I missed the discussion at EuroTrib about France and the burka. If I should be familiar with it to participate in the present discussion, please let me know. But it's obvious to me that even Kant's transcendental subject (i.e., a being located in space that has no sex) can figure out that burkas are "not acceptable to wear". How can it be a good thing for a person to treat his or her body as an object of shame?

"The system" is playing the old game of divide and conquer against us here. We are made to think that we can't criticize other cultures' oppressive dress codes, because we have our own oppressive dress codes. Or we are made to speculate about how much Western dress codes are more oppressive of women than they are of men.

If women see Western dress codes as oppressive, instead of defending barbaric non-Western practices, why not take the French government's decision to make the wearing of burkas a political issue as a political opportunity, and start arguing that women should have the freedom to dress as they like?

You wrote,

Can you imagine any braless women even getting hired in a 'respectable' profession?

Well, if a law were on the books making it a crime to discriminate against women not wearing bras, including in hiring practices, wouldn't that make it more likely that braless women could get hired in respectable professions?

If the right can use regulation of dress for manipulative political purposes, why can't the left imagine using the regulation of dress for beneficial, progressive purposes?

A bomb, H bomb, Minuteman / The names get more attractive / The decisions are made by NATO / The press call it British opinion -- The Three Johns