It works both ways. If women dress provocatively, then it assumed they intend to provoke, or at least to get attention. But I think there is quite a difference between a woman dressing attractively by modern standards and her looking as if she should be working on the streets.
Men, at least Christian men, also need to exert self-control. I went to vespers at an Orthodox church one time with a friend of mine who was distracted by an attractively-dressed woman who was there and, in our conversation afterward, he put all the blame on her. He said her attire reflected poorly on her. I pointed out to him that, while she looked very pretty, her attire wasn’t immodest, that she had a prayer rope on her wrist, that someone like her could be plenty of other places of a Saturday evening besides church, and the problem was more his than hers. He saw my point. I related my own experience with distraction. Also at vespers in a Greek church, I was near a young woman and her mother. They both looked as if they had just gotten off the boat from Greece — plain, long, black dresses, hair simply tied back, no makeup, heads covered with a veil. I found the young woman stunning, probably one of the most naturally-beautiful woman I have seen. She did nothing to draw attention to herself. That was all on me.
I remembered what a monk once said he did when he found a woman distracting. He would pray, “Lord, I thank you that you have made someone as beautiful as this.” That works to bring one back to the proper state of mind.
You win Post of the Thread.
I like that prayer.