonder Grense (RSG) so that I can awaken my inner boer culture and maybe pick up on the latest agricultural trends from the Landbou Weekblad

Boer Attire: The Lowdown

Patriarchy and Boeremeisies

Engelsman in Afrika

‘Boer’ (noun; plural – Boere) is the Afrikaans word for ‘farmer’. Although the use of the word in its traditional sense leans more towards a reference to the white Afrikaans male farmer, I believe that the word can be applied to all manner of ‘farmer’ and is irrelevant of colour and race. Phewff…racial and cultural minefield avoided! Proceed to next level.

This post pays references the word ‘Boer’ in its more traditional sense and concentrates specifically on the clothing worn by staunch Afrikaans Boere men. If you can imagine back to caveman days, your local Truworths equivalent probably had very little in the way of choice when it came to clothes. They may have gone as far as to cater for separate departments for men and women, however there are restrictions to what can be done with a loincloth, leaves and animal fur clothing. Bearing this in mind, a caveman…

View original post 658 more words

Day 2: Ekonoom met n Droom

Earlybird gets the worm or so they tell me. I know it is a strongly related fact that a boerseuns must get up in the morning otherwise you are lazy, and lazy just won’t cut it in this uniform. So I got up a bit earlier to make sure I get to my student tut on time. I shouldn’t be nervous about it but for some reason I am slightly. It must be my outfit for today. As I meet the first year student I immediately become self conscious about my free code and who I am representing. The girl has a surfer kind of look to her. Binary opposites comes to my mind. Nerves start to tremble. Anyways get these thought out your head. I am here to work… as time went on it became easier and I felt more comfortable. I guess it wasn’t so bad, off to a good start, challenging but good, at least she know that we doing the intervention.

This challenge made my day somewhat easier. I racked up the courage to go to the cafeteria for lunch. Something bothered me though. The cleaning lady looked at me but it was more of a death stare or at least it felt like that. Surrounded by a diverse society in such an enclosed space like the cafeteria. I instantly felt exactly like the stereotyped prejudice I portray, so I kept to the side and waited until my smoked chicken health roll is done.

The latest in developments to me was actually how exposed my legs are. I am quite insecure about my calves, tall people are either blessed or not, unfortunately I was not blessed in the calve department. Another area I feel uncomfortable, there must be a positive in this. I always wondered what it was with the afrikaans boer seuns exposing so much of their leg. Even south african rugby traditional is a mainly afrikaans sport ad the classic PT shore or t-savs have become iconic amongst the afrikaners. My brother, who is very much aligned with this look, has clearly stated even if I were to wear that in the acceptable Free State, they would still rather suggest a long jean pant…

I never knew that I could become so self conscious of previous non-issued things in my life. It seems that the next couple of days could be really interesting…

Day 1: Hoe lyk dit ouens…

I must be honest, this has challenged me immensely already even before getting into the outfit. I woke up at 04:00 this morning with anxiety and couldn’t easily go back to sleep. I feel that I have built a strong identity through my years living in Durban, and my perception about my reputation and what people think of me obviously plays a bigger role in my life than what I initially thought.

Thoughts running through my mind of how I will be judged, and then trying to rationalise it to soften the impact didn’t really help much. I dreaded getting up, but in the end swallowed my pride and went for it.

I was on the way to Johnson’s Workwear Depot this morning to get that classic two tone shirt, everything else was pretty much fine while still being in my ordinary cloths. I walk in like mr. Durban until I fitted the shirt and immediately started feeling self conscious.

I changed in the car, putting my new steamy farmer short pant on… followed by the collared khaki green two tone shirt. Since I was still in the car and nobody could actually see me I felt rather at ease, but increasingly anxious. I was ready for my new uncomfortable 10 day adventure to start, until my phone rang. It was Tessa. the lady that I work under at Tyson Properties. This is obviously an important phone call since we are in the process of selling a penthouse in Umhlanga which I have the keys for. “Please could you come drop the keys at the office” she said. Stuttering, I try to get out of it by saying that I’m on the way to varsity, but I could hear that this was urgent. How can I go into the office looking like that, my whole professional image destroyed in one day, and it is just the start of this brief. It doesn’t even relate closely to the office dress code. Tessa have made it clear before that when I go into the office I MUST wear a lang broek. No I have to walk in with an extra short short pant with 2 skinny white legs dangling out of the gigantic holes of them. I could never…

Instantly I felt uncomfortable, uneasy and frustrated, I started sweating and got angry. Not a positive start to my week and it basically took blou maandag to another level. I had to make a plan, phoned my mom, and asked her to drop the keys at the office, I just couldn’t get myself to do it.

On the way to Varisty I felt slightly better since I knew that the attention would be on everyone, since we are all in the same boat. I quickly snuck in made my way up the stairs, trying not to see too many people and slipped into our small class. There were some giggles, but nothing major, my class is actually quite understanding. I spent the whole day in the same class room between lectures. At lunch time I didn’t even go to the cafeteria because obviously it would be too busy. So decided that I won’t eat lunch and just wait until I get home, hopefully not starved to death.

I tell you know, its no fun. I feel super self conscious about what I look like and more so what i represent. The stereotyped image I portray in my mind keeps replaying like a stuck record as I literally sweat bullets due to anxiety.

Boertjie Pants

 

Boertjie Shirts

I have to tutor a 1st year economics student tomorrow morning. I have not met her before. First impressions as a boerseun… Definitely concerned…