In 1996 young model cindy Sirinya Bishop shot to fame when she won the Miss Thailand World beauty pageant and went on to represent the country in the main Miss World competition that year. What followed was a life in the full glare of publicity—magazine covers and newspaper spreads, frequent TV appearances, a world of fashion commitments and a place at the centre of the glittering whirl of high society. So, if anyone knows what it’s like to be the subject of relentless (and oftentimes unwanted) attention because of a willowy figure and a striking beauty, its Cindy Bishop.
Which is why during Songkran last year she felt perfectly qualified to respond via social media to a government announcement warning women not to wear revealing clothing during the festivities—and thus make themselves a target for sexual harassment by over-excited men. In essence Cindy’s grievance was that the government’s message should have been to warn men to respect women during the Songkran revels—at all times in fact—regardless of what they chose to wear. Her message was posted under the hashtags #DontTellMeHowToDress and #TellMenToRespect, and thus a movement was born.
Among its initial activities was the Don’t Tell Me How To Dress exhibition. “The first big event that we worked on was an exhibition inspired by the What Were You Wearing? exhibit at the University of Kansas’ Sexual Assault Prevention and Education Center. We displayed the clothing worn by victims during their sexual assault to get people thinking about whether the outfits really were relevant to the attacks,” Cindy explains. The exhibition was put on at Siam Paragon, the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre and the UN headquarters in Bangkok. This year the exhibition was moved to Seacon Square shopping mall, Woof Pack exhibition space and Thammasat, Chulalongkorn and Rajabhat universities. “It’s a roadshow really and includes a panel discussion and activities at the different venues to encourage conversation about, and greater awareness of, the issue of sexual assault.”
