I would probably start crying. And I would leave and cry at home.
It’s a sensitive issue. There are a lot of people, especially women and girls, who THINK they look really nice, and then someone comes along and disses them, and it’s like getting punched in the stomach. You just feel so ugly and worthless.
I remember 5th grade. My grandma had bought me a new pair of shoes, and I thought I was just so gorgeous. (They were Red Wings, size 10–look it up online and see just how attractive they look.)
When I got to school, quite a few girls started making fun of my shoes, and then the boys joined in.
There was nothing I could do. My grandma had bought them for me. I couldn’t throw them away–they were fairly expensive. And unlike many of the other girls, I didn’t HAVE another pair of shoes.
So I just had to wear them.
Haven’t any of you women ever dressed up nicely (at least you thought you looked nice and fashionable), and then when you got to school, boys barked at you in the hallway? Or have you ever been taking a walk feeling really pretty because you’re wearing something that you thought was cute and in style, and then a car whizzes by and honks and a few men lean out the window and yell, “Dog!”
This kind of thing happens to even truly pretty girls, although most often it happens to females like me who have some good traits, but who aren’t by any definition truly “beautiful.” It’s absolutely crushing, and it hurts for years and years.
I realize that this is not what certain posters on this board mean when they correct a fellow Christian. But it’s what the fellow Christian HEARS. THAT’s the important thing–not what you say, but what the other person hears. What they hear are very very hurtful words.
I believe I posted this earlier, but if I didn’t, I’ll repeat it. IF someone is really serious about wanting to end “disrespectful dress” in their parish, the way to do it is to make friends with all those skanks and flesh-revealers and shoulder-showoffs. I’m serious. MAKE FRIENDS with them. Be sincere and loving, and get to know them, and go out with them, and get close and learn to love them like your own children.
THEN after you are friends, you will be able to bring up the topic and discuss dress in the Presence of the Lord Jesus. There is a good chance that the bad dresser will actually listen to you once you are his/her friend, and that they will change their ways.
Does this approach sound familiar? It’s the same slow but sure approach that Blessed Mother Teresa used in India. She didn’t barrel into Calcutta and demand that everyone stop that dying and that the government start helping its poor and then for good measure berating all the rich countries in the world for allowing such awful poverty!
No, she settled in for the long haul and just started humbly and quietly LOVING people. And it worked.
It will work in YOUR parish, too.
The reason people dress in revealing clothing is that they are looking for love. They think that their clothing will make them more appealing, attractive, and loveable.
So give them the love that they are looking for.
But remember, for a perfect stranger (the word “perfect” seems appropriate, doesn’t it?) to correct someone is beyond rude. It’s mean. It’s cruel. It’s NOT loving–“tough love” is for parents to use with children, not for strangers to use with other strangers.
Correcting a stranger about their appearance is just like those mean boys who bark at girls. It will NOT accomplish what the corrector wants to accomplish, and it will probably result in bad ends; e.g., the person will be so hurt that they will do something destructive, like say something rude right back at their tormentor or even hit them.
Try the “Mother Teresa” approach, and come back here in a few years and tell us how many people are now dressing modestly because of your kind and gentle influence.
The biggest thing is modesty. Shorts can be to the knee or cut way way high…there is a variance. What is posted here is all opinion. You have to follow your own informed concience.
Would that be a burka?