How women can earn respect

This is in reaction to the editorial titled “Low” (Inquirer, 9/27/11), which described the appalling action of teenage girls who threw their underwear on to the stage of the Smart Araneta Coliseum during the show of a pop-punk band. What could be a more notorious way to advertise the girls of our country to foreigners? What kind of foreign visitors are we trying to invite? What type of girls are we trying to project? In an uncanny way, the answer came in the same Inquirer issue, in a news story titled “Pia hits Palace downplay of sex tours.”

Girls must learn to live the beauty of proper deportment that will work to their advantage in the long run. They must value their chastity to avoid becoming unwed mothers. Mike Matthews in “Sexy Fashions?… What Do Men Think?” explained, as a man, how women’s sexy clothes and actions really affect men. He asks if these girls realize that their action causes men to want to “use” women sexually rather than love them for who they are. Such immodesty “will not cause men to honor or respect women. In fact, it’s actually guaranteed to cause men to dishonor and disrespect them. If you want a man to respect you, and perhaps eventually fall in love with you, then you must show him that you respect yourself and that you recognize your dignity before God. The best way to show this is through modesty in dress, words, thoughts and actions.”

Matthews went on to explain that “if you present yourself in a way that is sexually revealing, even in the slightest of ways, many men will want your body for pleasure without regard for you as a person. Many men will see you as sexually loose.

“If you are seeking lasting love and a lifelong marriage that unites mind, soul and body, the best way to achieve this is by being the kind of person you want your future spouse to be. Think of yourself and your future mate as someone with integrity, a vital personality and strong character. If you develop these qualities and demonstrate them through words, actions and appearance, it will help you attract the same in a spouse. Many good men are out there: men with wonderful personalities, men who are respectful, intelligent and looking for a long-term relationship—men who will be faithful and committed to one wife for life. To find a truly honorable man like this, remember that he’ll be attracted to a woman who dresses modestly as a sign of purity, to someone who recognizes that each person is created in the image and likeness of God.

“By dressing modestly, a woman also shows that she knows we were made to love and be loved as unique, unrepeatable individuals. She also shows that she has reverence for her body and her immortal soul—two sacred gifts to be treated with dignity and respect.” (www.catholiceduc.org)

—CHING D. AUNARIO,

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