| By Annika - Nov 6th, 2007 at 11:25 am EST |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
Clothing specifically marketed as “modest” is popular enough that Macy’s is starting to stock Shade, a modesty-driven clothing line created by two Mormon women in Utah. The clothes are fine, but the assumption that it’s a woman’s responsibility to dress modestly denigrates both genders.
Feministing.com editor Jessica Valenti points out that this "modesty vogue" is about more than dressing respectfully:
The notion of dressing modestly comes at least partly from the idea that men can't control themselves...By telling women that they have to dress a certain way to quell men's desires, modesty advocates are sending a clear message that the onus is on us to control men's sexual--and possibly violent--actions.
Standards like that reflect a larger "men are stupid/helpless" dialogue that's been popularized in contemporary culture. One of the modesty fans interviewed in the piece, a freshman at Brigham Young University, suggests that men aren’t capable of focusing on anything but boobs: "It's easier for boys to concentrate on your face and your personality when you are not revealing anything to them that is distracting to them.”
So men can run companies and countries, but they can’t concentrate on what a woman says if her ankles and shoulders are showing? I’m not buying it. Let’s give everyone a little more credit and stop pressuring women to use their wardrobes to control men.
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You made a few good points, but I wanted to comment on two particular lines
"The clothes are fine, but the assumption that it’s a woman’s responsibility to dress modestly denigrates both genders."
That's kind of like saying that we shouldn't lock our doors or cars because it's not "our" responsibility, it's the prospective robber's responsibility to not rob our house.
Granted, that's a really, really extreme example, but it is based on the same kind of thinking. The responsibility should be shared.
"and stop pressuring women to use their wardrobes to control men."
At first I didn't think I read this right. After all, most of the women I've seen who don't dress modestly do it, in their own words, to gain power over the man. They like the way they can get them to do anything they want them to.
It's a good article, but I don't think this is advocating for respect toward women.
If you apply this analogy to the situation in question, your logic implies that a man and a woman have shared responsibility to make sure the woman doesn't get raped: it's her responsibility not to invite him to rape her by wearing long sleeves? Um, no.
"most of the women I've seen who don't dress modestly do it, in their own words, to gain power over the man. They like the way they can get them to do anything they want them to."
Disregarding that you're not pointing to any real women here, this is bad, too--women shouldn't have to use their clothes and bodies to get power and respect.
People in conversation should look at each others faces for it is said the eyes are the windows of the soul.
i just wanted to point out that you completely neglected the positive aspects of modesty. in jewish traditions, modesty (aka tzniut) is regarded in a much more positive light. the opportunity to save part of yourself for you and your partner is something i truly cherish. i don't think for me it has so much to do with not tempting my male counterparts as keeping that part of myself special. please just consider the fact that modesty doesn't have to be a degrading experience, but could in fact be a feminist concept as well.
hope that makes sense,
catherine (a former cap intern!!)