I wear pants.
It all depends. Sometimes skirts can be modest or immodest. The same holds true for jeans.
I love pants. However , being a female who was once kicked out of a church for wearing pants , I'm more for women wearing them than ever. lol I wear long skirts and maybe shorter (knee-length) flowing skirts. I feel feminine in everything I wear though. (It's important though, being a Chicagoan and all...that I wear pants during the harsh winters. Looking pretty, or feminine isn't worth me freezing my touchas off. )
Can't you wear pants under your skirt?
No. lol I would wear a long winter coat or just wear pants to work.
But a skirt is more modest.
What, is that a male answer? LOL Come on now. I think some men are just threatened by women who wear pants. I don't know WHY but that's just strange. Anyway, I'd be more concerned with how long the skirt is (for my own taste) than whether wearing pants or not will make me look less pure.
I love skirts but I love having the freedom to choose whether I wear a skirt or something else.
It's not a "Male answer," it's G-d's answer. We follow His Word...
The Bible also said that women shouldn't cut their hair.
Show me where it says that. And I don't mean in the Goyishe "Bible," in Tanach...
How is a skirt more modest than pants?
Exactly, Doc. From what I read here, showing skin is immoral. This comment isn't against you, Dr. Dan but I think some men feel theatened when women wear pants... Remember, back in the days before women's rights and suffrage, men were the only people wearing pants. Women picked up the idea that they could wear pants also... for more practical reasons (because a lot of women worked in the fields and pants protected their legs). Now it's wrong? I think that's a sexist attitude.
Also, I want to point out that there is no section in the Bible that says "Woman! Thou shalt not wear pants!" From all of the religious pictures I've seen, I didn't even see MEN in pants. They wore robes. How many of you would actually walk out of your apartments/ houses right now, sporting the fashions of Israel, B.C.E. ? (Not that they were bad...) My point is that times change and people's tastes change with said times. Stop thinking that if a woman wears pants that she must be raging against the machine or something. Sometimes wearing pants is just what it is...wearing pants.
Pants are immodest because they show form, and because they're men's clothing, it has nothing to do with skin. And there is something in Tanach that says men can't wear women's clothing and vice versa.
For Jews or anyone who wishes to be modest, it is best to not wear any clothing that might make a man have a sexual desire to undress her, marry her, have sex with her, divorce her, all in a split second's thought.
Pants do not necessarily show the female figure more than a skirt. Sometimes it is the opposite..The reality is the bottom line...If i can look at the woman and not for a moment even imagine her naked, then she is dressed properly.
Men, understand something. Women have been kidnapped and raped wearing long night gowns, or baggy clothes under large winter coats. That proves that some men don't care WHAT a woman is wearing. They're going to think what they wish about her appearance. When little girls *shudder* or older women are kidnapped and raped or looked at sexually, it has nothing to do with their clothes. But it has everything to do with the fact that there are sick individuals just walking around as free as jay birds with sick thoughts in their heads.
Certainly in this instance you're right....but that's not the point we are making here.
We're talking about women walking around in public with their cleavage in the air. Forget about the insane people..It's the non-insane people...who may not act upon insanity, but lead them to do other things that are "unholy".
If they're following the Torah, I understand what you're saying but remember, the most powerful body part on a male OR female is their brain. Even if a woman is covered from head to toe, that doesn't stop even the most descent man from wondering what she looks like under their clothes. There are women who look at attractive men, then wonder what their children would look like if they got married. Fantasy isn't a bad thing..in fact, it's healthy. However, sick people can take fantasy to another level quicker than anyone else.
In my opinion, fantasies about other women while a man is married to his own wife isn't such a good thing..although I'm sure it happens to the best of every single one of us..female and male.
I never mentioned it being okay if a married male has fantasies about other women. A decent man doesn't always mean a married man.
So then you proved my point...A married man will still look..but if there are no opportunities to look he'll be better off and a better husband.
So if men were blind and stripped of the right to admire the beauty of a woman, they'd be better suited husbands? lol Women can look attractive in any way. Some men think women who don't wear makeup are attractive, while some men think that women who wear skirts are attractive. Is it wrong for a man to even think that a woman is attractive when he first meets her, or even sees her on the street?
That's not what I said. One can admire beauty...it's taking the beauty and making something sexual to it.
Some women are wholesome pretty with makeup wearing nice clothes..even pants...
Other women, distract attention from their face and brain to their cleavage or butt.
When did the discussion take a turn into inappropriate blouses and tight pants? I thought that some of you (not necessarily you, Dan) were against women wearing ANY kind of pants; even baggy pants.
Many Jewish religious and observant circles believe that women should wear skirts and men wear pants. This doesn't necessarily mean that this should apply to non-Jews...so you're in the clear, Erica.
The reasoning by some rabbis about the skirts are two that I know of. That pants are men's clothing and that cross-dressing is wrong. Jewihs women wear women's clothing and men men's clothing. The second one is that pants may extentuate the female form more than a skirt and therefore reduces her modesty.
NOt all rabbis feel this way, but I respect those who do feel this way.
The bottom line, i believe, to these rules is that:
1. Cross dressing can lead to confusion...Look at the trans sexuals today...the ones that do a good job of it look like women...and woa would be a man who gets attractd to that thinking it is a woman...not a good thing.
2. THe female form is very sexy and can potentially lead some men astray.
So these rabbinical rules are fences...
I'll give you an example...waiting for a subway there is a yellow line that no one should cross so that no accidents should befall them. Some people wait right behind the yellow line. HOwever, I wait far away from the yellow line. These Jewish fences are similar also.