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Professor Emeritus Mineke Schipper de Leeuw is the author of academic books, essays and novels. Her most recent book is in Dutch: Bloot of bedekt. Van niets om het lijf naar strak in het pak (2015). She is working on an adapted English version. Provisional title: Naked or Covered : from a Simple String to a Three-piece Suit. This is what it will be about: When our first ancestors began to walk on two legs instead of four, they gained a new perspective on each other’s physicality. Gradually people invented their own dress codes for men and women. In traditional Japan an uncovered female neck was disapproved of, in Victorian England a heel had to be invisible and in the Middle East women's feet were usually considered to be less problematic than women's hair. Naked arms or legs or breasts are not surprising to those who are used to them, but in the eyes of those who walk around completely covered a glance at such uncovered body parts may be shocking. Throughout history cultures and religions developed specific rules to control unruly nakedness, but in times of globalisation we are all confronted with a variety of perspectives on ‘normal dress’. 

You can visit her personal homepage here.

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