Catch A Return To Modesty: Discovering The Lost Virtue Illustrated By Wendy Shalit Expressed As E-Text

book is be read with a few grains of salt handy, but its one of the most thought provoking perspectives Ive ever read on modesty.
It does have some pretty heavy content in it and it can become a bit hard to get through at times, but goodness it packs a punch.
Even though Ive always considered myself pretty conservative, Shalits view of the sexual revolution is so contrary to our current societys that it kept catching me off guard.
And I especially loved all of the advice columns on modesty she included from the early and mids.

At the end of the day, its clear that biblical womanhood and manhood is the one true solution for the selfdestructive lifestyles that are praised and accepted today.
This book has definitely made me think about modesty in a different light and has renewed my motivation to live those convictions out.
This book is not what it appears to be from the title, We read it for book club and had a great discussion, It doesn't have anything to do with how someone dresses but covers a more broad idea of what modesty is.
The book explores the idea that modesty is disappearing in society and what the result from this trend are.
It was written by a young I want to sayyear old Jewish women, It definitely caused me to consider ideas I hadnt thought of before, I thought she was a bit redundant however, I think it is an interesting book for a parent to read and even though it refers to modesty as a feminine trait, I think parents with boys would especially benefit from reading it.

A likeminded individual would love this book and question none of it, But as one of those "feminists" Shalit refers to somewhat derisively in her book, I could not help but notice Shalit's casual tossing of completely unfounded statements into the core of her arguments.
She has some interesting solutions to a problem that is in fact alltoo real, but her solutions fail to take into consideration.
historical fact for example, her oftrepeated assertion that rape, sexual assault, and harassment did NOT happen prior to the Sexual Revolution.
which is blatantly false,. a perspective other than East Coast white elitist Shalit seems to not be aware that modest cultures do in fact exist in the United States today, in certain immigrant communities, in certain poor and/or rural communities, in certain places in the Deep South, etc.
, or for that matter, all around the world, and, the hypocrisy of what she proposes if we were to catapult back to a modest society such as she proposes, Shalit may have been educated, but the likelihood that she would have been allowed to employ herself outside the home, to write and publish as a woman would be decidedly slim.
Shalit likes to pick and choose the aspects of modesty that appeal to her: gentlemanly behavior, chastity, conservative dress.
but fails to admit that the good also comes with the bad: inequal pay, lack of opportunity, inferiority, lack of rights.
I was intrigued, but ultimately disappointed, It saddens me how many people question absolutely none of her arguments, or the feasibility of her proposals.
Poorly presented and shoddily researched straw man arguments that amount to little more than victimblaming "If women would just be more modest, men would stop raping them!" Um, NO.
I actually assent to a lot of what Shalit says about importance of respect between genders, disgust at horrifying stories of rape culture, etc, but I both start and end in an entirely place from her in regards to where I think these issues come from and what ought to be done about them.
Shalit relies too heavily on the idea of women as sexual gatekeepers a pretty misogynist view in and of itself if men will only treat modest women with respect, then that implies any "immodest" woman immodest how by whose standards "gets what's coming to her.
" Yuck. , as well as on generalizations often one anecdote gets extrapolated to represent the views of "all women," "all college students," "all fifthgraders" and wrongful fetishization of the Victorians and colonial America as a kind of utopia for women, sexually.
As another reviewer pointed out, Shalit seems not to recognize that, women were raped before thes, and, a lot of the codes of conduct that she

writes so rapturously about were the direct results of societies that condoned men treating women as property.


There's is also an infuriating amount of mental health privilege in this book Shalit implies, if not outright states, that if society just "let women be women" i.
e. emotional, overly sensitive then women wouldn't get depressed at all, Totally ignores depression as a neurobiological illness,

There's very little about male modesty does it exist What might it look like Why is that important Shalit never says, which contributes more to the victimblamey aspect of her book and is a real blind spot in her writing.


