Pants Vs. Skirts For Women ...

[Cherie]

Seems like every Catholic blog I know has brought up the topic this week!

I thought I'd try to get the opinions of Phatmassers on this one.

Here are some of the blogs in which it has been mentioned, in case you'd like to read up on what's been going on; there are many others, and even different posts from the same blog, but each one has a few links to other blogs, so I didn't provide [i]all[/i] of them.

http://www.catholicity.com/message/2010-07-30.html
http://markshea.blogspot.com/2010/09/go-simcha.html
http://simchafisher.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/pants-a-manifesto-2/
http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/ninnies-tyrants-and-those-damned-pants.html
http://redcardigan.blogspot.com/2010/09/act-of-sartorial-seduction.html
http://www.colleenhammond.com/uncategorized/a-teen-tells-her-story-mission-modesty-part-2/

I would love to hear your opinions on this one

[MIKolbe]

As ususal, I agree with Mark Shea:

[quote]Message to lustful male control freaks: Failure to deal with psychosexual issues on your part does not constitute a lack of modesty on the part of all the women on planet Earth.[/quote]

[mcts]

I prefer to wear skirts. I feel more put together when I wear them, as well as more feminine, partly because they remind me to be feminine.

That being said, I'm wearing pants right now. I find pants to be at least slightly more comfortable. This past week I've broken my personal code of wearing a skirt at all classes because I'm upset over a friend dying, and I'm going completely for comfort.

[rachael]

[quote name='MIkolbe' timestamp='1284642695' post='2173760']
As ususal, I agree with Mark Shea:
[/quote]
Wow.

He is awesome.

[MIKolbe]

yeah. he has a really good blog...

[Deeds]

I like the 5th link, the blog post from And Sometimes Tea, the best. I foolishly entered into a very long-winded debate on this issue on an SSPX message board last year and still bear the scars!

That said, I am definitely coming round to the idea that while wearing modest pants is fine, it's rather a shame that we've lost some of the femininity and distinction in dress that we used to have before women adopted pants. I was once on a very crowded train and everyone around about me, including myself - old, young, fat, thin, male, female - was wearing jeans. It's a bit boring really. I also think that skirts and dresses are more flattering to the figures of most women. I'm aiming to incorporate more of them in my wardrobe, but it's hard when many shops don't actually stock any skirts that reach the knee, or dresses that provide more fabric than exposed skin up top!

[TeresaBenedicta]

Maybe it's because I'm a convert and so I was pretty ingrained with secular thinking on this issue... but the fact that it's even a debate still makes me go . I don't mean that to be uncharitable toward those who have strong feelings that women ought to wear skirts, it's just one of those things that honestly never would have occurred to me to be a problem. And I don't know if it's my background or simple stubbornness, but I go when this is brought up, because it seems so obsolete in my mind.

That being said, I prefer to wear pants. I love my jeans and I feel very comfortable in them. I also enjoy wearing skirts when I feel like it. My biggest difficulty with skirts is finding tops that match and don't make me look like pure blubber.

[Archaeology cat]

I know I carry myself differently when I wear a skirt. In principle, I think I should wear them more, and I would if I could figure out how to easily still do all the household things whilst wearing a skirt. I have long skirts, and I can't carry things up and down the stairs without tripping at some point.

[she_who_is_not]

As someone who wears business attire, I have to say that for me it is a matter of comfort. I prefer pantsuits in the winter and skirtsuits in the summer. I can't sweat in the summer and shiver in the winter. Most of my skirt suits hit just above the knee because it is hard to find longer skirts. In my free time, I prefer longer skirts and dresses. I really get frustrated by these debates. As a professional woman, I spend a lot of time trying to groom and dress in a way that will get people to focus on what I say, not on how I look. I want to be modest and feminine, but I also have a duty to dress in a way that elicits trust and confidence. That requires me to follow fashion to some extent. I can't look like a Duggar, which is how I often think the skirt camp wants me to look.

[Lilllabettt]

I just don't get what about pants is immodest. I can see the objection from the "Its less feminine" point of view.

But what exactly is sexy or salacious about a pair of pants.

I got used to wearing a skirt in the convent (basically I think everyone should go back to wearing a tunic. Like wearing a blaniket. Sooo comfortable)

The only pants I wear now are scrubs, the kind with drawstrings. Other pants (jeans especially) I just find too restrictive.

[CatherineM]

I can't wear skirts. I have parts of my legs that don't have feeling, and can't do certain everyday motions like putting a leg up on a footstool or putting my leg up in a car without grabbing my pant leg to make my leg move where I want it to. Unless you see me do it, and I try very hard to make sure people don't catch me doing it, you'd never know I have a reason for wearing them. I also have some serious scars on my legs that I'd rather not broadcast. Some women have scars or burns or veins that they don't want to show. Some people are concealing things like artificial legs or catheter bags. It's not necessarily purely a vanity issue. It's an issue of not wanting to be a center of curiosity for children to point at.

[Cherie]

For myself, I used to be all about trying to only wear skirts. It was after I left the convent, (and a little bit from before I entered) and there were a lot of retreat masters who would give retreats, and a few of them were of the mindset that women should really go back to skirts. Granted, I do think they're more feminine, and honestly, I prefer to wear them when I can. But I thought, "I want to look like one of those great, homey, housewife skirt-wearers who have the perfect family!"

