Prim is now proper

A new modesty movement aims to teach young women they don8217;t have to be bad, or semi-clad...

Consider the following style tips for girls: skirts and dresses should fall no more than four fingers above the knee. No tank tops without a sweater or jacket over them. Choose a bra that has a little padding to help disguise when you are cold.

These fashion hints may sound like the prim mandates of a 1950s 8220;health8221; film. But they are from the Web site of Pure Fashion, a modeling and etiquette program for teen girls whose goal is 8220;to show the public it is possible to be cute, stylish and modest8221;.

It is not the only newfangled outlet for old-school ideas about how girls should dress: ModestApparelUSA. com, ModestByDesign.com and DressModestly.com all advocate a return to styles that leave almost everything to the imagination. They cater to what writer Wendy Shalit claims is a growing movement of 8220;girls gone mild8221; 8212; teens and young women who are rejecting promiscuous 8220;bad girl8221; roles embodied by Britney Spears, Bratz Dolls and the nameless, shirtless thousands in Girls Gone Wild videos. Instead, these girls cover up, insist on enforced curfews on college campuses, bring their moms on their dates and pledge to stay virgins until married. And they spread the word: in Pennsylvania, a group of high-school girls 8220;girlcotted8221; Abercrombie 038; Fitch for selling T-shirts with suggestive slogans who needs brains when you have these?. Newly launched Eliza magazine bills itself as a 8220;modest fashion8221; magazine for the 17- to 34-year-old demographic. And Miss Utah strode the runway of the 2007 Miss America pageant in a modestly cut one-piece swimsuit. She didn8217;t win the crown.

According to Shalit, this 8220;youth-led rebellion8221; is a welcome corrective to our oversexed times. But is the new modesty truly a revolution, or is it merely an inevitable reaction to a culture of increased female sexual empowerment?

Shalit has made a career of cataloging the degradations of our culture while championing crusades of virtue. Her first book, A Return to Modesty, argued that chastity was hot. She blames the usual suspects: media, misguided feminist professors, overly permissive parents.

This is not the first time women have been asked to make these choices. During a century of tumult over the roles and rights of women, fashion and sexual expression have remained lightning rods for controversy. The forward-thinking women of the 1920s who cut their hair, threw out their corsets and dared to smoke in public were the Britney Spearses and Paris Hiltons of their day.

What makes the movement unique, says Shalit, is that it8217;s the adults who are pushing sexual boundaries, and the kids who are slamming on the brakes.
Newsweek