So it’s come out that Kate Middleton (the future wife of Prince William) caught his eye wearing the “outfit” that you see to the right—and this can all be yours at an upcoming London auction!

I wouldn’t call this a dress, nor would I call it a skirt:

The garment was initially intended to be worn as a skirt, but Middleton instead wore it as a short dress. She wore black lingerie underneath. [Kate Middleton's See-Through Dress to Be Sold – CNS News]

Obviously, someone will bid for it and win it, but would anyone ever wear this in public?  Privacy of your own home, sure, but not in public.

In Paris, France, the answer would be yes.

In 1800, a Paris police chief introduced a rule banning women from dressing like men—namely by wearing pants instead of skirts and dresses.  This idea is not that foreign.  The Biblical Old Testament speaks of it being wrong for women to dress like men such that you cannot tell the difference, so 1800 France would have been under the influence of those types of ideas.

What’s so amusing is that the law is technically still in effect!

Old Laws on the Books

Paris isn’t the only city or country to have old laws on the books there are websites that chronicle old laws—like where to put lanterns on your buggy and how late people can be out at night.  Usually they don’t see much daylight, and they’re not enforced.

In this case, people have tried to remove the rule multiple times—each time resulting in a weakening of the rule, but not a removal.

The latest attempt to remove the outmoded rule was in 2003, when a Right-wing MP from President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party wrote to the minister in charge of gender equality. The minister’s response was: "Disuse is sometimes more efficient than (state) intervention in adapting the law to changing mores."

As Evelyne Pisier, a law professor whose book Le Droit des Femmes (The Rights of Women) unearthed the curious decree points out, given that trousers are compulsory for Parisian policewoman, they are all breaking the law.

Personally, I believe that women look more feminine in skirts and dresses, but I have no problem with them wearing properly fitting pants.

What do you think about women wearing pants and old laws?  What would be the best way to address this issue?

Two panhandlers were arrested when they dressed up as the caped crusader and the man of steel without a permit to impersonate these characters—and it didn’t help that superman punched a female police officer.

Unlike their alter egos, these two were out to have a good time at the expense of the costumes they were wearing.  Good thing they were not the real deal.

Of course, if they were, Superman could have flown off and Batman could have escaped!

It all started with Hillary.  We had the discussions about someone that was running for high office could show cleavage, whether they should wear pants-suits, and even some discussion about what a ladylike sitting position is—and this was all before Gov. Sarah Palin even walked onstage. 

Indeed, it was obvious to anyone paying attention that the bar was set a little differently for a female than for a male—and I’m not talking pay, I’m talking about a culture that continually objectifies the female sex, as does such a good job at masking it as making women feel good about themselves!

Personally, I’m not entirely sure that a woman should be the President of United States, but I’m certain that Gov. Palin isn’t going to make it easy (especially if she wins) for the next one to try.

Why?  Because she is a good looking woman, and with all the fuss over how much the campaign spent on clothing her, the truth is that she looks a lot like I would expect a generation of people growing up with women that believe that they need a tummy tuck, a face lift, and implants in various parts of their bodies.

While it’s true that there are legitimate reasons for a lot of these procedures—skin grafts for those caught in fire, tummy tucks for those that have lost a bunch of weight, etc.—our current culture has glorified the look of the woman’s body while at the same time telling us that we should judge them as a man—based on intellect and accomplishment.

The problem is that we’re sending these mixed messages all the time, such that if you’re going to be on television you have to look good.  I hope and pray that my daughter grows up to realize that it’s not the outside alone that makes one pretty, but it’s definitely the inside that counts.

I invite you to come check out the launch of a new website that we’ve started called:

Is This Modest?

The point of this site is to help people answer questions of modesty from both a guy’s and girl’s perspective.

We have a group of writers lined up, but the key feature of this new site will be our outfit reviews.

Part of the problem I’ve had with posts on modesty is that there really is a gray area when it comes to what is and what is not modest.  That’s because there are a lot of things that could go either way, or may be all right in layers, but when worn by themselves are not modest.

By having images and reviews, we can help you determine whether things are modest, as well as discuss how one can remain modest in the current culture.

My first series over there takes a look at what a popular Men’s Magazine (Men’s Health) thinks about different things a woman wears—and what they believe the woman is saying about herself.

So, take a walk over to Is This Modest, and while you’re there, let me know what you think of the theme—is it modest?

