Are Catholic women innocent?
Not all of them, but the assumption is that we at least make an effort. Just as I know that many Catholic men struggle with lust, but I expect that they (especially if they visit these boards) make an effort not to. I think it would be uncharitable to assume otherwise in a given instance.
I have read these threads before and the women who tend to respond always make sure to point out that it isn’t their problem if a man lusts.
Well, yes. I said that earlier in this very thread, and I believed it. I also have the knowledge that I rarely venture outside my house in anything that even approaches immodesty. I am quite fond of clothing that resembles a shapeless sack.
If someone still lusts after me, then his sin is honestly not my concern.
It is the mans fault that he notices the short skirt and the low cut shirt.
I would argue that noticing something is different than lusting, or even from being tempted to lust. If that were the case, a perfect society really would be one where nobody noticed one another- where people were effectively invisible.
I also doubt that most of the women who comment wear short skirts and low-cut shirts. Half the conversation revolves around yoga pants and knee-length skirts.
It is like a feminist cry of 'I will dress how I want and you have no control over me. Don’t objectify me." Do you see the contradiction?
I guess you’re saying that if we want to be respected, we should dress respectably. Which is odd, given that that’s the advice I would give to women on a practical level. On a moral level, though, I realize that every woman should be respected, even if she does not look respectable. The same is true of every man; every human being has innate dignity that we as Catholics must acknowledge.
I often hear people claim that sex outside of marriage is the man taking advantage of the woman. If that is the case then the opposite is true as well; the woman is taking advantage of the man as well. The woman is treated as a helpless non personal being who had no say in the matter.
I can’t really comment on this because I don’t hear people argue either side, either in “real life” or on these boards. If people were to say that women are incapable of sexual sin, they would of course be wrong.
If you don’t want to be objectified, then don’t make yourself an object.
I’m still wearing my amorphous sweatshirt from earlier. I have no intention of buying more clothes anytime soon.
The way a woman acts and carries herself determines to a large extent how people will think of her. Men may be pigs, but they aim for the quality that women require. If you are respectable then men will respect you. There may be exceptions, but that is generally true. And being respectable doesn’t mean being invisible as was suggested of modesty.
This is all what I would call practical advice. But the thing is, Catholic men are still supposed to respect me, just as I and my sisters are supposed to be modest. If I were to fail at my job- and I don’t, not at this one- then that still wouldn’t give them a license to fail at theirs.
I guess I just don’t see why you accept that men- Catholic men- are going to be pigs unless women force them to act like men. I think women should act like women and men should act like men, and everyone should think about their own sins before they think about the sins of others. I was under the impression that that was kinda what Jesus taught, but I suppose I could be mistaken.
