Modest Summer Dressing

It's summer time again and ladies have started wearing their short shorts, mid-riff baring tops, unlined see-through outfits, daisy dukes, booty cutters, mini tight dresses, short skirts and skorts, while giving everyone viewing them an eyeful of their physical endowments.

Although many of these ladies say they dress for themselves and wear these outfits that often times reveal more than conceal to feel "sexy", they really shouldn’t and wouldn’t if they take the time to think about the implications of their actions. "Sexy" dressing, which is meant to arouse sexual feelings of desire in themselves and their desirability in the eyes and mind of the opposite sex is unnecessary and can be even detrimental to both the person trying to be sexy and the spectators. Dressing "sexy" is subjective, but when it includes showing too much skin or going almost "nekkid", you should really consider your actions thoroughly because your actions involves other people, including spectators who are just simple or evil minded.

Ones mode of dressing is the first way people identify who you are and base their impression of you on. While you may think showing too much cleavage, baring stomachs or wearing short shorts that can substitute for underwear is in and is no big deal, when people see ladies baring too much of their body, they may automatically assume that the ladies are morally loose and promiscuous and will approach them as such, when in reality, that may not be the case at all.

This is the reason why the bible states in 1st Thessalonians 5:22, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” It doesn’t state that we should avoid evil only, because appearances do matter. This is because many people believe in appearances or that what they see is real. Many people go by the adage which states, "What you see is what you get" and they don't think beyond what is set before them to what is in your mind. So if you set a scantily clad you before them to consume, guess what? They believe that is who you are and that you are inviting them to partake in your physical offerings.

A man who lives in another country I know spends his summers in the US because as he said, "Where else do young beautiful girls go around practically naked and leave almost nothing to the imagination all in the name of summer?" Many ladies believe this is cool because they are emulating performers like skimpily clad recording artists and their dancers they see in music videos, or celebrities walking the red carpet with their sometimes ridiculous outfits that are getting more and more risqué each year. However, these people they are emulating wear those seductive, bare all, leave nothing to the imagination temptress outfits for performance purposes only, whether it is on a production set or on the red carpet. When you meet these people in person on a day to day basis, you see them wearing normal everyday clothes like every body else. So, if you are not on production sets shooting videos or on a red carpet posing for paparazzi, don’t make the whole world your stage. If you don’t dress modestly for anything, do it for the fact that not everybody thinks as liberally as you do.

Immodest dressing is permissible, but not good. The bible states in 1st Corinthians 8:9 “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.” 1st Corinthians 8:13 states, “Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.” When we as women show too much, we cause our brothers to sin by thinking sexual thoughts about us. Mathew 5:28 states, “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Helping men commit adultery against us in their minds in sin. Also, this is not good because it can subsequently make men do what he wouldn't have done otherwise such as rape a woman because they are aroused and looking for physical release for their erection anywhere they can get it if they don't have their own partner. Although many say rape is an act of violence which it is, the catalyst for it is also untamed sexual arousal, which is sometimes caused by visual stimulation.

Another reason I believe this also occurs is because many people are desensitized to what good modest dressing is because of advertisements. I recall going to New York and seeing two overly sexy huge billboard advertisements that shocked me. One was with several artistically nude supermodels of all races and one was with the silhouette of Kimora Lee Simmons advertising something from her Baby Phat line. The products these ads were selling definitely didn't need naked people, artistically depicted or not in them, but sex sells everything because it gets people's attention so they use it.

Contrary to popular thinking, sexiness or being sexy isn't good when you are in public view. What you do in the privacy of your own home with your spouse and friends and family is your business. Some people have grasped this concept and put it to good use. Many people don't know this, but when I was studying a fashion merchandising case study, I discovered that the French lingerie business is heavily patronized and practically sustained by Middle Eastern women including Burqua/Hijab wearing sisters who dress very modestly on the outside, but want to still feel sexy on the inside and have the oil money to support their sexy underwear passion. Also, one of the bones of contention the Middle East has against the West is what they perceive Western people's blatant immorality as exemplified by many things including their immodest dressing. However, the Oprah Winfrey Show is very popular with Middle Eastern women in the Middle East because of her modest dressing.

When you dress inappropriately in public, it's virtually impossible to go around telling all the people who assume you are a tart or a person of low moral character that you are not, even if in reality you are not. The bible says we should not cause our brothers to sin, but that is exactly what occurs when women dress provocatively. I was at a mobile store’s promotional event recently and a mother of two who is the wife of one of the company’s senior employees sauntered in a very short tank top-romper outfit with her two young kids. Everything above her breasts and below her butt was out for all to see. As a woman, I was very embarrassed for her and her husband. I couldn’t get over why or how this woman who looked almost middle aged and a mother of two kids would come to her husband’s place of employment in that outfit. Talk about inappropriate dressing. I’m sure no one said anything, but I saw her receive weird looks because her outfit reflects badly on the both her and her husband. If her husband has any sense, he would tell her to keep her sexy outfits out of her appearances at his place of work.

Recently, a man on the Audrey Chapman Show, a notable radio talk show in the DC area complained that he has traveled around the world and hasn't seen as many women in extremely tight clothing as he has seen after just spending a couple of days in DC. He said it's challenging to stay faithful to his spouse in his mind and we women should help men stop having impure thoughts by not exposing ourselves in their full view, thereby making them think impure thoughts. You can say this man has issues, or he's not normal or whatever else, but most men if they are honest, will tell you that seeing too much skin arouses impure thoughts in them and if they are of good moral character, would like to see women stop.

No one is saying ladies should dress like nuns, when they are not. However, in the name of brotherly and sisterly love, let us help the men around us be noble and not commit mental or physical adultery by making a concerted effort to dress modestly.

A word is enough for the wise…