I recently asked some middle school students to define the word "Modesty" and they acted like I was speaking a different language. It was like they had never heard the word before, and based on the way that many in our culture live, I would say we have lost not only the word, but the whole concept of Modesty. It seems that the very idea of holding anything back is somehow offensive to our culture. There seems to be some loud voice telling everyone to cast off all restraint and go "wild..." especially if the camera is watching.
Well... there is a cost to all this "freedom." Wendy Shalit has written a book called "Girls Gone Mild" where she articulately chronicles some of the effects that she has observed in her research.
Her first chapter entitled "HI Slut" makes some great points about this issue. Here are a few:
"To some baby boomers, it seemed, modesty is much worse than adultery"
"Although we live in a supposedly liberated age, our hysterical witch-hunting of those who question our ideal of recreational sex suggests something else: that our liberation does not extend quite as far as we imagine."
"Today many young women feel oppressed by the expectation that they will engage in casual sex, just as their mothers once felt oppressed by the expectation that they would be virgins until marriage."
What do you think?
How would you define modesty?
What motivation would you give to a young person to be modest?
Check out her website here or read the first chapter of her book here
Better yet, buy the book here
