When did uniform skirts get so short??

[ranpleasant]

I was in Staples today, and a couple of girls from the local Catholic grammar school came in to buy school supplies, and their skirts were mid thigh!

When did that become acceptable? When I was in Catholic school our skirts had to be long enough that, if we kneeled on the floor, the hem had to be under our knees.

I also remember receiving lectures on why modesty is important. What happened? When did this change?

When?

Probably around the same time that Catholic Schools stopped teaching the Catholic faith.

 

[MKJ]

aesthetics
covering up everything in a burqa is almost gnostic, treating the physical world as evil
we are creatures of body and soul, God made us that way, that is how we are meant to be

there are obvious lines of modesty, the culture we are in treats everything as subjective, they forget that there are objective and traditional aesthetics.

So what are the obvious lines?

Why is the burqa gnostic, but saying skirts should hit the knee/ankle/floor is not? Why are wrists ok, but not shoulders, or under the collar bone?

The thing is, you have attached modesty (or part of modesty) here to an idea - the idea that the body is evil is an offense against modesty. That does not really translate into any particular type of clothing - it is the interior attitude to the clothing or the body beneath it that is really important.

That attitude of someone saying all women must wear a burqa because the female body is essentially a sexual object is no different than a Victorian lady covering her table legs because legs are sexual objects, or a modern woman saying all women must wear long skirts below the knee because women's bodies are sexual objects.

That is not saying modesty itself is subjective. It is saying that the expression of it in time and space can be, and that it is the interior reality that gives the meaning to the exterior expression - which is very often the case with Christian theology.

 

[MKJ]

I rather like those trunks, actually. One of my complaints about most men's swimwear is how hard it is to actually swim in. Outside of competition suits, most modern men's swim trunks are like parachutes in the water.

They are not bad, I couldn't post some of the others which is why I picked those. I was trying to show what I meant by them being lower cut - they come well below the natural waist. I am fairly sure most of the men who wear the slightly more extreme versions are having to shave to make it presentable.

 

[MikeK]

Any lower than that and I think they'd be hard to keep on. I really need a drawstring above my hips, I don't have much butt.

 

[MKJ]

Any lower than that and I think they'd be hard to keep on. I really need a drawstring above my hips, I don't have much butt.

i thought the same thing myself. I think a lot of men have that issue, the hips just aren't really enough to hold it up.

 

[Brother Bread]

Some times when I see a modest woman in public I thank them for the way they dress.It gives a man so much rest and peace to be around modestly dressed woman. and they are easier to talk to.

 

[Antigone]

Some times when I see a modest woman in public I thank them for the way they dress.It gives a man so much rest and peace to be around modestly dressed woman. and they are easier to talk to.

Today, I'm wearing a floral dress with a cardigan that covers up everything from neck to knee. It's a nice dress, an expensive one, but if a man came up to me and thanked me for being modest so his thoughts wouldn't wonder I'd get mad at him and tell him to mind his own business. I'd also think he was a pervert.

 

[Wolseley]

Today, I'm wearing a floral dress with a cardigan that covers up everything from neck to knee. It's a nice dress, an expensive one, but if a man came up to me and thanked me for being modest so his thoughts wouldn't wonder I'd get mad at him and tell him to mind his own business. I'd also think he was a pervert.

You can't win, boys---either way, you're gonna be wrong.

"Women's faults are many;
Men have only two:
Everything they say,
And everything they do."

 

[MikeK]

Today, I'm wearing a floral dress with a cardigan that covers up everything from neck to knee. It's a nice dress, an expensive one, but if a man came up to me and thanked me for being modest so his thoughts wouldn't wonder I'd get mad at him and tell him to mind his own business. I'd also think he was a pervert.

That would be a good opportunity to thank him for admitting that he was such a weak failure of a "man" that he cannot temper his thoughts and thereby removing himself from the list of potential suitors who have a chance to see you in rather less.

 

[MKJ]

You can't win, boys---either way, you're gonna be wrong.

"Women's faults are many;
Men have only two:
Everything they say,
And everything they do."

I don't really think that is fair.

It would in almost any instance I can imagine be very creepy to have a strange man come up and thank me for dressing modestly because it is restful and makes me easy to talk to.

Because as Antigone suggested, the implication is that otherwise his mind would be wandering.

It sounds a bit weird maybe, but I am not normally put out by people saying crude or weird things to me, and I even understand why somone might feel that way about modest attire, but for some stranger to say it out of the blue - I would probably find that creepy.

It would seem a bit like he might be one of those religious pervy guys who seem to get off on the idea of "pure" women, and here he is trying to get some sort of conversation going. For whatever reason, those kind of guys are even more creepy than ones who just outwardly leer.

 

[MikeK]

For whatever reason, those kind of guys are even more creepy than ones who just outwardly leer.

As one who prefers to just outwardly leer, I appreciate being compared favorably to someone else and interpret it as an invitation to turn it up a notch.

Antigone should tell the story about the time I shared a bus with her on her morning commute.

Also, rather than calling me "creepy leering guy", I'd prefer the title of "King Leer".