TOW #9- The Undress Code

        In Bonnie Tsui's article, The Undress Code, she reveals her past experiences as a victim of the disturbing situation between the clothes that women wear and the resulting reactions of men. As a current New York Times opinionist and successful author, Tsui has formed a variety of different relationships with coworkers in her past professions. Among them all is one particular man, who after seeing Tsui in a sweater with holes, paid her an uncomfortable amount of attention. Even after graduating college, getting engaged, and stabilizing her writing career, this man continued to follow Tsui's work and desperately tried to stay in contact with her. It amounted to an extremely creepy level, and made Tsui question why she was haunted by this man, simply based on the clothes she used to wear when they worked together.
        She addresses these annoyances with several rhetorical questions in her article, clearly representing how the reoccurrences of this man negatively affected her life. In paragraph 3 she writes, "Did I do something to encourage these advances? Was I being too harsh, and was he actually offering to help me? Then why did it feel so unsettling and not quite right?" This clearly exemplifies the unease that she felt during this period of her life, and allows for the audience to put themselves in her shoes and attempt to answer these questions themselves.
        At the end of the article she comes to a startling conclusion that the man had actually taught her a life lesson; "What a women wears can be used as a weapon against her." Through the repetition of the phrase "Nothing happened" in the final paragraphs, the audience is left to consider whether or not something actually did happened. Although she wasn't physically harmed or disabled by him, he left her with invisible marks that altered the way she viewed herself and other women around her. He forever changed her state of mind, although he did not hinder her strength. This ongoing, difficult relationship made her realize how important it is for women to defend themselves and stand up against the dominating nature of men.


Tsui, Bonnie. "The Undress Code." Opinionator The Undress Code Comments. The New York Times, 12 Nov. 2015. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.