§ 4. Modesty. Clothing

20. I. In this place we are not treating of the moral virtue of chastity, but of the natural affection and sense of modesty, of which anthropologists undertake the analysis, while philosophers and theologians seek the higher reasons.

This is certain. Venereal appetite at once produces a certain shame and promises a certain happiness, so that it can be said of man: he is ashamed to manifest, indeed to some extent to do, that which delights most carnally. He blushes at that from which he rejoices! This affection, sufficiently strange at first sight, is shown to pertain to the nobility of human nature, so that contempt falls upon the person who has cast modesty aside. Modesty can therefore be described as a certain intimate hesitation and reluctance of the soul, which opposes to venereal appetite a certain difficulty to be overcome, whence it happens that consent is granted to it less openly and less promptly ¹.

¹ Thus Buchan and Ellis, in Moll, also think that sexual repugnance is signified by modesty at first.

Joubert ² describes the same thing beautifully, especially in the age of adolescence: "Modesty is one knows not what fear attached to our sensibility, which causes the soul, like the flower which is its image, to fold back and conceal itself within itself, so long as it is delicate and tender, at the slightest appearance of that which might wound it by impressions too vivid or by illuminations too premature."

² Pensées, pp. 80-83.

In truth, modesty signifies a restraint, rather than opposition, lest one proceed without consideration; it by no means extinguishes or diminishes carnal libido, but imposes a certain measure and rule upon it.

The elements by which the spontaneous affection or instinct of modesty is constituted or composed must be drawn chiefly from the mutual relations of the sexes, since modesty pertains to the order of sexual union.

Moreover, an anthropological investigation of modesty then reveals these things:

1. Sexual union requires a mutual surrender of bodies; hence, in the reluctance of modesty there is discerned a certain defense and guardianship of individual ownership.

2. The sexual parts are not very becoming in themselves and are found near the organs of the lowliest functions. Hence, in their first exposure, which is demanded by sexual commerce, a certain loss of esteem and enticement is to be feared. Consequently, natural timidity obtains some place in modesty.

3. A person's own estimation of himself also impels him not to surrender himself to just anyone as cheap merchandise, but to choose a worthy lover. Modesty therefore contains a certain care for one's own dignity.

4. And since whatever lies open to all becomes cheap, the difficulty first opposed also manifests a desire to increase the value of the thing afterwards conceded.

Thus the instinct of preservation, timidity, care for one's own dignity, and the desire for reputation and honor appear in the sense of modesty; and since these are natural or innate, the modesty resulting from them must likewise be called natural.

St. Thomas ³ demonstrates these two further causes of modesty in the mind, or higher part of man: the one, common to both sexes, namely, the vehemence by which the ardor of pleasure is accustomed to occupy and absorb the mind; the other, proper to the male sex, namely, that manifest rebellion of the flesh which obeys the command of reason only imperfectly, so that even against our will we experience various movements of the flesh.

³ Summa theol., II-II, q. 131, art. 4.

St. Augustine had already rendered this reason in these words: "Hence they were both naked and were not ashamed, namely, the first parents. For now, by natural shame, the rational soul is ashamed that in the flesh, into whose servitude it received the right of power, it cannot, through some weakness I know not what, bring it about that these members not be moved when it is unwilling and be moved when it is willing. Because of this, in every chaste person they are deservedly called the shameful parts, because against their mistress, the mind, as though they were of their own power, they are aroused as it pleases them; and the restraints of virtue have only this right over them, that they do not permit them to proceed to unclean and unlawful corruptions" ⁴.

⁴ De peccatorum meritis et remissione, book 2, chapter 22 (M. 44, 172-173).

Since, moreover, in fulfilling sexual appetite, a woman exercises the passive part, while a man rather sustains the role of the aggressor, a woman is more inclined to modesty than a man and, having laid modesty aside, she loses the special ornament and comeliness of her sex. Nature itself, by the manner in which it conceals the woman's shameful parts within the labia, seems to invite her to greater modesty.

These utilities of modesty at once disclose themselves. It causes sexual relations to be entered upon more cautiously, which contributes not a little to mutual happiness and man's social good; through the selection of persons it favors a better multiplication of the human race; it teaches man a certain victory over himself, whence he himself becomes stronger; and it provides for the dignity of man.

21. II. Sacred Scripture ascribes the first origin of clothing to modesty ⁵. Hence St. Augustine said most beautifully: "He who, clothed with grace, had nothing in his naked body of which he was ashamed, when stripped of grace perceived what he ought to cover" ⁶.

⁵ Compare Genesis 3:10-12.

⁶ Contra Iulianum Pelagianum, book 4, chapter 16, no. 82 (M. 44, 781).

Students of anthropology, however, dispute concerning this origin. Not a few today, with very little basis, deny that it is to be traced back to modesty. This tenet of theirs coheres sufficiently with the denial of a spiritual soul which is created immediately by God. For they hold no affection of the moral order to be primitive.

They nevertheless by no means call into controversy the assistance which clothing affords to modesty.

And in truth, clothing in itself diminishes sexual enticements. The natural sense of modesty seems to demand that at least the strictly sexual parts be covered by clothing. Certainly, a greater immediate power of attraction is present in extensive nudity than in the particular exposure of those parts; the latter rather inspires horror. But obscenity, immodest boldness itself, seems to invite toward libido as if psychologically, while care for covering the parts of the body inculcates and proclaims human dignity and the restraint to be imposed upon appetite, and thus indirectly restrains libido.

Clothing can nevertheless also increase enticements when by its elegance it supplies beauty, or when it turns the eyes toward the sexual organs or the forms of the body.

Moreover, in judging the quality of clothing, not only the power of direct seduction must be considered, but also the formal signification of boldness or modesty, to which signification many circumstances can contribute. Clothing which, in concrete circumstances, manifests wanton boldness is to be condemned, while we shall approve that which displays the sense of modesty in a reasonable manner.

Custom can do much here; it is one thing among civilized nations, another among barbarians, and even among civilized nations it possesses a real, though lesser, variety.