Interesting Question: How To Win An Argument On Modesty

Preamble:

Recently, I received the following question:

Dear Father, 

God bless you.

So anytime I try to explain to a woman why trousers aren't good for them, I usually get the statement, "There are trousers for women," and "Jesus wore and currently Priests wear gowns." 

How can I win this argument and convince a person that trousers on women is offensive to God...or isn't it?

The following is an improved version of the quick response which I gave. 

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Good morning Brother.

Thank you for your question.

Let me try to address it this way... 

What Modesty Is:

As a virtue, modesty is a part of temperance and regulates one's internal appetites and outward behavior according to right reason. Induced by this virtue, one exercises reasonable control over his actions and external custom in clothes, ornaments, etc, according to his status with a moderation between excess and neglect. 

Modesty regulates one's actions and external customs with the intention of avoiding sexual commotion in oneself and in others. In this sense it is an external protection and effect of the virtue of chastity or purity. Being an effect of chastity or purity, it simply means that a chaste person would be a modest person. As a protection, modesty leads one to avoid scandal or occasion of sin against holy purity. 

It becomes obvious how training in this virtue is of vital importance for the preservation of individual virtues of chastity and public morality. 

As a matter of fact, the immodesty which has become the new normal today is a result of a loss of sense of decency from infancy. Mothers, themselves blind enthusiasts of worldly fashion, train their daughters to get used to scanty and tight attire as normal. 

This feminine loss of the sense of decency is decried by Pope Pius XII in the following words: 

How many girls there are who do not see any wrongdoing in following certain shameless styles like so many 16 sheep. They certainly would blush if they could guess the impression they make and the feeling they evoke in those who see them.” (July 17, 1954)

Addressing parents he says:

“O christian mothers (and fathers), if only you knew the future of distress and peril, of shame ill-restrained, that you prepare for your sons and daughters in imprudently accustoming them to live hardly clothed and in making them lose the sense of modesty, you would be ashamed of yourselves and of the harm done the little ones , to whom Heaven entrusted to your care be reared in christian dignity and culture.”

Beyond being a virtue, modesty is one of the fruits of the Holy Ghost. It is written:

... the fruit of the Spirit is, charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, Mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. Against such there is no law.

(Gal. 5:22-23)

Principles of Modest Dress

According to Catholic discipline, modest dress should adhere to the following principles:

1. Humility: here modesty leads one to avoid excessive attention-seeking or vanity in dress. (Pope Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri, 1929)

2. Decency: here modesty leads one to dress as to cover the body sufficiently to avoid indecency. (Catechism of the Council of Trent, 1566)

3. Purity: according to this principle, a dress should not be provocative or occasion sin. (Pope Pius XII, Allocution to the Catholic Women's Union, 1947)

4. Respect for the Body: based on this principle, a dress should respect the dignity of the human body, avoiding excessive exposure or revealing clothing. (Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, 1930)

Some Specific Guidelines

- Women are under obligation to dress as to cover their shoulders and knees in church and in public. (Pope Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri, 1929). The “cover” is not to be something extra to the dress being worn. Rather, the design of the dress should be that it covers the shoulders and (at least) the knees (while seated).

- Men and women should avoid excessive luxury or extravagance in dress. (Catechism of the Council of Trent, 1566)

Here the Catechism quotes St. Peter who warned that the adornment of women should not be “the outward plaiting of the hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel” (1 Peter 3:3). Reference is made also to St. Paul what says “In like manner, women also in decent apparel: adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety, not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly attire: But, as it becometh women professing godliness, with good works (1 Tim. 2:9, 10) 

- Clothing should not be too tight or revealing. (Pope Pius XII, Allocution to the Catholic Women's Union, 1947)

In the writings of St. Clement we read thus concerning tight, revealing clothes: 

…clothing, which cannot conceal the shape of the body, is no more a covering. such clothing, falling close to the body, takes its form more easily, and adhering as it were to the flesh, receives its shape, and marks out the woman's figure, so that the whole make of the body is visible to spectators, though not seeing the body itself. (St. Clement, The Instructor, Book II, p. 258). 

This is where the question of so-called “trousers for women” comes in: 

It is normally tight, and even if not tight, it always reveals the feminine form where it is most provocative and an occasion of sin. That makes trousers an immodest dress for women simply so.

Meanwhile, the idea of women using trousers was introduced as a secularist counter culture from the synagogue of Satan to undo Catholic morality in dressing and foster breakdown of the influence of Catholic culture. 

Also, the introduction of trousers for women coincides with our Lady's warning that fashion will be introduced which will offend our Lord greatly. The sophisms used to justify this immodesty have been coined and disseminated by the agents of that department of the synagogue of Satan styled “feminism”. Those whose sense of decency have been wiped out by this diabolic propaganda are often quick to affirm the pretended right to chose how to dress and see any attempt to disabuse them of the injustice done to their sense of decency an unjust intrusion into their private space. 

Generally, those whose intellect is aided by the light of the Catholic faith normally cherish Catholic principles of Modesty and live by them. They never question them, knowing they are safeguards to attain one's final End, or aids in helping in contributing to the work of salvation of a neighbor for whose soul Christ she's His Precious Blood.

The Clans Of Haters of Catholic Modesty. 

We have various clans of haters of Catholic Modesty. On the one hand we have those who falsely cling to the Catholic name but are thoroughly imbued with modernist indifferentist and sentimentalist faith. These, unable to understand these salutary Catholic principles of modesty, hide under ridiculous sophisms in order to justify their obstinate option for worldly standards in dress: standards contrived from the pit of hell.  

Saturated with the Modernist indiffrentist and sentimentalist outlook, every sense of decency is lost. Their standard is popular prevailing custom

We have the clan of certain Protestants who promote this fashion contrived from the pit of hell, and it's understandable: the essence of protestantism is to protest everything Catholic, and this fashion is opposed to Catholic Modesty obviously...

And, if Modernists also promote this new-normal custom at different levels, it is also understandable: their agenda is to upturn everything Catholic: history, philosophy, theology, worship, morality, discipline...name it...  

How To Win The Argument on Modesty

So, how can you win the argument in favor of Catholic Modesty? How are you to convince an obstinate blind enthusiast of worldly indecency whose preoccupation is simply to idolize herself and make her body the center of attention and vain curiosity? 

I would say, perhaps, don't try to try to win any such argument. Don't try to try to convince anyone. Paraphrasing St. Thomas Aquinas, it should be noted that for one with common sense and fear of God, no argument is necessary; and for one without common sense and no fear of God, no argument is sufficient.

Just state the salutary principles of Catholic Modesty and their applications. Propose them; being instant, urging, admonishing in all patience. You shall have done your part in instructing the ignorant - a spiritual work of mercy! 

Meanwhile, what your words might fail to attain, your prayers and little daily sacrifices may obtain, God willing!

This may not be an exhaustive treatment of the question, but I hope it is of some help! 

God speed you!