It is a slippery slope from telling a girl her shoulders must be covered to asking a girl what she was wearing when she was raped to telling a woman whose husband was unfaithful that perhaps she shouldn’t have let herself go. All things I have heard thrown about in Christian circles.
Let’s be clear, a boy getting “distracted” by a girl in a tank top is no less of a problem than a girl being called out of class and shamed by being asked to change. This year my middle school daughter was forced to wear her coat all day because she had on a shirt without sleeves (which wasn’t even part of the current dress code). She was humiliated and kept asking me what she did wrong. I had no answer. Because the truth of the matter is, SHE DID NOTHING WRONG.
I would love to see as much time and focus spent on teaching young boys how to treat and respect young girls as there is spent teaching girls that they must cover up so as not to tempt them. We simply MUST stop placing sole responsibility on girls for how men behave.
Let’s have a little bit more faith in boys to control themselves and a little more faith in our young Christian women that they aren’t all mini seductresses in training trying to lead men astray. I would love to have far more time praising girls for the way they were formed and teaching them that they should dress in a way that honors God because they are valuable, precious daughters of the King.
And let’s just switch to uniforms so this mama doesn’t have to take up sewing in order to meet dress code in the summer.
I would love to know your thoughts. How do you teach your girls about modesty?
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This article originally appeared at JustJilly.com, published with permission.