Finally, there's a tendency to rely overmuch on the most horrifying/extreme stories to make her case, which I find intellectually dishonest in writing on either side of the modesty/chastity debate.
Conservative books tend to rely on hyperbolized accounts of college hook up culture, as though that's the only context in which premarital sex ever takes place, while liberal books tend to point to "icky purity balls" as representing all conservative religious culture.
I certainly couldn't recognize my own teenage and college experiences in Shalit's account most people I knew wanted/were in longterm exclusive dating relationships.
There's a tendency in the book to assume that all premarital sex is unwanted/forced/hook up sex, which ultimately makes the argument difficult to follow and makes the refusal to see rape culture/patriarchy as a real problem even more baffling.
A Return to Modesty is unlike much feminist literature I have read, I really enjoyed the book and the author has made an intriguing contribution to the sex/gender debate.
The main issue I have with the book is with Wendy Shalit's use of historial material.
She is often very optimistic in her interpretation of men's "chivalry" and protection of women's modesty in previous ages.
But nobody really wants to go back to those times, Women have always been subject to pressures due to their perceived inferiority, This does not mean that the cultural attitudes of prior ages should not be listened to, but they need to be amalgamated with our current ideas to take society forward.
I am fairly sure the ideal society does not involve women looking up to porn/playboy centrefolds, wanting to look like Barbie and targeting very young children in a sexually explicit way through advertising, television, clothing etc.
Has the sexual revolution gone too far How can we amend relations between men and women to create a more equal and just society More books on this subject, please.
She exposes "sexual liberation" for what it is and how it has disillusioned, confused and harmed women.
She swiftly tackles the myth that women were sexually oppressed before the's, she exposes feminist writing that are inherently sexist.
No where else in literature will you find as much hatred for women as in the feminist literature, yet feminists perceive to be "helping" women.
All that feminism has done is harmed women, its all about destroying the family ladies Wake Up! In summation I want to quote a fantastic quote from this book that I think quite well sums up what this book is about.


" We want our dignity back, our "feminine mystique" back, and, along with it, the notion of male honor.
Our mothers tell us we shouldn't want to give up all the hardwon "gains" they have bequeathed to us, and we think, what gains Sexual harassment, date rape, stalking, eating disorders, all these dreary hookups Or perhaps it's the great gain of divorce you had in mind We look to a different, more romantic, generation for our role models.
" Wendy ShalitI had very mixed feelings about this book, I agreed with just about everything Shalit had to say, and I really enjoyed reading about Orthodox Jewish practices and laws, having had almost no prior exposure to them.
Her analysis of the culture is deadon, and I completely agree that modesty is in danger of dying out and that abandonment of it is what has placed us in such an amoral state.


That said, however, I just didn't care for the writing style, I felt out of breath every time I picked it up she crammed so many quotes, references and rhetorical questions into each paragraph that it felt very disjointed.
Other than the general idea of "Wow, society is screwed up if we could all be more modest, maybe we'd be happier!" I just didn't get her point most of the time she offered little in the way of practical advice, just conclusions.


So, I guess I thought the book was timely and important, but I ended up skimming through a lot of it just to get finished, because after a few paragraphs I had a pretty good idea of where each chapter was going.
. . Another of my alltime favorites, I read this book as a college student in a 'clothing' class not just a sewing class, but so much more.
. . , and was so immediately struck by how much it helped me to explain my own feelings about modesty in a world where that word has almost no meaning anymore.
I really, really think this should be required reading for all teenage girls unfortunately, there are probably many people in this world including womenwho must not really respect themselves for who they arethat think this book is very 'oldfashioned', very 'prudish', and 'smothering' to young people.
I challenge all the women reading this review to read the book and realize that it makes perfect sense to respect your own self first if you want others to respect it also.
Hoorah for Wendy Shalit! I'm glad someone out there has made a great case for not only modesty in dress, but more importantly, modesty in behavior! In a world that tells us that we are equal to men, in every way except anatomy, I'm glad that Wendy was brave enough to uncover the truth.
Through extensive research and oftentimes shocking anecdotes we discover the disintegration of the virtuous woman, and the great need for women young and old alike, to unite forces and dispel the "popular" version of what womanhood is supposed to be.
"Popular" being hookingup, shackingup, and a complete disregard for anything lovely, virtuous, of goodreport, or praisworthy.
sitelinkA virtuous woman has the power to demand respect from her male counterpart, and come on ladies.
. . isn't that what we want!!,