Women and Provocative Clothing: A Double Standard?

My attention was recently caught by an ABC News story about a young wife and mother vowing to stop wearing tights and leggings so as not to entice men.
I could not help bringing this up in my blog for one reason: We as a society have the tendency to do the right things sometimes for the wrong reasons. We need to stop treating men like fools, kids, or animals that must be guarded and controlled. Women have to cover themselves well to avoid tempting men, to avoid being chased, or raped, apparently according to the woman in the news story.

If you have meat and dog in the house, it is your fault if the dog eats the meat because you did not hide it? Can you ever blame the dog? No, because it cannot control  itself once it sees meat. You have to keep  it away from it. Is this not how we are treating men?

In the Moslem world, for example, women must cover themselves even up to their faces (exposing only their eyes so as to see), no matter how  hot and uncomfortable the weather is. In my understanding,(please correct me if I am wrong), the main reason is to prevent the women from enticing men. It does not matter how uncomfortable the women are, provided that they do not expose any part of their body and tempt men.

What message does this kind of culture or religion give, that men cannot control themselves? Is this not insulting to manhood, to say the least? I think that it is time for our society to start giving men their dignity and respect by giving them the benefit of the doubt: not conditioning and caging women for the wrong reasons. Rather, trust men with self-control no matter how exposed women around them are, but hold the men responsible and accountable as intelligent human beings. On the other hand, has the society ever cautioned men about their tight pants so as not to entice women? Is it taken for granted that women can always control themselves no matter how much they are tempted? Has anybody thought about these obvious facts? By nature, men are supposed to be the heads of families, providers, protectors, and role models. Truly many of them are fulfilling these roles, so why treat them like kids or fools when it comes to sexual matters?

Let us do the right things for the right reasons. People should dress and act decently out of dignity and respect for themselves and others because these are the right things to do.

Please feel free to join the discussion and comment below.

–Dr. Mother Love