Di,
No one is denying a woman her right to walk down a street, but at the same time no one should be confronted by so many woman who are so often half in / half out of their dresses, or whatever it is that they are nearly wearing. At one time a man could tip his hat to every woman who walked passed, but now a man has to so often "look the other way". That is a loss for both women and men.

The role model that is being presented to younger girls is also not good, and I cannot think of too many reasons why 8 year old girls should be wearing padded bras, waxing their legs, wearing makeup etc. My daughter was the last girl to shave her legs in her class when she was in grade 6.

The situation is not a woman “expressing her sexuality”. It is more to do with emotional manipulation of the male. The female teases the male by the clothes she is almost wearing. She may receive a thrill from that, but the emotional manipulation that she is carrying out on the male eventually makes the male think less of her.

If so many women didn’t flirt it to all and sundry in the shopping centre, or at the local shop, or on the tram, then I think many people, (male and female), would be a lot happier about the situation.

Girls will be girls, and boys will be boys - when was it ever otherwise?

Timkins pines for the repressed sexuality and patriarchal family structures of the 1950s. Much to his chagrine, Father no longer "knows best". He says he can no longer "tip his hat" to women in the street, because he has to "so often look away".

Why does he have to look away? Why does he feel that his "emotions" are being "manipulated". While it is unsurprising that he might feel emotionally incompetent, I suspect that it's not his emotions that are the problem here, but some more basic impulses.

Personally, I celebrate the presence of women who are assertive and comfortable enough with themselves to "flaunt it". My day is improved by the sight of women out and about in the world, and I delight in encountering them in the street. I do not look away, but then again, I have no problems with my sexuality.

Heaven forbid we return to the drab, repressed, monocultural, patriarchal society of the 1950s, as some of the more prolific correspondents to these forums seemingly would have us do.

OOOo k... Wandii, sorry for not getting back in response till now, I'm kinda snowed under with work.

I value your comments, and am glad that my controversial viewpoint has stirred some thinking and the odd bit of 'abuse' :)

For your re-assurance, I totally agree with you about the issue of date rape etc, it is ABsolutely not acceptable, my point was not to justify or support such things, but it is to alert us to the mixed messages sent to others by our dress code at times. The muslims have a point "Dress modestly" but unfortunately they make this a 'law'. The bible also refers to developing ones 'inner beauty' as opposed to outward gaudy trappings and but its not a 'law' its an exhortation.
As I pointed out a few times, differnt people have different thresholds of action. Something might be morally and legally wrong, but dressing like a 'skank' is likely to suggest to the world that one 'is' a skank. Being perceived as such, might be more of a trigger to the weak minded. Consider a man who has fed his mind on Porn (Thanx Bob Brown for supporting the free availability of XXX material from ACT, well done....NOT!) where females are portrayed as not just willing, but eager participants in 'bad' behavior. Skanky dress+Porn fed man= dubious situation. This should be self evident.

MARGS. I referred to the Biblical Book of Ruth to show how unrestrained young men tend to act. Estimates are of 100,000 German women raped by Russian soldiers at the fall of Germany. Things haven't changed much eh ? These are simply facts and observations, not recommendations or justifications.
It is worth comparing and contrasting the attitude of the "young men" with BOAZ (a character in the book) and his relationship with God, and his caring, responsible and protective attitude to vulnerable women.

TIMKINS, its a rare thing when I actually respond to your rather lengthy and hyperlinked posts, but in this case, I think you have touched on a very relevant cultural observation. I.e. the line between male and female being blurred to the point where young females may feel the need to 'exalamation' mark their real femininity, sadly, resorting to the display of their biological bits in a way which tends to send the wrong message :(.

DI, thanx for that frank and fascinating insight into the female mind. "We show off a bit of ... with the hope that some guy will notice us etc" Well, let me assure you, men do notice women, and the main 'brain function' which occurrs as the radar scans the horizon is "Is she miss right, or miss RIGHT NOW" and due to the recent survey that shows females generally percieve the concept 'right now' differently from males, it might be good to qualify that statement a bit more- (ie.. girls think 'ok for a relationship now but not for a life partner.. males think "I want to get her into the sack right now") It turned out at a particular company (one of my suppliers) that over 90% of the girls and guys thought this way when confronted with that statement.

Di, a girl showing heavy duty cleavage, will send the message 'Miss right NOW', whereas a more modestly, yet attractively dressed girl will send the message 'here I am, want to know me better' ? We don't need to see a grand canyon of cleavage to know if a girl has small medium or large breasts (unless she is 'lying' with padding :)

But all this gets back to our social value system. On the issue of dress, and appropriateness and messages. How would it be, if I rolled up to Church with my top 2 shirt buttons undone ? Well, I would feel pretty ok with that myself, but I KNOW that it WILL send a wrong message to my sisters in Christ, not to mention my mrs and kids.

"a girl showing heavy duty cleavage, will send the message 'Miss right NOW', whereas a more modestly, yet attractively dressed girl will send the message 'here I am, want to know me better' ?"

Even when women are "modestly, yet attractively dressed" we are still NOT sending the message "here I am, want to know me better?".

Boaz I bet your one of those men, who, if a women is merely pleasant to you you think you've got a chance.

Your post is clearly about your reactions to women - I think you need to do some work in this area. Er like start seeing women as people instead of vulnerable little victims. We're not all as helpless as you like to think.