It's an interesting concept and one to which I'm not entirely unsympathetic. It may be nothing more than my personal aesthetic, but I do confess that I'm more than tired of being constantly confronted with intimate body parts bursting or sagging out of extremely limited restraints ... and all of this in the local supermarket. At the pool, forget it.
No, I do not want modesty police patrolling the neighborhood. I would prefer that people exercise the simple prerogative of looking in a mirror before they go out in public. But as that is quite clearly an unreasonable demand, perhaps it's time for our local establishments to suggest a slightly more expansive dress code of their own.
Now in Israel, they have, perhaps, the other side of this dilemma. As a libertarian-leaning non-affiliated person politically, my personal inclination would be to allow people to just live and let live. But I also try to be sensitive to the concerns of the haredi elements in Israeli society who view the world of ... exposure ... in a very different light. The philosophy of live and let live requires one to make space for people who have different concepts of propriety. So how do you accommodate the needs of an entire society when a substantial minority of that society is made up of people whose deeply entrenched idea of propriety is profoundly different than the one to which we in Western society have become accustomed?
Imagine the reaction most of us would have if we walked up to a public services counter and found the attendant completely nude. I mean, it would be problematic. Disconcerting, to say the least. Possibly debilitating. This is somewhat akin to what members of the haredi community experience when they encounter female clerks in sleeveless tank tops and low cut, bursting blouses at ticket windows. And so initiatives like this pop up. Understandable.
This is a slippery slope. Are hijabs and burkas not far behind? And yet, is there no unhappy medium? I'm no more inclined to have some repressed male cleric tell me how to dress than the next person. But dress codes are nothing new or outrageous and even in this country they're liberally applied in restaurants and stores and on public beaches. It's a requirement of many jobs as well. A lawyer does not show up in court wearing a tee shirt and shorts. But I've had employers who have urged me to "show more cleavage." IMO, that's something no employee should ever have to deal with (unless, alas, it's part of her job description). Dress codes can be for the protection of the workers, as well.
"Mutual respect" is a good name for this campaign. It's to be hoped that those pushing it will keep that sentiment in mind and show the same restraint in their suggested regulations that they wish others to show in their style of dress.
No, I do not want modesty police patrolling the neighborhood. I would prefer that people exercise the simple prerogative of looking in a mirror before they go out in public. But as that is quite clearly an unreasonable demand, perhaps it's time for our local establishments to suggest a slightly more expansive dress code of their own.
Now in Israel, they have, perhaps, the other side of this dilemma. As a libertarian-leaning non-affiliated person politically, my personal inclination would be to allow people to just live and let live. But I also try to be sensitive to the concerns of the haredi elements in Israeli society who view the world of ... exposure ... in a very different light. The philosophy of live and let live requires one to make space for people who have different concepts of propriety. So how do you accommodate the needs of an entire society when a substantial minority of that society is made up of people whose deeply entrenched idea of propriety is profoundly different than the one to which we in Western society have become accustomed?
Imagine the reaction most of us would have if we walked up to a public services counter and found the attendant completely nude. I mean, it would be problematic. Disconcerting, to say the least. Possibly debilitating. This is somewhat akin to what members of the haredi community experience when they encounter female clerks in sleeveless tank tops and low cut, bursting blouses at ticket windows. And so initiatives like this pop up. Understandable.
This is a slippery slope. Are hijabs and burkas not far behind? And yet, is there no unhappy medium? I'm no more inclined to have some repressed male cleric tell me how to dress than the next person. But dress codes are nothing new or outrageous and even in this country they're liberally applied in restaurants and stores and on public beaches. It's a requirement of many jobs as well. A lawyer does not show up in court wearing a tee shirt and shorts. But I've had employers who have urged me to "show more cleavage." IMO, that's something no employee should ever have to deal with (unless, alas, it's part of her job description). Dress codes can be for the protection of the workers, as well.
"Mutual respect" is a good name for this campaign. It's to be hoped that those pushing it will keep that sentiment in mind and show the same restraint in their suggested regulations that they wish others to show in their style of dress.
