`Three nos' stirs rights debate

"Most customers, especially when most of them are males, love to watch. You will have no customers to knock on your door if you don't dress like this. That's the reality," she said.

"If the county government can really carry out what it claims it will do and asks every betel-nut beauty and owner to cooperate, I'll be more than happy to follow the rules as well," Lin said.

Another vendor who works at a stand next to Lin's expressed a different view.

Wearing a sports bra-like top and short mini-skirt, the 19-year-old, surnamed Hu (胡), said that she loved what she was wearing but she would never expose her breasts or private parts in front of customers.

Hu added that she feels the government doesn't have the right to tell her what to wear.

"I'm a betel-nut beauty, not an exotic dancer or a hooker. Why should I do that?" she said. "I love to make myself beautiful when I'm at work. What's wrong with that?"

Josephine Ho (何春蕤), an adviser to the Gender Sexuality Rights Association and a professor at National Central University, also said that nobody has the right to interfere with the way people dress, including the government.

"No administrative body has the right to tell people how to dress. This is ridiculous," she said.

"In this case, the decision on how to dress and what to wear should be left up to these betel-nut beauties themselves. The government should draft regulations to ask betel-nut stand owners not to request the betel-nut beauties they hire to be scantily clad just for the sake of better business. These owners should be the subject [of regulations], not the girls."

In addition, Ho also said that women's groups shouldn't blame these young women for not thinking about their future by working at betel-nut stands.

She said that a lot of people feel these women chose this business as their career because of the lure of a high income.

Ho said that she personally doesn't think there's anything wrong with these women's choice of job.

Few alternatives

"Think about it, most betel-nut beauties didn't receive a solid education. If they don't do this, they may end up with something worse such as prostitution," she said.

"If those women's groups really care about women, they should show their concern about those women who are still suffering from lousy jobs with low salaries. How to help them improve their life should be the focus for these women's groups," Ho said.

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