Flutterby™! : Fashion and civilization

I recently created a TIFF with Gimp that Photoshop couldn't read. Tons of other software reads it just fine, but Photoshop doesn't. Rather than taking it out on Adobe, I got crap for this. Then, reading Rose, I ran across this quote that summed up a lot of things well:

It's not just a matter of dresses or pants. Do you think Parliament would investigate these women if it was just a matter of pants? Pants are merely a symbol of civilization. Do I care whether they wear pants or seashells or go about stark naked? Not a fig. But I care about the rules. I can tell you from sad experience that civilization is nothing but rules adopted for the general good. I don't know how it is i nthe South Seas, but once an Englishwoman has dressed in pants she has divorced herself from decency or the considerations due her sex. Granted it's only a rule, but it's what separates us from the apes.

--- Chief Constable Moon, in Rose by Martin Cruz Smith