Currently I live in a city (Miami) where lots of women wear tight jeans and yoga pants. I’m not going to answer the question whether it’s a venial or mortal sin, I just want to give a male perspective. In a situation where a woman wearing very tight clothing is in close proximity to men, e.g. during Holy Mass in church, or at a workplace, it is a distraction and it forces the man to constantly avert his eyes whenever he looks in that direction and the sight of that woman falls into his visual field. Regardless of whether it’s a sin, and whether it’s a serious sin, a lot of men will feel grateful to a woman who doesn’t dress in a manner that forces the man to constantly avert his eyes and look at the ceiling, at the floor, or whatever.
Obviously, this general principle is valid not only regarding tight clothing, but also in regard to showing cleavage, exposing the bellies/midriffs/belly buttons, and so on. Once I had a young female assistant who would come “dressed to kill” every Thursday. It wasn’t something directed at me, it was because she would attend classes on the campus on Thu afternoons, and she wanted to impress some dude at her class. So, she would come wearing some little sexy blouse with a sexy skirt, lots of cleavage, and her belly exposed. It really forced me to constantly look at the ceiling while we were going over our plans for the day, lol. I wasn’t really mad at her since she was very young, fresh out of college, and she obviously didn’t have a clue that her clothing was inappropriate for a workplace. But as a matter of fact, I didn’t feel comfortable looking at her, when she was dressed like that. If my personal experience is in any way representative of men’s experiences, a woman could try to gauge her effect by her male companions’ reactions. If they feel uncomfortable, if they avert their eyes and look in another direction in her presence, then it would be a matter of common sense and courtesy for her to wear something less provocative next time.
Finally, I take issue with the idea that it’s not a problem to dress immodestly if the person has no actual intent to provoke. The other day there was a lady in church, she wore a shirt, and three or four buttons were open on that shirt - she exposed lots of her breasts. I will say this is not appropriate, regardless of whether she had an actual intent to seduce someone, or maybe she only thought she was “cute” that way. Regardless of her intentions, the way she wore that shirt was scandalous. There are lots of men attending church, and they open one (1), maximum two buttons on their shirts. C’mon Lady, close those buttons - everybody else can survive the heat with only 1 or 2 buttons open on their shirts, you will be able to survive, too. No need to show your breasts for a whole parish to see, regardless of whether you want to seduce someone or not.
