By BC Dad
A necessary component of living and working legally in China is an annual visit to the police station to register documents, address, and similar data. The main branch in my current hometown of Benxi, when I visited last, featured half a dozen female officers (no men), mostly sitting at various public service desks, all appropriately uniformed and equipped. I laughed out loud, however, when I noticed that each and every one of them, including the senior officer in charge of foreigners, was wearing high-heeled shoes.
In fact, having traveled and seen (much of) the world, I can now state with definitive authority that the most exotic, sexualized, erectogenic and (otherwise) utterly useless females on planet Earth are without doubt native Chinese women. Many of them are walking wet dreams, every inch of their being designed to maximize the attentions and lustful sensibilities of any male within visual range. And yes dammit, that includes me – I can’t seem to help looking.
The vast majority of women in Benxi over the age of 25 are married, and have usually done their duty to society and husband by producing the requisite child. The social contract between the sexes here is quite transparent – sex and reproduction in exchange for labor, property, money and lifestyle.
At the end of each school day, I run a gauntlet of parents, mostly moms, waiting outside the gate to pick up their child. It’s apparently perfectly normal for some of these women to show up in six-inch platform shoes, a pleated micro-mini skirt, which may or may not be see-through with black panties underneath, and of course the almost obligatory lacy bra covered by sheer fabric of some sort or another. Feathers, flounces, silk and lace froufrou accoutrements of every description and style can also be found, along with ultra-short leather hot pants, thigh-high boots, stockings that would make a prostitute blush, tights (Chinese women have superseded the West by moving beyond the humble camel-toe), Lycra sheath dresses and skirts, and of course, the utterly transparent simple summer dress (my personal favorite).
And then there’s the shoes. My god, the shoes! I seriously contemplated making a career out of stopping women in the street and asking if I could photograph their fabulous, frivolous footwear, but decided against it, not wanting to jeopardize my standing as a normal human being. To picture them for yourself, use your imagination, AFTER ingesting a hallucinogenic-sized dose of Viagra. For sure the evolutionary biologists are correct when they point out that the apparent purpose of such inflammatory footwear is to elevate and outwardly project the buttocks, inviting an approach suggestive of our ancestral hominid mating habits.
Modesty does not seem to be held in high regard, either. I have seen aging over-weight women sprawled on park and shopping mall benches with their skirts intentionally pulled up, legs wide apart for anyone who cares to look. Perhaps it’s China’s customary overcrowding and lack of privacy that enables this – I’m not sure – but sexy those women aren’t. I have seen numerous women try on shirts in public stores without embarrassment, and on one memorable occasion watched a pretty young woman pull her skirt up almost to her waist (flimsy pink cotton panties, in case you’re wondering) in order to roll on a pair of pantyhose, in the middle of an underground walkway/mall that was crowded with shoppers.
Fascinating as it is to watch some of these women teetering precariously along on their exuberant footwear, it’s almost impossible to picture them efficiently performing any of life’s daily chores, much less being seriously productive in the business and corporate worlds. Yet, this very morning, I noticed a beautiful young woman, dressed to the nines in knee-high boots, white leather mini, and form-hugging white cashmere sweater, mopping the sidewalk in front of a ratty little shop near my apartment. I can surely appreciate the value of a woman who’s willing to do some of the dirty work, but why oh why does she have to look so damned sexy doing it?
As for male fashion, a small set of the beautiful youth (some young Chinese men are a lot better-looking than I would have thought possible) sport hair styles reminiscent of Liberace, Elvis and even Fabio, but for the majority the predominant expression of style seems to be the mawkish and unpleasant habit of rolling up their shirts to just above the nipples, usually revealing a pot-belly and an assorted variety of flab. It’s unimpressive to say the least, and really quite funny. But let’s face it, I’d rather look at the women.
