Modesty Revisited, a woman's account

[mdgspencer]

see www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001513.cfm

 

[TrueLight]

From the article:

But we don’t really need to resort to physiology to see the naturalness of modesty. We can observe it on any windy day when women wearing slit skirts hobble about comically to avoid showing their legs — the very legs those fashionable skirts are designed to reveal. Despite trying to keep up with the fashions, these women have a natural instinct for modesty.

Been there with those skirts that like to ride up, LOL. Then when I’m trying to pull it down, I get “yeah right” looks.

The third myth is that modesty isn’t natural. This myth has a long intellectual history, going back at least to David Hume, who argued that society invented modesty so that men could be sure that children were their own. As Rousseau pointed out, this argument that modesty is a social construct suggests that it is possible to get rid of modesty altogether. Today we try to do just that, and it is widely assumed that we are succeeding. But are we?

Interesting point. Modesty is often based on the culture. Some things that are immodest for some cultures are fine for another.

I wonder how natural modesty is, though. Adam and Eve were fine running around naked before eating the apple.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

Very good article!

Another practical issue of modesty is that it goes along with politeness. Along with loosing modesty around sex and our bodies, we’ve also lost modesty around our emotions, speech, and other habits. People share too much and expect others to be OK with it. I don’t want to hear about your bathroom habits, sex life, marital woes, etc at work. I don’t want to be forced to listen to the work woes of the commuter next to me on his bluetooth.

Certainly the idea that we never should air ‘dirty laundry’, like prudery, is too far in the other direction. But moderation, a sense of appropriateness, a restoration of privacy would be as welcome as a restoration of modesty.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

Interesting point. Modesty is often based on the culture. Some things that are immodest for some cultures are fine for another.

I wonder how natural modesty is, though. Adam and Eve were fine running around naked before eating the apple.

That usually comes with forms of modesty being confused with the virtue itself. They’re not necessarily tied indefinitely.

There are various groups of men who have an attraction to a specific body part. Some are chest guys others are leg guys, then there are some who focus more on the face etc.

Such variances in male preferences make it impossible to find a universal form of modesty but certainly it does not mean the concept itself changes.

Personally, I tend to dismiss physical appearances outright when evaluating a person. Actions alone can be hard to interpret, how much more time will you waste trying to “read” a person via their clothes?