Tight Clothing and Immodesty

Tight clothing is at least as much a potential moral issue for men as skimpy clothing. When we invited feedback on this issue in 2007, while writing the book Dressing for the Lord, most of the men who contacted us indicated that TIGHT SKIRTS, TIGHT BLOUSES, FORM-FITTING JEANS, AND ONE-PIECE BATHING SUITS hold a “VERY great potential” for lust. Since then it has become popular for females to wear tight stockings under a tiny skirt or long shirt and think they are modest since they are “covered up,” but it is incredibly seductive. It makes me wonder what prostitutes do today to set themselves off from the crowd. In our survey, one man said tight clothing is “very inviting and a potential for lust.” Another said, “You don’t even need to see skin; they provide all the curves.” Another said: “I would say the number one problem is any garment that is form fitting, be it jeans, pants, skirt, dress, shirt, or whatever. Anything that is tight, no matter how long it is, leaves nothing to the imagination, and that defeats the whole purpose of covering the skin in the first place!” Another said: “One thing I see in my church is tight clothing. Oh, it may very well be covering but it is revealing the shape in a woman. This can be even more tantalizing to a man.” Another wrote: “The point is that it is not the type of clothing that can trip a man up, rather it is the amount and the level of cling to the body.” One man said that since one-piece bathing suits are “skin tight” he does “not think any red-blooded normal man could look purely on a woman attired like this.” Some of the men also mentioned low-riding jeans as a cause for concern, not only because they totally emphasize the woman’s figure but also because they are suggestive of a bare midriff even if covered with a T-shirt. The T-shirt in such a case is invariably tight, of course.

(Friday Church News Notes, August 15, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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