Holy & Sexy

Your clothes conceal a lot of your beauty, yet they hide not the un-beautiful.  And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy, you may find in them a harness and a chain. Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your skin and less of your raiment.

(...) Some of you say, "It is the north wind who has woven the clothes to wear." But shame was his loom, and the softening of the sinews was his thread. And when his work was done he laughed in the forest. Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean. And when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind? And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.  Khalil Gibran: The Prophet

Gone are the days when some judges, ruling on rape cases, influenced by a chauvinistic and puritanical sexist mentality, blamed the woman for going to certain places, at certain hours, dressed in a certain way.

Since everything was created by God and God is good, Manichaeism, which sees the soul as good and the body as evil, makes no sense; nor does puritanism, which sees sex as something dirty, a necessary evil and a “remedy for concupiscence" even in the context of marriage. These harmful ways of thinking are a consequence of the influence that Plato's philosophy had on some prestigious Christian thinkers, but they are not authentic Christianity. There is therefore no incompatibility between being holy and being sexually attractive.

Dressing has long since outgrown the function for which it was created in the evolution of the human species. Fashion in clothing has more to do with art than with the protection from cold or modesty. The artistically well-dressed human body is just as attractive, if not more so, from every point of view including sexual, than a naked body.

But are certain forms of dress just sensual or are they also deliberately provocative? Probably both; so for what is sensual, let us admire it, and for what is provocative, let us take note of Buddha’s advice...

As Buddha walked from village to village followed by his disciples, he was accused by the villagers of being a pedophile; his disciples asked why he didn’t defend himself against such false accusations and insults, he replied: they insult me but I don't feel insulted.

Fashion provokes, but no one needs to feel provoked... It would be good if everyone were sexually mature, that is, if sexual instinct were subjugated to affectivity, but we know that this is not the case; therefore, in countries where justice is dysfunctional, where impunity reigns, can we trust in the coercive and dissuasive power of the law to contain the unbridled instinct of some citizens? Perhaps there is still some wisdom in the saying "Free yourself from air, then I will free you from evils".

In the context of road safety, the English has the concept of defensive driving. The equivalent to what I was told in Ethiopia by older missionaries, "Here you need to drive your car and the other person’s car". Is this not a case of "defensive dressing" in risky situations? Forcing women to cover their bodies with burkas only justifies and perpetuates sexual and affective immaturity.

The sexual and affective maturity of men should evolve, to the point where women can express their creativity in dressing freely, without feeling intimidated. In the meantime, every woman should have the practical intelligence to know, in each occasion and in each location and circumstance, how to dress; adapting to the time and people, expressing herself artistically, but always taking into account where, when and with whom she is.

In Vale Paços, on January 28, 2014, a 13-year-old girl, after leaving school, was taken at knife-point by an unemployed 35-year-old man to a remote place where she was raped; the man was caught by the police and confessing to the crime, the man said that on seeing the girl, he could not resist the attraction.

Conclusion – Sexual attractiveness and physical beauty is not evil de perse, because like everything was created by God. Physical beauty and inner beauty can coexist in a person, they are not aways divorced or dissociated.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC