Does the Bible say that women shouldn't wear pants?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hermione
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
40.png
Exporter:
When Saint Joan d’Arc donned men’s clothing for battle , including armour, she gave the detractors “ammunition” for burning her at the stake.

In fact one of the charges against her was the wearing of men’s clothes.
Click to expand...
In that case, I am very glad that laws in the US are different now.😃
 
This does not really apply to today. The clothing of the Old Testament time was pretty much unisex-the same for men and women.

To apply that verse to modern times would be a misuse of Scripiture.
You can’t plunk a verse out of scripture and apply it like that.
 
If we’re supposed to take the OT verses on attire literally, then we should probably all be wearing robes.

Assuming you’re not actually cross-dressing, I think it’s more important to dress modestly than to worry about the exact nature of the garment being worn. There are some very modest slacks and tops, and some very immodest dresses.

I think the same applies to men, by the way. Men often yap about how “visual” they are, and women need to dress modestly, but men don’t. Well, from my point of view, an immodestly-dressed man is a near occasion of sin.

By the way, please exucse my men’s socks, shoes, and gloves. When you’re a woman and have big hands and feet, you sometimes have to do your shopping in the men’s department. Same goes if you’re very tall. 😉
 
truecatholic.org/marylike.htm

**What do you think of this? **
I think the issue here is modesty…What is the standard Catholic women should live by? I have to admit that I am a wearer of jeans, but I do like long dresses and skirts.
**I asked my husband what he thought, and (after a little coaxing) he told me that he thought women were more feminine in skirts/dresses, and that too many women wore their jeans/slacks too tight. **
What about wearing veils? I personally like to wear a veil at Mass, but never do in my large and very “progressive” parish. Wearing a veil makes me feel both femine and more disposed to prayer.
It was interesting to note that in all the pictures of women praying (after the Pope’s death) only American women did not wear a veil of some kind.
 
40.png
CarolAnnSFO:
If we’re supposed to take the OT verses on attire literally, then we should probably all be wearing robes.

Assuming you’re not actually cross-dressing, I think it’s more important to dress modestly than to worry about the exact nature of the garment being worn. There are some very modest slacks and tops, and some very immodest dresses.

I think the same applies to men, by the way. Men often yap about how “visual” they are, and women need to dress modestly, but men don’t. Well, from my point of view, an immodestly-dressed man is a near occasion of sin.

By the way, please exucse my men’s socks, shoes, and gloves. When you’re a woman and have big hands and feet, you sometimes have to do your shopping in the men’s department. Same goes if you’re very tall. 😉
Click to expand...
**Hi…You have made some interesting points. **
I think men can be immodest too, and when they dress inappropriately it makes me uncomfortable…For instance, I really don’t like to see men sit around shirtless…
I’ve seen some very immodest dresses, and some fairly modest slacks/jeans and tops, so you do wonder what is the best thign to do…I like to think I dress appropriately for whatever activity I am about to engage in…dresses and skirts for Mass, swim suits for Water Fit, jeans for running around doing (errends, taking grandson to kindergarten, shopping for groceries…etc…). I would wear skirts more often…I do think they are more feminine than jeans…but I do need to buy or have my daughter help me make some. All of the skirts I have are more for church than casual wear, and besides I’m TIRED of them. I’m ready for some pretty colors that make me feel good.
Oh…sorry…I’ve been rambling again…
**I think I mentioned that I finally asked my husband what he preferred, and he did say that he liked to see me (and other women) in dresses or skirts…He always compliments me when I make the effort to clean up my act, too. He also noted that he thought it innapropriate for women and girls to wear jeans or slacks that leave nothing to the imaginagion…I agree with this. **
**So…I vote for dresses and skirts, but realize that jeans and slacks are here to stay…and I also admit that I LOVE my comfy jeans. **
Do I sound confused? Or…Have I confused anyone? Sorry…It’s just that I have been giving this subject some thought, and according to the Meirs-Briggs Personality Sorter, I am one who has to “process” everything…So true.
**Got to go get that precious little kindergartner! **
 
Uhm… wasn’t the Old Testament written for the Jews? … Such as the scripture about giving 10% of what you have to the church? …

Daniel
 
Steven said:
trousers were invented for men, and were exclusively menswear throughout the world until about 60 years ago. For those who want to exclude the women and slacks issue from this passage by claiming slacks are womenswear it’s sobering to remember that that wasn’t the case until quite recently.
Click to expand...
This is not so. Both men and women in artic regions wore trousers hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Turkish women have been wearing modest trousers for hundreds of years. European (Christian) women began wearing modest trouser based on Turkish designs for bicycling and beach wear 150 years ago. Trouser like garments appeared under women’s clothing (just as it first appeared under men’s clothing as breeches, drawers and leggings before becoming an outer garment) as early as the 16th century.

Studying the most ancienct cultures in fashion history one discovers that “skirts” (unbifurcated garments hanging from the hips) began as men’s wear; women of this time typically wore garments that hung from the shoulders. Going by the logic presented on this thread about trousers, should not women exclude skirts as permissible women’s wear since skirts did not begin as women’s wear?

Also, to the person that commented on the dress of the Blessed Mother, I do not recall a single apparition in which Our Lord wore trousers. Do you mean to imply by your analogy that men should also not wear trousers?
 
40.png
Leeta:
Read "Dressing with Dignity’, by Colleen Hammond, …, when the new edition comes out from Tan Books. Just read what a marketing study found out in a survey of men about what part of women’s anatomy they look at when a woman wears pants.
Click to expand...
**IF **that book ever releases from TAN, you mean!

Seriously, though, Colleen Hammond makes no mention of any statistics in the study and does not cite her source so we do not know if the women were wearing modest or immodest pants or the scenarios presented: i.e, if the women were young women in pants with shirts slit open to their belly buttons standing in a provacative manner smoking cigarettes and holding beers at a sports bar trying to look like dates, happy homemakers wearing pants and modest tops holding pies and glasses of milk for their children or grandmothers wearing pants working out in their yards planting roses. Remember it was an advertising study not a modesty study!

Also remember, the 60’s and 70’s was the period of the sexual revolution and while there were plenty of immodest pants being designed and sold not all the pants that were manufactured were immodest - just those for the unmarried woman sold in the trendy boutiques at more affordable prices for the young. Other women were wearing normal, modestly styled feminine pants.

One must also remember the same problem of immodesty occured in the 20’s with the young crowd, but those girls were wearing mini-dresses called the Flapper. Other women wore modest dresses.

Ultimately, it is not THE clothing that causes the problems but THE MESSAGE one is trying give or make with their clothing.

BTW, I believe Joan of Arc was condemned not because she wore trousers but because she wore men’s armour - it just happened to have pants as part of it. If Saint Joan had lived in Roman times wearing armour with the Roman kilt, she would have been viewed just as guilty. I would have to read her trial scripts again but I do not think it say “pants” or “trousers,” it just says “men’s clothes.”
 
I think, pants are even more modest than skirts. A few years ago I wore skirts and dresses on a daily basis, the most time of the year with heeled shoes and sheer hose! Then I discovered the modesty of wide pants: I can wear them with flat loafers and cotton socks every day. I think, this cannot be immodest.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top