psychological, whereas man’s attraction to woman is more physical. Hence, man is much more easily tempted by scanty feminine attire than vice versa. These differences are precisely the reason for which sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments have different origins and manifestations in males and females. Whereas females are often led to such sins by their emotions and imagination, desiring to be held and loved, – whence the morally dangerous feminine consumption of romantic novels or movies –, men are far more likely to fall into such sins by seeing the female body – whence the proliferation of pornography which is one of the most grievous forms of sexual abuse and slavery that has ever afflicted the human race, for it enslaves at once its producers, its actors and its consumers. This is precisely why the sight of a scantily dressed woman is often the trigger of such sins in men, while it is not necessarily so in women. Men know this and priests often hear of their struggles. My spiritual sons frequently speak to me of their battles for purity, which are made exponentially more difficult due to the display of female flesh and form that is available in every city and on virtually every television channel, internet page, and even tragically within many Catholic churches, including traditional ones. Amanda, I want to stress that I am not speaking of female intentionality. I would go as far as to say that the vast majority of women have no ill intentions whatsoever when dressing (including the scantily dressed ones); they simply do not know better or do not fully realise the effect their dress has on men, or so I hope. However, regardless of their intentions, the effect remains. And it is this that I am trying to stress as a spiritual father of both daughters and sons. I want to shield my spiritual sons from constant and grave temptation and falls, and I want to protect my spiritual daughters from being the unintentional cause of such storms of temptation and falls into mortal sin. This natural desire that men have to see women has been deeply wounded by sin. Fallen nature in man tells him: “any woman I see I can have”. Reason interjects: “yes, but there is only one you are allowed to have, and that’s your wife”. But if the way a woman is clothed reveals to him her flesh and the intimate shape of her body, the unspoken message his reason gets from the woman, even if it would never occur to her, is: “this is my body, I’m happy for you to know it in its details; enjoy if you will, I don’t mind”. And when the dominant culture tells 41
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI3ODI1