Respect or Looks? : The Stand of wearing Shorts in the Church

Being the only country in South East Asia to embrace Christianity as its primary religion, we tend to look at the church as the portal, the boundary between the material and the spiritual. Different people have different opinions whether or not our respect towards the church reaches to the extent that even a dress code (which is currently being implemented) should be strictly applied.

Currently, the church helps decency and promotes respect through the banning of wearing outfits that are deemed too casual, like shorts. Men and women alike wearing shorts are not allowed inside most churches, some just get away with it, the others are not as lucky.

So in the final project, we decided to ask people from different walks of life about their opinion on this. Is it okay for people to wear shots in church?

Name: Angel

Student

Age 19

Name: Fernando

Age 47
Profession: Truck Driver

Name: Julia

Age 7

Name: Denise

Age: 35
Profession: Doctor

Name: Carlo

Age: 8

Name: Cindy

Age: 41
Profession: Businesswoman

Name: Carlotta
Age: 39 

Profession: Interior Designer

Name: Patricia

Age: 19

Student

Name: Marisse

Age: 25

Profession: House maid

Name: Jun

Age: 41

Profession: Businessman

Name: Leona

Age: 22
Profession: Cashier

Name: Luigi

Age: 19

Student

Name: Anthony

Age: 23

Student

Name: Gerardo
Age: 46
Profession: Security Guard

From the photos above, we can say that we Filipinos really live up to our name of being the respectful ones. We respect even the shenanigans of the uncertainty the church brings us, and even though the stand of the church lies on what we don't see, we still respect it by wearing formal, not showing off too much skin and others.

There's also the concept of gender inequality. The last picture by Mr. Gerardo, says that only women are prohibited to wear shorts to the church. This goes to show that women, despite how "Equal" they are with men now, are still not up to the level of freedom of fashion men have. He believes that men can wear shorts, but women cannot.

Also, a group member tried to interview a nun. She didn't allow us to document anything from the interview, she said that it's okay to wear shorts, what's important is that your purpose in going to church is to thank God and to cherish every moment you have while in the vicinity.

To conclude, Filipinos, despite how superstitious we are, still have different stands on topics such as this. They might be socially caused, like how they were raised in their families or how their peers affected them, but either way, this is a justification of the statement that everything is socially constructed. People from different walks of life, different statuses, different professions and age groups also have different opinions on one topic. Socially constructed topics like this determines who we really are in society.