I have recently viewed an abundance of social media posts regarding men's opinions of women in various states of dress or undress. Here are my two cents.
I've seen everything from Burqas in Bahrain to full nudity in a remote Ugandan village, and everything in between. In both extremes of the cultural pendulum, I was at the mercy of the societal norm but didn't find myself in a state of anger or lust. While men can be triggered by what a woman is or isn't wearing, it ultimately boils down to what's in his heart. I can tell you this much. When you humanize people instead of objectifying them, lust quickly finds the exit door. I have a happily married, heterosexual male friend who is a gynecologist. He laughs when people ask if he gets aroused by his patients. It's just not a common occurrence. We're in a sad place when scantily clad bodies bother us more than oppressed bodies and dead bodies. It's also sad that nudity and sex are automatically conflated with intimacy in a technologically saavy generation that seriously lacks real-life, interpersonal communications skills. I've met women in churches who behaved provocatively, and ladies in bikinis (and less) who didn't. I've also encountered more promiscuity among males and females in extremely puritanical Christian cultures than their freer counterparts. I'm against men dictating how women dress, but I'm all for maintaining love and respect for people and honoring their cultural norms, regardless of how they're dressed. This is simply THIS married Christian male's perspective. I speak for no one else, but I do speak from experience. Peace & Love! -Joe
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Yusuf SalamTheologian, Peacemaker, & Lover of All God's Children Archives
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