I was pleasantly surprised upon recently seeing an ad dedicated to bnos melech – frum Jewish girls and women – exhorting them to be more careful in the area of tznius. The ad, placed in a widely read Jewish paper, had a simple message: don’t wear a cross-body bag when you’re not wearing a coat or jacket. Doing so can unnecessarily delineate certain body parts that are attractive to men, putting them in serious danger of being nichshol. Fighting back against even innocuous instances of pseudo-pritzus is to be applauded. However, I was also left troubled. My concern is not with the ad, but rather in the fact that similar advertisements aimed at boys and men simply don’t exist. And they should. I understand that we live in a mostly insular world where only certain taavos are recognized and acknowledged. But we have to face reality. Women can be nichshol too, and particularly with the daf yomi cycle currently holding in Meseches Sotah, I believe there is no better time than now to shine a light on this worrisome reality. There are certain male body features that can be a michshol for women and yet we see no communal push to safeguard our Bnos Yisroel from these. For instance, it is well known that large muscular arms are attractive. Yet there is never a word uttered against men wearing short-sleeved shirts. The same goes for a muscular chest, but again, we see no pushback against men who keep their shirt’s upper area unbuttoned. Most concerning to me is that ridiculously tight pants have somehow become in vogue. I don’t need to elaborate, but is this not something to be concerned about? Yes, women should be careful about tznius. But so should men. And it’s high time we took this matter seriously as a klal. Bnei Melech need guidelines too. Name withheld upon request. NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of YWN. DO YOU HAVE AN OPINION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE POSTED ON YWN? SEND IT TO US FOR REVIEW. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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