Hootchie Chicks Ain't Hot

I'm sure a lot of us watched the Super Bowl.  I almost watched.  That is to say, it was on the TV, but I'm not much of a football fan--I prefer baseball.  I read my book, and watched the ads, and kept track of the score.  The half time show came on.  We turned off the TV.

I know that we Americans have declined as a people to the level of Lowest Common Denominator entertainments.  Our long standing tradition of Self Help and Self Improvement has degenerated into exercise and diet books, and inspirational literature that tells us we are just fine as we are.

And our entertainments have turned into strip shows and sexually obsessed vacuous pablum.

I guess that's why current entertainers don't find it enough to be beautiful and talented, they have to act like exhibitionist sluts or priapic satyrs as well.

It's not hot.  It's not sexy.  And it exploits and disrespects me as a man.  Period.

Look, women are beautiful.  Short of some pathology of mind or body, women are attractive to men--or at least to straight men--and we like them.  But women are not a conglomeration of parts, they are a special creation, made little less than the angels in the image and likeness of God.  Yet so much of fashion and entertainment focuses on parts!  "See my Intergluteal Cleft!  See my Cleavage!  Look at my Breasts Bouncing".   Ultimately I find it disrespectful of me  As if I were solely interested in my libido.  As if my only concerns were my penis and where to put it next.  As if I can be manipulated by what's thrust before my eyes, whether I will or no..

When a woman dresses with modesty--and I'm not talking burkas and  dowdy jumpers here-- two things happen.  One, her array of parts revert to their proper place--parts of a person, not ends in and of themselves.  Two, we can see her beauty.  Not beauty as defined by the fashion industry, or entertainment, but a gestalt of the person, a body that houses a soul--a female soul created by God in such a way as to be something so wonderful that not only can it turn a man's head, but his heart and his soul as well.  To be short, we men quit being distracted by boobs and butts and see the person.  And we love it when that happens.  When we are distracted by parts that are over exposed or flaunted to create a reaction in us, we most often miss the person.  When a woman dresses and behaves modestly she also honors me and all men, implicitly trusting us to value her as a person, a personality, a holistic being, instead simply wanting the use of her parts.

I know having said that, that someone is about to protest about how we men are just objectifying and disrespecting women, and blaming them for our weakness.  Those who are about to put that in the comm box I say,  "Don't Bother, you're wrong".  We are primates, biologically.  Primate males, uniquely in the animal Kingdom, are biologically wired to respond to visual stimulus.  Telling us not to is about as reasonable as telling plants not to be photo-tropic.  Grow up--reality is not amenable to gender politics.  Rather, take responsibility for your own actions and modalities--and remember that we will take our cues from you, on how you wish to be perceived.

There is another aspect to modesty--being naked.  When a modest woman gets naked with her husband, he knows he's getting a privilege that no one else gets.  It's a wondrous thing when a modest woman shares herself with her husband in such a way, when he sees the privilege he is granted, alone of the 3.5 billion men on the planet.  The tendency is not just to enjoy the view, and the sex, but to know this is something special, unique and sacred, to be immersed in the wonder of the physical expression of love.  If the man is a Christian, immersed in scripture, the Song of Songs unfold before him, and he comes in some very deep ways, non-verbal ways, to understand the mystery of Divine Love for us, the Mystery of Christ's Love for his Church.  The sacrament of matrimony becomes more than a "social marker" (I was taught that in High School) or romantic arraignment--it becomes an expression of communio, a didactic moment so rooted in our bodies that the mystery of the Incarnation is explicated.  God the Father was pleased through Christ to reconcile to himself all things, and through this our bodies, and our sexuality become part of a mystery that defies my ability with words.

Just as we are careful with the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, for it is the presence of Christ and summation of our relationship with him as both individuals and the Church, we should be careful of our bodies, of how we display them, how we use them, for in our sexuality we are given a gift of understanding the love of God for us, of Christ for his Church.  Modesty in our persons is in many ways the same as fitting accouterments for the altar--simultaneously safeguarding and celebrating a great and holy mystery.

Addendum:  Everything I've said about female modesty applies to males as well.  I just don't spend the attention on them because I'm a guy, and I seldom notice male immodesty, except as something rather ugly or distasteful.