How Modesty Culture Has Hurt Catholic Women
Did you know that you can equally objectify a woman's body through telling her to cover up every inch? Hyper modesty feeds into the same problem we're trying to fight against -- that a woman's body is made to be consumed. As a result, we've fallen into the same trap that the secular world has fallen into, just on the opposite extreme. "Modesty culture" has resulted in women seeing their bodies as inherently shameful, vehicles for trapping men in lust. In an effort to completely avoid temptation, women have overcompensated by intentionally dressing in frumpy clothes that not only hide their bodies but also their God-given beauty. In this talk, I will go over my experiences within hyper modesty culture. I will also talk about my experience with Theology of the Body and how it helped me to pay reverence to the body without throwing out feminine sexuality and beauty. I will also talk about how women have been given the special gift of feminine beauty and how the errors of modesty culture have led us to reject this important gift. I will also talk about how we should change our approach and mindset to modesty, including changing the very word "modesty" itself to a term that truly reflects the Catholic teaching behind a woman's beauty, body, and sexuality.
