Modesty Myth

[MissBrattified]

Originally Posted by Truthseeker

They may not be looking for sex but many are trying to appear sexy.

Well, you then have to address the cultural issue in which girls and women are conditioned to think that "sexy" is the norm rather than the exception. (For how they should dress) Media has saturated us with images of what women should look like, and modesty is castigated as dowdy or frumpy. Men can cover themselves completely and look perfectly fine, while women are expected to show skin if they are to be fashionable or attractive. Ergo, some women are going to be crossing the sexy line in an attempt to look "pretty" (as the secular world presents it).

Because it IS a complicated issue, it's best to avoid judging motives by appearance only and be respectful to everyone. Sometimes motives are made obvious, but even when they are, the correct response from a Christian man is one of respectful, gentlemanly behavior.

If men would simply be respectful to women in general and stop trying to visually separate the ladies from the tramps, pardon my French, it would solve a lot of problems. For the Christian man, there is no need to decide who's a lady and who's not; be respectful to other people--period. It should take quite the burden off a man's shoulders to find that he doesn't need to size women up based on what they're wearing and treat them differently because of it. Hold the door open for the woman who looks like a streetwalker just as quickly as you would hold the door for a woman in a modest dress. Be as courteous to the teenage girl in the halter top and cheeky shorts as you would to your own wife or daughter.

I'm not at all in favor of alleviating female responsibility. However, it is a pointless endeavor on the part of a Christian man to go around differentiating between ladies and the...unladylike. What's the point of that? Be a Christian to all women. If women behaved the way some men do, they would be modest only in the presence of the gentlemen and dress and act immodestly in the presence of lascivious men. That makes zero sense when you reverse it, yet men do this a LOT. They will be gentlemen in the presence of modest, ladylike ladies, but excuse themselves to behave coarsely and disrespectfully if a woman isn't perceived as being ladylike. It's as if when a woman is immodest they feel it also excuses them to be immodest in the way they think, speak and act.