A Modest Proposal: The Modesty Issue

I sure i hope i don't get sued for using part of the title to a popular 16th century satire by Jonathan Swift (You should look it up and read it by the way, it's pretty chill).

Anyway, lately i've witnessed a random resurgence in the whole issue of dressing modestly, which got me to start thinking about that issue once more, and i figured while i was in an inspired mood, i might as well give it a guy's opinion.

First off, in light of my past post regarding poor reasoning and argumentation, i've unfortunately witnessed the same thing going on when this topic is talked about. People often tend to resort to weak, abstract reasoning rather than more practical reasoning when it comes to making their case in this subject.

In particular, i keep seeing people treat it as though the main reason why we must all dress modestly is because our bodies, particularly our reproductive parts, are "sacred" and therefore need to be heavily covered and respected.

The simple problem with this reasoning is that it's being handled completely arbitrarily. If say... the waist of a woman ought to remain covered because it is where the womb is located, and the womb is considered to be a tabernacle of sorts, then why can't this same theme of reasoning be applied to the human head? After all it is where the brain (The most important and arguably the most "sacred" part of the body) is located, so are we obliged to keep are heads covered to veil our sacred brains?

I doubt it.

When they do this, they completely throw aside the real, practical reason for dressing modestly, namely that those regions of the body tend to incite lust in others, which is an evil, and that is why those areas ought to remain covered, not because of some abstract, arbitrary sentiment.

So if you're going to argue that a certain region of the body ought to remain covered, your logic should be based off of the fact that it can easily insight lust in others. That form of reasoning is far more practical and productive.

Another central aspect of the modesty issue is the debate over who carries the burden of responsibility; The women to dress or not dress a certain way, or the men to watch where they're looking and have some self-control.

While it is easily reasonable to conclude that both parties share some degree of responsibility, i have also come to the conclusion that the burden of responsibility ought to be predominately put on the men (and women) to exercise some basic self control when seeing other people out in public.

From my experience as a post-pubescent male, it really is not that difficult to practice self control in the face of immodesty. To be more exact, the only time it's really a problem for me was whenever i had struggled with sexual sin of some form. It was during then that my mind would be more oriented toward searching out those regions of the body. The thing was i would still be prompted to do so even on relatively modestly dressed women.

So while how women dress does have some degree of effect, i've realized that the real game changer is the state of my own mind and soul. In my normal and everyday life when i'm not struggling with any kind of sexual sin, my eyes really aren't much of a problem for me, so long as someone isn't outright scantily clad, such as in a bikini or such. I would glance at someone and would think to myself "well that person is wearing _____ " but then simply move on with my life without any notable effect.

There's plenty more i could say on this general subject, such as the fact that sometimes people make inaccurate choices as to what pieces of clothing are or are not modest, or the fact that it seems like men like myself almost never get consulted to see what it is that actually affects us the most, but i'll end it here.

I realize this issue ends up being rather heating, so this is just my opinion. Deal with it.