Dear Women of All Ages Who Wear Leggings (and, if appropriate, your mothers),
You're everywhere--at the mall, in the grocery store, and now, of all places, at church. You're young and thin, young and not so thin, over forty, long legs and short legs. I always have to look at you a couple of times to figure out what is going on, because my first thought is, "Oh, no, she has forgotten her pants." And then I realize that the one I'm looking at completely intended this. This is on purpose. And I marvel again at how someone or some institution so ridiculous--the fashion industry, Lindsay Lohan, Hollywood, a Kohl's ad--has brainwashed a mass of women into believing that this looks good on them, when, in fact, on most it just looks kind of silly.
But there you all are, knit fabric clinging to every shapely curve of your leg--whether it's a nice shape or not so nice--with your sweater or shirt just brushing the top of your thigh/bottom of your butt in that provocative way that I'm sure distracts many men from what they're supposed to be doing or thinking about because they're imagining just what's a little bit above what they can't see. (And especially to the one who sat in front of us during church a couple of weeks ago--please don't do that to my menfolk again. I'm sure that it's difficult to recite the Apostles' Creed and focus on worship when there's a young woman showing us things that none of us should be seeing accept your husband someday and your doctor. If you're going to dress like that for church, please show the men of the congregation the courtesy of sitting in the last row.)
(By the way, I'm not writing to those of you who are wearing the leggings with skirts of decent length. While it's not a look that I would wear because I'm too old for it [and pretty much any woman over forty is] and my legs are really too short to carry it off, you aren't showing us body parts that we shouldn't be seeing. I can live with that.)
Going out only half dressed is not a good idea for so many reasons: (1) you look like you have forgotten your pants, (2) you look like you don't know any better than a four-year-old little girl who is running around in her leotards and shirt because she doesn't know where her skirt is and her mom is too busy at the moment to help her find it, (3) a man who sees a woman who will go in public half dressed can only assume that she's more than willing to decrease that fraction when she's not in public, (4) and--the big one--it's immodest. And please don't say, "But I'm covered up." It's not just what you cover, it's how you cover it. Some garments have been designed in such a way (lingerie, bikinis, and leggings with short tops) that they cover something up only to draw attention to it so that male observers will imagine it uncovered.
Please come to your senses and show the world that women in the twenty-first century are tired of fashions that look good only on preschool children. Aim for something higher than WWLLD (What would Lindsey Lohan do?). Moms, teach your daughters that when it comes to beauty and feminine dignity, less is not always more. Can we leave the leggings in the little girls' department--where they belong?
Thank you.
