By Samantha Apanasewicz
Columnist 

It has become a sort of fad to degrade men. Usually, this trend is propagated by women who negatively react to behaviors men exhibit that women view as distasteful.

Women tend to rationalize and defend their attitudes towards these men, taking the stance that men who act inappropriately towards them deserve their disdain.

I argue, however, that the women-hating-men movement begins with the women themselves. Specifically, the standards of attractiveness by which women define themselves.

The impulse to dress more revealingly is not originally a male idea. Innately, men take a kind of pride in their female counterparts, which does not include an overt display of their uniquely feminine assets, especially to other men.

For men, a woman is more intriguing and thus attractive if there is an air of exclusiveness about her. Therefore, I conclude that if a woman chooses to dress more revealing, it is based on a distorted ideal of attractiveness generated by women, not men.

There exists the feminine urge to woo or entice the opposite sex. This urge is natural and not inherently immoral. It is biological and spiritual; a part of our matter-form composite as women.

But true love, Godly love, calls for restraint for the sake of our own selves – we must die so we can live – like Christ did for us.

Another way to think about it is that our bodies are not fully ours to give away. Part of chastity and maintaining purity in the male-female relationship is “holding each other in reverence for the Owner,” (Elliot 69) referencing our Creator’s role between a man and woman.

To dress oneself in a way that is meant to be sexually enticing perverts this relationship between man and woman instead of protecting it.

You teach people how to treat you. The way you dress and the impression you give matters. And frankly, women communicate their worth by how they dress.

Whether we want to admit it or not, looks matter. And when women wear clothing that could be considered revealing, they may open themselves up to a type of attention that they may not appreciate.

Women in modern culture offer promiscuity when in actuality men desire the opposite. Especially Catholic men.

Women are putting themselves in a position to allow men to degrade their worth, blaming it on the men who look at them “rudely.” However, it is a band-aid being put on a bullet wound of an issue.

Women make a conscious choice and then wonder why men react the way they do, not taking accountability and recognizing that they do have a say in how they are perceived.

In order to be free to love one another ultimately, to love truly and fully, there must be self-sacrifice. This is an element that is lost in the contemporary argument between men and women on what is considered appropriate fashion.

There must be restraint when necessary, there must be intention, and there must be mindfulness, on both ends.

This abstract sentiment manifests itself practically all the way down to the way we dress – the way we present ourselves to others. We as women should present as we want to be treated and cannot exclusively blame men or other women for reactions we deem as undesirable if we are failing to treat ourselves with the same respect.

You cannot love others until you love yourself first, however cliché that may sound. Women need to do what’s due to themselves before giving others a share, which must also be earned through proper romantic pursuits.