On a similar vein, the topic of women (always women) being instructed to dress modestly has been getting a lot of play lately, as millions of men attempt to pass off their peculiarly doughty concupiscence and their nauseating harangues of women whom they don't even know as being due to the provocative character of women and their clothing. In other words, there's some feeling, among Talibanesque Americans, that women induce their own troubles with men -- their rapes, their catcalls, their rough language -- by not dressing modestly enough.
Some virtuous women, like this good lady here, have seen a light and started dressing in ways that are thought to reduce men's susceptibility to legs of the female shape. None of these women seems to realize that the problem is with the men who never emerged past adolescence to a healthy sexual experience. Not to diminish these women's sacrifices, but they should rid themselves of the notion that it will work. If prurient men are not allowed to see a woman's shoulder, they will be just as ardent about a glimpse of ankle, or even by the little bit of eyes revealed under a black burqa. Sadistic misogynists gonna do their crap. So if I were you ladies, I'd put more effort into telling the creeps to buzz off, punctuating it with pepper spray when necessary, and less into worrying about how what you wear affects their libidos.
Of course, one could make the argument that, since varicose veins are quite common in the old, and that pleasing body shapes are common in the young, neither one should necessarily be hidden from view just for the sake of protecting other people's states of mind. The better thing would be for all of us to live just as God made us and then turn around and learn to see a person made by the same God with more than just legs. Till we get there, though, we can stop worrying about what others ("those women") should do to make the world better, and worry more about ourselves being better in it.
