Thursday, August 02, 2007

Tsnius Tsuris

This was posted over at Jameel's. This was posted in some Jerusalem neighborhood, and as you can see, it's been modified by some sweet neshomeh with a marker, changing the message from "Please Do Not Pass Through Our Neighborhood in Immodest Clothes" to the much more welcoming "Please Do Pass Through Our Neighborhood In Modest Clothes".

Personally, I think this is a great improvement, and very cute. However, I am going to comment briefly on the nature of tsnius tsuris:

When issues of modesty are brought up in the Judeoblogosphere, it is not uncommon for folks to insist that the rising obsession with modesty in the haredi world is not oppressive to women, and is not aimed at women. Religious men, they point out, also wear head-to-toe clothes.

So they do. But the difference is here, where the warning to the immodest is to women and girls only, where modest clothes are defined as women's clothes. Men with tight pants and open collars are apparently being given a pass here. There are a lot of reasons for this--some halachic, some just plain sexist. But targeted at women, most certainly.

Just sayin'.

2 comments:

aliyah06 said...

The only people I know of who get harassed are women in Ramat Bet Shemesh....although the Husband, in his pre-religious days, tells me he accidently got off the bus in Mea Shearim in shorts and got comments.

I don't object to the request. It is reasonable and nicely put here. I object to the smug self-righteous types who have to do or say something to anyone who doesn't conform to the request.

Check out "A Meaningful Tisha B'Av" in the internet Jerusalem Post. Even women who DO dress modestly apparently aren't tznius enough for the chareidi crowd in RBS.

Jameel @ The Muqata said...

Balabusta: Come now, you can't really mean that my blog is only about "my first source for whatever horrible thing is happening now...".

I have all sorts of news...

Mazal tov on your upcoming wedding!