-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
What Spiritual Goal is Served By Modest Dress?
- Thread starter Sunstone
- Start date
To not arouse passions in others. The passions are the root to much evil.
Sha'irullah
رسول الآلهة
Agreed. You stole my answer :sarcastic. Do me the favor of deleting it so I can post first
I don't see any spiritual goal. It's a cultural adaptation of religious interpretation of what constitutes "modesty" in the first place.
Some cultures see women walking around showing their faces to be immodest. Other cultures see nothing wrong with women showing their faces. Therefore, modesty is an adaptive custom.
I would say that if there was any goal at all, it would be social. Not spiritual.
Sha'irullah
رسول الآلهة
As George-ananda said though. Having outside temptations is entirely distracting and highly negative.
Muslims for example have the women pray in the back or in a separate area because any man prostrating behind a woman is going to be concerned with other things besides praying if you understand what I am hinting at.
Hindu women as well dress modestly on occasion and in some society in India they wear loose veils as well. Catholic nuns stay veiled as well to retain their purity of image and not be idolized as sexual figures.
Sex is a distraction and just brings about the wrong feelings. One cannot have both frames of mind
Muslims for example have the women pray in the back or in a separate area because any man prostrating behind a woman is going to be concerned with other things besides praying if you understand what I am hinting at.
Hindu women as well dress modestly on occasion and in some society in India they wear loose veils as well. Catholic nuns stay veiled as well to retain their purity of image and not be idolized as sexual figures.
Sex is a distraction and just brings about the wrong feelings. One cannot have both frames of mind
Again, "modesty" is conceptualized very differently from culture to culture. Not that long ago, it was outrageous for a woman to show her ankles. Men used to wear tops to go swimming at the pool. And in indigenous tribes, women go topless with barely a notice by the men.
Everything you mentioned is further evidence of the variances in cultures definitions of what is modest. It has nothing to do with spirituality.
Unlike others, I don't view it as 'highly negative'. We have instinctive, intellectual and then intuitive, strata of the mind. When trying to be intuitive, or in tune with a higher consciousness or energy, it's distracting. I think if history were different, it wouldn't be the case. But in the context of religion, it is the case, whether we like it or not.
If you put a person who has never ever been to a nude beach, he or she goes all agog for awhile. Eventually, though, they become accustomed to it, and after a year or so, it may not be distracting in the least. But that's the beach.
In houses of worship, try as you might, if there is a man in short shorts, or women in bikinis, it would be distracting, not because it's bad, but because the nature of the instinctive mind is to notice. The Seinfeld 'cleavage' episode illustrated it well. In fact, watching it can be quite entertaining. I was amazed at how Grade 8 boys seemed to lose interest in my lessons when I sat them beside Natalie.
There is nothing inherently bad about the instinctive mind. Eating is instinctual, and nobody sees that as bad.
Secret Chief
Vetted Member
Modesty is indeed culturally bound, but it is understood within each culture.
I think it is true that modesty is to minimise distraction from a non material endeavour, in the same way as abstinence from phone and fragrance use is (when on a retreat for example).
I think it is true that modesty is to minimise distraction from a non material endeavour, in the same way as abstinence from phone and fragrance use is (when on a retreat for example).
Sha'irullah
رسول الآلهة
I am aware of the fact that modesty varies from culture to culture. Compare pious Hindu women to pious nuns!
The difference is dramatic. But you forget that not all culture interest themselves with modesty. Mine being one of them
Agreed. You stole my answer :sarcastic. Do me the favor of deleting it so I can post first
Thanks for the frubal Archer.
I didn't even get into how the person who thinks they like sexual sights of others actually reaps mental disquiet from the passion. And besides not satisfying anything, it just feeds a very annoying fire that they would actually be happier without.
It seems to me Mystic is right -- what constitutes modesty largely depends on one's culture. The implication is that, even if the goal of modest dress is to lessen or eliminate sexual distraction in others, this same goal could be achieved with many styles of dress or non-dress. That is, there is nothing intrinsically modest about any particular fashion of dress apart from what the culture deems modest or immodest.
I tend to see imposing modest dress on people because one is otherwise distracted by their sexuality as a cop out. If one is distracted by someone's dress or lack of dress, then one should take responsibility for one's feelings and deal with them, rather than ask someone else to deal with them by dressing differently.
Sleeppy
Fatalist. Christian. Pacifist.
Scripturally, not even food is to surpass the spiritual concentration on God/godliness. In other words, modesty results from humility toward godliness. The physical aspects of life are to be modeled after spiritual humility. How can you justify a lofty appearance among those who are naked and unprepared? You take what you didn't need, except to appear superior, and you provide to someone who needs. Thereby spreading actual superiority. No greed. No jealousy.
Aquitaine
Well-Known Member
So that God doesn't get turned on?
I agree with Mystic, it's more of a social and cultural thing.
Of course, what is modest/immodest dress is cultural.
But the concept of not being too overtly sexual is universal.
But the concept of not being too overtly sexual is universal.
I'd just like to point out that spirituality/religion is deeply connected with culture, so I'm not sure it's fair to make this statement. The idea of religion as something entirely separate from culture is a fairly recent phenomena and a distinction that still doesn't exist in some areas. One can certainly make the connection between the American standards of modesty and Christian influences, for example.
At any rate, I'd allow for each individual culture/religion/spirituality to speak for themselves in terms of what goals they intend to serve by standards of dress. Dress in general serves many purposes, most of which are connected to notions of identity and status.
Sha'irullah
رسول الآلهة
Spanish culture for example is split between modesty or immodesty as they prefer overly sexualized dress often. Living in a diverse community of Asians, Indians, Arabs, Persians, Spanish and African Americans I can easily take notice of very different changes in the form of modesty or immodesty for that matter. Spanish youth or middle aged people by far or openly immodest and proud of it
I don't see a dramatic difference. How so?
i still see culture as the determining factors. Sex, food, and death/dead bodies carry with them culture's unique qualifiers of what is taboo and what isn't.