Feminine Modesty & Slacks - Glenn Conjurske

Feminine Modesty & Slacks

by Glenn Conjurske

It often happens that the arguments which are employed in favor of a thing are the strongest arguments which we could wish against it. I have often enough been confirmed in my own belief precisely by the arguments which are used against it. When we behold how utterly empty the arguments against a position are, this may serve to confirm us in that position quicker than many arguments for it. Lame arguments, shallow arguments, along with follies and fallacies of all sorts, will tell more effectually against the position for which they are used, than they will for it. If these are the best arguments which can be found for the thing, then the thing is certainly wrong. An example of this has recently come under my notice, in the form of an argument in favor of women wearing slacks.

Since publishing a little piece on feminine modesty in our August number, I have had occasion to look into Mrs. Elizabeth Handford’s book on the subject, entitled Your Clothes Say It For You. She relates a conversation which she had with a certain pastor, who argued that his daughters ought to be able to wear slacks, in order to engage in certain activities. Mrs. Handford properly insisted that God intends that males and females should be different, and look different, in their normal outward appearance. She asked this pastor what would distinguish his daughters in appearance from the boys, if they all wore slacks. He replied, “Pretty feminine curves”!!

Pretty feminine curves indeed, and it is the nature of slacks to reveal those curves. But with what effect? The plain fact is, those curves are not only pretty, but very provocative also, and it is the sight of those feminine curves which inflames the lusts of a man. We will not dispute the fact—-for a fact it is—-that a thin woman in a pair of loose slacks may be generally modest in appearance, yet she ought to consider what damage she does by her example. Those who may plead her example for wearing slacks may not be so thin as she is, nor wear their slacks so loose either.

But there is yet more. I mentioned the above conversation from Mrs. Handford’s book to a man, and he replied that dresses may reveal those feminine curves also. They may indeed, as all men must certainly know. The dresses which do so are those which are tight around the hips, and especially those which are drawn tight around the waist. A woman who wears a dress or skirt with a tight belt around her waist ought to wear a long blouse, which is not tucked in, and so conceal those “pretty feminine curves.” Let a word to the wise be sufficient.

Yet no dress is likely to reveal so much as slacks do. Even a tight dress conceals the lower curves of the feminine form, where slacks display all.

Glenn Conjurske