But be warned....some of the guys here will excoriate you!
Modesty is over-rated.
Ask if there is a death of chastity that accompanies the death of modesty. Clothing today is different than in Victoria times — more of the body is seen — but are woman just as chaste? With the pill, probably not. Is sex used to sell almost everything, yes. Perpetual sexual arousal is what the advertisers want to see in children, to have them as a market share that keeps coming back. The movie Avatar, I’ve read, also attempts this seduction.
At any rate modesty shouldn’t be confused with sex. And the article is correct about the relationship between humility and wonderment.
mod·es·ty [mod-uh-stee]
1.the quality of being modest; freedom from vanity, boastfulness, etc.
2.regard for decency of behavior, speech, dress, etc.
3.simplicity; moderation.
Modesty is more that just dressing modest. Modesty is doing nothing that would draw attention to one’s self.
If we are driving expensive cars, living in Mcmansions, wearing expensive jewelry and designer clothing, how can we complain of someone else’s lack of modesty?
“Men are visual creatures by design, and now the poor guys can hardly raise their eyes off their shoes without being confronted by half-naked women they’re then not supposed to look at. “
I’ve never looked at shoes, I couldn’t even tell you kf someone was wearing them!!!!
Basic common sense about avoiding occasions of sin and the appearance of scandal looks puritanical to the malformed. But after a dozen into adulthood, I've witnessed adulterous affairs and children conceived out of wedlock among otherwise good Catholics who talk like cads and whores and take no precautions against their own weaknesses.
The sorry fact is that humans are biologically programmed, just like every other animal. Men look at women like lions look at gazelle. And women need to advertise their body shape to attract men.
But this is just a starting point. Girls have no manual that tells them how to attract the boys they want to attract, so relying on what their parents and peers tell them, and in the absence of common sense, they tend to overdo it.
And as far as boys go, they act like your basic chimpanzees in the best of circumstances.
I remember just a few years ago when somebody coined the term “prosti-tot” because of the clothing that came out at that time making very young girls look like prostitutes.
I think it is a matter of competition for men’s attention by women. They think the less they wear the more men will give their undivided attention to them.
“Every time I walk through the mall I feel this stab of pain in my gut. It also happens in Target, Wal-Mart, the doctor’s office, the grocery store; it even happens in church.”
and even on FR
Samuel Adams "It is high Time for the people of this country to declare, whether they will be freemen or slaves? It is an important question which ought to be decided. It concerns us more that anything in this life. The Salvation of our souls is interested in this event. For wherever tyranny is established immorality of every kind comes in like a torrent. It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in a country where virtue and knowledge prevail. The religion and public liberty of a people are intimately connected; their interests are interwoven, they cannot subsist separately; therefore they rise and fall together. For this reason, it is always observable, that those who are combined to destroy the people's liberties, practice every art to poison their morals. How greatly then does it concern us, at all events, to put a stop to the progress of tyranny." --
Modesty died a loooong tme ago.
Too subtle for this lowly one.
I thought it was a pastor casting out the tobacco demon.