Slacks vs. Dresses

Occasionally on the internet and elsewhere, there are discussions about whether slacks are modest enough for women to wear to church, or are dresses and skirts preferable. As anyone can see, slacks, as long as they are not skin-tight, are certainly more modest than short skirts or revealing dresses. However, one day I decided to see if there was any teaching by a saint or any official personage about women's apparel, other than all the writings on modesty.

Let me digress and say that in my final year of college (1984) I decided that I did not like to wear slacks anymore. Perhaps it was a form of rebellion against the feminist movement which I felt was ruining many people's lives. I found jeans to be uncomfortable, anyway, except for one shabby pair of overalls. Skirts looked better on me and I decided to start wearing only dresses and skirts, and have continued to do so.

Although I prefer more traditional feminine clothing, I think other women should wear whatever they like. Since the chosen apparel of most of the devout mothers with families at daily Mass in our town seems to be jeans and a blousy tee-shirt, I have almost come to see such costume as a badge of piety. I am a bit amused, however, when I go to a play group in an unremarkable sweater and skirt, and am met with the exclamation: "You're dressed up!" A skirt, no matter how cheap or old or covered with pills, is considered formal attire by many.

I found an article by Father Hathaway, FSSP.

Now concerning women wearing pants at church: On June 12, 1960 Giuseppe Card. Siri authored the document Notification Concerning Men’s Dress Worn By Women. Card. Siri says wearing pants is not a grave offense against modesty as such what to him seems the gravest issue with pants is that it affects the woman’s identity in how she understands herself, in how she relates to her husband, and in how she relates to her children.

I recognize that since Card. Siri’s time there are now modest feminine pants on the market. And I recognize that there are certain occupations for which pants may be more suited than a dress. It is my belief, however, that a woman should wear a dress more often than pants... namely for the reasons Card. Siri mentions and especially at holy Mass as a dress more identifies the woman....

I wanted to read more about what Cardinal Siri said and found it in Colleen Hammond's excellent book Dressing With Dignity. Dressing With Dignity (TAN Books and Publishers, 2005) is a life-changing book, inspired by Colleen's conversations with Dr. Alice von Hildebrand. Even reading a few pages will open the reader's eyes to some of the issues at the heart of the culture of death, namely, the decline of modest and feminine dress and manners. It is a positive, challenging book with many creative ideas and I think it is a good companion to Genevieve Kineke's The Authentic Catholic Woman.

Colleen has the entire Notification Concerning Men's Dress Worn by Women in the appendices of Dressing With Dignity. Apparently, the cardinal was concerned about lady tourists wandering around Rome in slacks and Capri pants during the summer of 1960. The cardinal feared that more masculine apparel would effect the psychology of women: "....The clothing a person wears...modifies that person's gestures, attitudes and behavior...clothing comes to impose a particular frame of mind on the inside." (p.129)

Cardinal Siri prophesied that the masculinization of women's attire would alter their relationships with men, since the attraction between men and women is due to their diversity; they complement and complete each other. "If then this diversity becomes less obvious because one of its major external signs is eliminated...what results is the alteration of a fundamental factor in the relationship." The de-feminization of women will diminish the relationships between men and women to "pure sensuality, devoid of all mutual respect or esteem." (pp130-131)

The cardinal insisted the male dress would harm the dignity of the mother in her children's eyes. "What matters is to preserve modesty, together with the eternal sense of femininity which, more than anything else, all children will continue to associate with the face of their mother." (p.134) He mentions how the violation of the natural order, even in small ways, leads to social disorder.

Aligned on the wrecking of the eternal norms are to be found the broken families, lives cut short before their time, hearths and homes gone cold, old people cast to one side, youngsters willfully degenerate and, at the end of the line, souls in despair and taking their own lives.... (p.133)

Well, all of the above has certainly happened since the sexual and feminist revolution of the 1960's and 70's. Women wearing slacks to church was a minor change, although a cardinal of the Church seemed to think that female attire plays no small part in the general scheme of things.

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