Who thought I would be bombarded with female nudity when I went to see a Disney movie?? But it’s true. The other day I went to the movies to see Tron, a PG-rated movie. As I was sitting in that dim-lit theatre waiting for the previews to start, three teenaged boys (couldn’t have been more that 16) sat in front of me with a Droid phone flipping through pornographic images of women (I shouldn’t say women because as soon as they began viewing them in that way they turned them into mere objects). It disgusted me. What if it hadn’t been me sitting behind them with a front row view to their lustful behavior? What if it had been a little kid?? This is a Disney movie for crying out loud!
The twisted thing about this is that these boys saw this as “normal” behavior. They weren’t trying to hide it, they weren’t hunkered down in the back of the theatre talking in hushed tones. No, they were smack dab in the middle of the theatre openly pointing at and making crude comments about naked women.
Respect. There is obviously a great lack of it in our world.
We observe it not only in the way men act, but in the way they dress—and in the way women act and dress as well. Men wear t-shirts adorned with the ever classy bare-breasted woman in a suggestive pose, women strive for that image by dressing themselves with the least amount of material possible. Women strut around in bikinis, miniskirts, and low cut shirts causing men to drool lustfully over their bodies, then those guys turn unsatisfied to pornographic images and movies to fulfill theat urge. Women, feeling pressured by men to meet this certain image, then not only allow men to view the most intimate parts of their body, but allow men to touch them and use them to satisfy a craving. It’s a downward spiral, one that is quickly destroying respect, love, and each individual’s dignity.
We need to add respect back into the equation.
One thing we can do as women is to make an aggressive effort to cover ourselves up. If we are causing men to sin by what we wear, we are actively taking part in their sin. If we are the catalyst to lustful behavior, we are now “temptation”. Give me one good reason to wear a bikini to the beach. One good reason to publicly display for all to see part of us which should be reserved for only our husband. There is no good reason—there are only excuses. And those excuses were designed by a fallen society to bring us even further down. Are we really going to buy into these lies? I say we take a stand for respect.
And not just what we wear to the beach. Every day take a good look at what we put on to wear for the day and ask “Would my (future) husband appreciate that every other guy in the world is seeing me in this?”
Once we start treating ourselves with respect it is a lot easier for guys to look at us with respect as well. When the focus is taken away from a lustful portrayal of the body as an object, the focus can be applied to an appreciation and respect of women as human persons. This is the foundation of a good relationship.
What it all boils down to is that this is a two-way street. We can get infuriated that many guys look at porn and are opening disrespectful to women through crude jokes, explicit apparel, and the way they treat women in relationships. But if we don’t respect ourselves then how can we ask them to do the same? We can’t ask the men of the world to stop looking at and treating women degradingly if we’re not willing to make an effort ourselves. So, women, instead of being a catalyst for sin, let us be a catalyst for respect.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
