I came across this feisty, no-holds-barred essay by David Warren on modesty. I wish that I too were an essayist, but that is not so. My best contribution to the cause appears to be as a diligent pointer to other people's writings. So please go off and read this, he covers a lot of ground in only nine paragrahs. Some excerpts:
"Am I perhaps a little odd in finding modestly-dressed women attractive? It is hard to tell how odd, for men seldom discuss such things among ourselves. In moments, I’ve suspected this is our best-kept secret -- that we don’t actually like women to be dressed or to behave as tarts. (Not just the clothing, but the vocabulary and demeanour.) Still, few of us would say this aloud, especially in a public forum. For it cannot possibly be “politically correct”."
"A woman is deemed attractive if she can command drooling. A man is assumed to be Pavlov’s dog....Curiously enough, this reduction of women to “sex objects” is the final achievement of a feminist movement that advanced the “Playboy philosophy” of the 1960s, by other means. The attack on what was supposed to be patriarchy proceeds by degrees to an attack on decency in any form. And somewhere along the line of this inversion, abortion replaced motherhood in its claim on apple pie."
He discusses the Wife of Bath from Chaucers' Canterbury Tales, who he describes as a literary proto-feminist; he compares Hollywood icons of the 40' and 50's to today's; and he's scornful of what feminism has wrought after fifty years. In conclusion, Warren notes:
"I am not arguing for dress codes, incidentally -- any contemporary wild Catholic schoolgirl knows how to deal with those. Fashions in clothing come and go, and all may be adapted. I am arguing instead for the thing itself -- for modesty, and the restoration of the “lady”. Of a woman with sovereignty in her own sphere. Of a woman reclaiming the title of self-possession, assured of her own worth and the legitimacy of her claims. Begin with your daughters the moment they are born, and some day we may have families again."
I don't agree with everything here. For starters, feminism was responsible for opening up many opportunities previously barred to women, especially in the professional realms. But I admire his feistiness and fearlessness, and his unapologetic call for a return to modesty, in all senses of the word. Feminists seem to largely imitate what men do (football and boxing, sex as casual sport, being coarse and crude, being aggressive), and they've largely devalued the potent power of feminity and womanhood.
Comments