I tried to wear them all the time and was getting very anxious trying to keep wearing them (especially in the winter, which is when I usually gave in to wearing pants) and my husband noticed it and was like, "What are you trying to do?!" For him, he actually likes it when I'm all comfy in a pair of jeans. He has absolutely no preference for me to wear skirts or dresses, so this "idea" I had in my head wasn't coming from him, it was coming from me [i]trying to be something I'm not. [/i]

I don't like how many people are making it a huge moral issue, because I don't believe it is. As others have mentioned, I don't think there is anything terribly immodest about women wearing pants, especially because it has become the norm. Someone pointed out in one of the blogs that there have been a few "fashion" styles that were originally worn by men, but that they were adapted and [i]made for women.[/i] It's not like all women who wear pants are masculine, because try to put a pair of women's slacks on a man --- yeah, they're [i]made[/i] for women, and they're tailored to fit us. I look at some fashion pictures of women in some great styles and there's no way you could look at them and think, "Gosh, she looks so masculine in those slacks." Granted, sometimes they DO -- but I think there are a vast number of styles that really accentuate the feminine, and they're [i]slacks[/i]. Whoa, imagine that!

Thanks for the discussion, everyone - I appreciate it!!!

[fides quarens intellectum]

I read most of the blog posts. I don't think a blog post would have swayed me either way during the years when I was trying to figure out if I should wear pants or skirts, but that's just me. Some of the authors sounded angry, which is a turn-off to any of their points/arguments. They didn't come across as particularly prayerful, either, and unless I missed it, I didn't notice them turning to the guidance of Sacred Scripture, the opinions of the saints, etc., so again, I didn't find their posts are all that effective. I could have just been reading too quickly, but to me, they just sounded, for the most part, reactive.

I know this won't get me any friends here, but here I go anyway:

When I was in Baptist school growing up, it was just expected that Baptist ladies wear skirts below their knees, period. Later, I quit wearing skirts, but as I came back into faith in God as an adult, little by little, I desired to dress for God, not for comfort. As a Catholic, I began making an effort to always wear a skirt to Mass, so that I could put on my best, most feminine, clothes for Our Lord. In the convent, we had to wear long skirts and we learned a bit about the Sisters' and friars' perspective on feminine dress, demeanor, behavior, etc. (For example, did you know a lady should not drink out of a bottle or can of pop, that she should pour it into a glass? I certainly didn't know that before my convent days!!) After the convent, I fell back into wearing mostly pants, but I had a few skirts that were more casual, so I would wear them every once in a while about my day.

The main thing I started to notice during this time was that men in public are much, much more respectful of me as a woman when I am wearing a modest skirt than when I would have on a pair of jeans, which after countless experiences really made me take the issue to prayer about what I should be wearing as a Catholic woman in public.

Anyway, then comes my now husband. He does prefer women to wear skirts, but it's not like he looks down on women who don't - he just finds skirts much more feminine and fitting for women to wear, so it is a personal preference for him. For me, I even noticed that he, like the men in public, treated me a little differently when I had on a skirt instead of pants, and when I told him that, he was surprised. I really think guys treat women in modest skirts with more dignity and respect without even realizing they are doing it! It is something internal, I think, for them, so they're not even fully aware of it. Anyway, as we continued our relationship, I found myself wanting to dress more modestly and feminine for my fiance and for God - the desire just grew, so I started getting some longer skirts than the ones I had.

Now, as a married woman, I wear skirts. I jog in them, shop in them, hike in them, bike in them, shovel snow in them, etc. When I am in public, I try to follow the guidelines of decent/modest dress as outlined during the pontificate of Pope Pius XI (tops no lower than two finger breadths below the collar bone; sleeves no shorter than to the elbows), and as for skirt length, I turn to St. Pio's guideline (hem length at least eight inches below the knees). To me, those are easy guidelines that I can follow as a Catholic woman because of the respect I have for the people they came from, and I can choose to follow them without having to worry about being immodest. I love Padre Pio, and when I learned that he wouldn't hear the confession of a woman in pants, or a woman in a shorter skirt, it really made me think about things.

This is just me, though. My circumstances are different than other Catholic women: I don't have a job requiring me to wear pants or suits, I have a very supportive husband in my choice of wearing long skirts, I am able to find long skirts easily online, I've prayed and read a lot about this issue so that it is not something new to me, I don't have any physical issues preventing me from wearing skirts, etc. Am I saying all Catholic women should wear skirts? No. The situations are so varying for so many women at different places in their spirituality, personal life, vocation, etc. I am just sharing my opinion on the issue as an individual.

[quote name='mcts' timestamp='1284642795' post='2173761']
I prefer to wear skirts. I feel more put together when I wear them, as well as more feminine, partly because they remind me to be feminine.
[/quote]

i feel the same way.

[quote name='Archaeology cat' timestamp='1284647802' post='2173776']
I know I carry myself differently when I wear a skirt. In principle, I think I should wear them more, and I would if I could figure out how to easily still do all the household things whilst wearing a skirt. I have long skirts, and I can't carry things up and down the stairs without tripping at some point.
[/quote]

yes, i do too. As for long skirts, i've kinda learned to kick my feet out to the side a bit as I'm going upstairs if i'm carrying something in a long skirt. Doesn't always work, but it helps.

[vee]

[img]http://www.sonsanddaughtersofscotland.com/images/bro.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.cramax.fr/images/celebrites/Sean%20Connery%20Kilt2.jpg[/img] [img]http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/sergeyp/sergeyp0601/sergeyp060100032/303556-scottish-warrior-in-the-medieval-uniform.jpg[/img]


Yay kilts

Edited September 16, 2010 by vee8

[Socrates]

Here we go again . . .