I was watching a Saturday Night Live musical performance by a female singer named, Sia.
I was fascinated by the shade she wore over her eyes, practically obliterating all view of her face. Upon googling her name, I came upon a Nightline interview with Sia where she keeps her back to the camera during the entire exchange. She explained that she wants people to focus on her music and not on her looks. During many of her performances, she keeps her back to the audience as she sings.
Of course, some folks feel that her decision not to show her face is a publicity stunt; others feel it’s a sign of mental illness; still others feel that she is unhappy with her face and turns her back out of insecurity. Sia’s fans say that her decision to hide herself enhances her musical performances – with no other distractions, the audience can focus more clearly on her voice and better appreciate her talent – which is Sia’s stated purpose.
This sounded eerily familiar to the rationale given as to why Jewish women’s physical beauty should remain hidden. We dress modestly so that people will focus on our inner beauty and talents, and not emphasize our outside attributes. Seemingly, it’s impossible for a woman to be beautiful and alluring, while simultaneously being appreciated for her intellect, creativity, strength, kindness, or talent. If one side is revealed, the other is hidden. These two aspects of a woman cannot publicly coexist.
Each woman must make a choice as to how she wishes the world to perceive her by how she dresses. For someone like Sia, her decision to hide her face might indeed be an individual choice. After all, she has many years of experience performing as a singer who did show her face. Based on her prior experience, she has chosen her current path. No one is forcing her to hide herself.
However, would her choice seem like a choice if an outside force was telling her that she must cover her face? If covering her face became a moral imperative, would it seem as empowering? If covering her face meant that blessings would rain down upon herself and her family and her entire community, but uncovering her face would bring down curses, would her actions truly be of her own free will?
Of course, Sia may have her own private demons that compel her to hide her visage. However, I do see a difference between an individual woman’s choice to cover herself (and being free to invoke a woman prerogative to change her mind and uncover again) and a societal mandate that demands a woman to cover up or suffer the consequences.
