Challenging the Evil of Modesty Culture
I’m sure that nearly all women reading this who grew up in the church can remember a time when their clothing choices were questioned. For me, among the many many examples, the time that sticks out was when I was told as a 16 year old to go home and change before youth group started as I was dressed inappropriately to lead musical worship. Trying desperately to not cry from the shame of being confronted in front of my peers, I walk-ran the 20 minute return trip home to add tights to my outfit, only to trip on the steep hill into the church foyer and tear my tights thoroughly at the knee. Not only was I embarrassed after being publicly told off, I was in pain, in ripped clothes, and I had missed the music team practice. Due to my clothing, I was excluded from serving at the peak of my capacity.
Stories like this are held by so many women, and continue to carry with them the shame and embarrassment of the original encounters. From the fear of young girls who have been told of the ways their bodies are objectified when men look at them, to spending more time stressing about what to wear to preach in than preparing the sermon. I am staunchly opposed to the policing of women’s clothing through modesty culture, and yet I catch myself worrying about whether my outfit is appropriate before entering nearly any Christian setting.
What is being said about women’s bodies when they are asked to cover up is not insignificant. It is a statement about the perceived sexuality and “immodesty” that a, usually young, girl’s body conveys to those who see her. Women’s bodies are seen as dangerous, and women as temptresses in Eve’s lineage. There is a long Christian tradition of seeing women in this light; either with the virginal purity of Mary, or as Eve, the one who leads men astray. By the fifth century this dichotomy was summed up in the phrase “Death by Eve, Life by Mary.” This tradition grounds modesty culture’s view of the danger of women’s bodies. If a woman does not present herself in the guise of the pure, virgin Mary, then she must be offering temptation like Eve. The concern is not solely for those who might be tempted, but also for the salvation of the woman herself. If she is acting as a temptress then she must be already “fallen.”
While ideas about female modesty may be coated in spiritual concern for women, the consequences of this focus are disastrous. Beth Allison Barr, in her wonderful recent book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood, explains: “Ideas that depict women as less than men influence men to treat women as less than men. Ideas that objectify women result in women being treated like objects.” Modesty culture can’t help but result in an inordinate focus on the physical presentation of women. How many times have you been in a church setting where the preacher comments on their beautiful wife, or, more disturbingly, the beauty and singleness of young women in their congregation? Commenting on women’s makeup, the pastor of the church I grew up in argued that “if the barn needs painting…” As a teenager, I had the opportunity to attend more women’s events about how to dress beautifully than I did about developing my faith theologically. Women’s bodies are a focal point in these contexts as opposed to women’s spiritual and theological development.
The consequences of the objectification of women by modesty language are not limited to women. At numerous youth group events and camps I had been told that men (while I grew up women were never mentioned) almost universally struggled with porn addictions. Many of my Christian male friends were open about their addictions and this openness was praised due to their vulnerability and the fact that they were seeking help. Looking back though, it is impossible to disconnect these struggles with porn from the messages that these boys were receiving. They heard the girls being told that they needed to cover up; these conversations didn’t just happen in single gender small group environments. I’ll never forget a trip to the hotpools that began with my youth pastor tearfully lamenting the fact that there were so many girls wearing two piece bathing suits and dishonouring their brothers in Christ. The implicit message to those boys: men have uncontrollable sexual desires that must be mitigated and managed by women.
If this message sounds similar to one in mainstream culture that’s because it is, although with a slightly twisted ending: Men have uncontrollable sexual desires that must be mitigated and managed by women who would otherwise become their prey. While in church I was taught to cover up so that I would not lead my friends into “sin”, in the world I was taught to cover up so that I would not be assaulted. The culture of victim blaming associated with rape culture is the other side of the coin of the objectification of modesty culture in the church.
In the last decade the western Protestant church has been rocked again and again by sex scandals from pastors at the sorts of churches where modesty culture is preached. You only need to search #churchtoo to get a glimpse of the extent of the issue. And yet, the consequences for many of the perpetrators are often minimal and part of the issue is how quickly the blame can be shifted to the female victims. If modesty culture teaches that women’s bodies lead men to sin, then how can men be held accountable for their deplorable actions towards women?
Modesty culture (and the larger umbrella of purity culture which it sits under) must change. The harm that it causes through the shame surrounding, and demonisation, of women’s bodies does not align with the life of Christ and his treatment of women. Our God is the God who made our bodies and rejoices in their goodness, rather than ascribing some inherent evil or danger to them. When I look to the future, I hope for a world where my niece can grow without fear of how others might see and objectify her because of her body, a world where my nephew is taught strength and accountability. Most of all, I hope for this within the body of the church.
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Jaimee van Gemerden is currently editor at Metanoia.
