Two links:
On Feministing, a moderate flamewar between two bloggers caused the following:
Dawn took down this picture of me from her post after a commenter complained that I was “immodestly dressed.” Shoulders, apparently, are the new cooter.
My response was that I, too, had been told off for baring my cooter shoulders. Frequent readers will know that my sister calling me a whore doesn’t even scratch the surface (apostate, which I’ve never actually been called, I’m sure is worse in their minds).
Meanwhile, over at dooce, a fleeting memory of BYU’s “honor code” (BYU’s Student Honor Association’s site has been effectively dooced, though more in the sense of being slashdotted, rather than the actual definition of dooced; if you can get through, kudos to you…you may want to wait a few days) and an entertaining fashion tip.
A while ago, I ran across the Jewish concept of frum, which effectively means “modest in dress”, at least when talking about women. The fashion tips for frum women (it’s always women…we’ll get to that) look great for cold-weather style but honestly, most days in LA people are lucky I don’t walk around naked. It’s just too damn hot to wear long skirts, shirts, & leggings. As such, my heart bleeds (or, more precisely, my armpits sweat) for women in black chardor/abaya/jilbab/hijab/burqa.
Modesty, I’ve decided, is in the eye of the beholder. It is also in the attitude of the wearer, but I’ve been in completely non-sexual encounters with completely naked people and at the same time found fully-clothed people unaccountably sexy (what is it about the black turtle neck?!). Forced modesty, however, fosters a sense of control. And that’s what disturbs me the most about all of this (from BYU’s alleged codes: what do they do to you if they catch you unshaven? to the Vatican’s denial of entry to people in shorts). Just about all the arguments that I’ve heard about why one should dress modestly come down to “because God tells you to” (we won’t get into the argument of “because God tells you that men are dogs”, which is another common one). And that’s where I get confused. If God gives us free will & beautiful bodies that can be sexual or a-, why can we not celebrate both? Why is a t-shirt, a bathing suit, a skirt, a tank top, a beard, visible hair, considered immodest?
What kinds of atheistic morality can we come up with that allows for dressing appropriately, certainly, but also comfortably (you’ll not catch me in a tank top in the dead of winter, but you might catch me in a skirt with leggings) that does not appeal to God, sex, or men’s untamed libidos?
And for anyone whose been to BYU: what do the fashion police do if they catch you?
