Written by Sophia Aldas
Modesty is defined as a Behaviour, manner, or appearance intended to avoid impropriety or indecency: by the Oxford dictionary.
This term is often seen as a “”virtue”” and is quite used in our society to shame and condition women of all ages. Modesty is most of the time linked to religion. As a former catholic, I can tell you, being a women who fails to follow certain “rules” or parameters related to modesty, is practically a nightmare. Now, don’t mistake me, just because Catholicism is my former religion, it doesn’t mean by any circumstances Ill trash it or talk badly about it. On the contrary, I truly respect it and its followers for its purpose is to preach love above all, nonetheless there are certain aspects, most of them concerning women, which are rather unnecessarily strict and extremist, of course modesty is one of this.
The Catholic Church modesty parameters are usually linked to marylike standards (which means that it’s related with the virgin Mary way of being and/or acting). The virgin Mary is the most important woman in Catholicism therefore female followers of this religion are expected to act like her. One of the rules that sums up the vision of modesty on this religion is “Women should have a Marylike attitude towards the clothes they choose to wear. Dresses must conceal rather than reveal the figure of the wearer; they must not emphasize or unduly, parts of the body.
It’s under this rule that Catholic girls are taught that their bodies are a sin. Something that must be covered and not to be seen. Something they can’t own, something that isn’t theirs to decide upon, to explore, to love. The result of failing to follow this rules does have a palpable consequence: shame.
Since modesty is linked to self-respect in this religion, if a woman is not modest it is automatically acceptable to assume this woman does not respect herself and therefore leads to the conclusion that because of this, no one should respect her as well. Does this make sense? Isn’t it Catholicism´s most important command to love one another as Jesus himself did? Does shaming a women because of her clothing decision counts as love?
In spite this, the funny thing is modesty is only applied to women and never to men. There no rules concerning the way a man should dress in order to be respected, because really men in Catholicism do not have to do major efforts in order to be respected other than to be a good person. Women however, must not only accomplish this but follow a bunch of unnecessary rules that really do not have a specific purpose. Modesty for example aims to restrain a women and to exert control over them and their bodies. So, is it really a rightful “rule” or just another excuse to limit women”
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