Modesty: The Overemphasis Of Dress For Women

An individual is defined as modest when they portray an absence of sensuality, vanity, and boastfulness within their appearance, speech, and general behavior as defined by the relevant culture. Modesty is held as an important virtue in many religions with the standard being disproportionately high for women. In turn, women are especially affected by society’s negative interpretation of the necessity of modesty leading to unnecessary violence and oppression. In this essay, I will identify the ways in which Christianity encourages the personal, relational, and structural problems that the overemphasis of modesty within dress causes for women, and provide suggestions based on ethical frameworks to better this societal issue. The Bible states …show more content…
Kant says that all people should be treated as an end in themselves and not only a means to obtain the end. In other words, what others have to offer should not make a difference in the way they are treated. In the case of modesty, this means that a person’s appearance should not be viewed as a potential to obtain sexual gratification, they should instead be viewed as a whole person despite the sexual gratification they may or may not provide. This will decrease the stigmatization of women’s sexuality. When this framework is implemented, a woman dressed modestly will be treated no differently than a woman dressed immodestly. Men will commit less crimes against women and women will suffer less assaults. Carol Gilligan suggests another framework called care ethics. This framework states that it doesn’t matter what the absolute right thing is, it matters on an individual level to care for others and yourself. Care ethics makes a difference concerning modesty, because even if an individual holds an overlying belief that dressing immodestly is absolutely wrong, this framework urges them to refrain from acting on this opinion and instead take into account the individual’s circumstance and feelings. In other words, the standard is treating people with care despite what is believed to be right. Charles Rigby, a pastor at Valley West Christian Center agrees with the virtue ethics framework stating in a personal interview, “If my daughters shorts are too short but her heart is incredible, I’m cool.” He takes into account a woman’s entire self rather than imposing judgements based on appearance. His actions are defined by the person she is rather than what she looks