Shortly after God made clothes out of sheep skin for Adam and Eve, the very next thing Eve did was turn to Adam and ask, “Does this make me look fat?”  Or at least we can imagine that she did.

As far back as the Song of Solomon we know that women were judging themselves, their attractiveness and their worth by how they looked– their physical features.  They compare themselves to each other.  They long to have things that others have.  They believe that their worth is tied to how they look, and they project this onto men (who already look at women for the outside too much) creating a vicious cycle.

Feminism tried to help women to see that they were worth more than their body– that they had every right to vote, to get a job, and to their own life.  The problem at the root of feminism is that instead of focusing on what makes women special, they tried to make woman into man.

To that end, they encouraged women to not only compete for the men’s jobs but to adopt a stereotypical male attitude when it came to sex.  Whereas the women of old would try to enhance their figure and improve their looks– especially for their husband– the new woman would choose to put herself on display to show her freedom.  She would celebrate her form instead of hiding it, and she would think that this is pretty.

The only problem is that it change woman from being something wholesome and feminine to something sinful and sexual.

If I didn’t know better, I would consider that the founder of the feminist movement in the United States was a male.  Seriously!  Instead of having to sneak around to buy magazines where women showed off their body, now they can go to the local mall.  Instead of having to purchase a sleezy magazine of women in their underwear, they can go to the nearest beach.

Not only that, but the new feminism has convinced women that they will be the most fulfilled only when they can detach emotion from sex, and have it as casually as a man.  So now, instead of the guy having to work hard, to buy a ring and commit to a life together with provision and love, all the guy has to do is show up and make sure he jumps on the bed at his earliest convenience.

That’s why it’s important that we encourage this next stage of feminism– that of modesty.  We fathers have to be guardians of our wives and daughters letting them know what their clothing signals.  That’s why it’s important for mothers to show their daughters what is wholesome.  And it’s also important that fathers teach their sons how to treat a lady, how one looks, and what to do about the girl with the morals of an alley cat.

Not that you were aware, but Barbie celebrated her 49th birthday last week (thanks, Lydia).  My first encounter with Barbie was not a pleasant one since it dealt with a mischievous boy on our bus.  You see, Barbie isn’t bad in and of herself.  She could be just about anything, and that allowed little girls to imagine what could be.  However, she was also caught up in a society that was marketing women as objects rather than people.

For a society that prides itself in the rights that it gives women, we seem to also seem to enslave them the most.  We simply replace one form of enslavement for another and then expect them to be happy.

You see, ever since there was a camera, there has been photo manipulation.  Long before there were computers and digital cameras, people were taking displaying pictures that were altered.  However, the damage that has been done to our women today in the name of beauty and under the guise of fashion is the worst yet.

No one should take their life over how they look.  And yet that is the very thing that we have happening in America today.  Women compare themselves, their features, their waistline not just to models that are paid to purge, drink protein shakes and call it a meal, and who get to work out multiple hours a day– but to people that do not exist.

We’ve shown before that those “girls” that you see on commercials are changed entirely from what they look like via hair extensions, makeup, lighting and Photoshop.  We’ve covered that even the models realize that what will be displayed will not be what they really look like.  And yet after all of this I feel that many women share this perspective:

There’s nothing quite like a glance at a Victoria’s Secret catalog to invoke a flood of insecurities and feelings of disappointment. I know I’m supposed to be admiring the undergarments on those pages, and I can appreciate a well-made brassiere. But frankly, it isn’t a well-made product that draws my attention. It’s Victoria’s models. Immediately a body-comparison game ensues. Am I supposed to look like that? Those legs? That tummy? That skin? eyes? lips? My hair won’t do that. And I know that bra wouldn’t look that way on me.

It seems I’m not alone in my twisted worldview. A recent survey found that 70 percent of women felt depressed, guilty, and shameful after looking at a fashion magazine for only three minutes. . . . Few of us are unaffected by the desire for a “body by Victoria.”

The truth is that you’re not supposed to look at the undergarments.  You’re supposed to be blown away by the models.  I swear that the VS site and magazine is more for men then women, as there are more men that are inside that store, more men desiring that their woman wear clothing and compare to that girl they saw in the magazine, etc.

So, you see, it doesn’t matter if the tricks are exposed or the secrets are revealed– women still believe that they must measure up against some standard based solely on what three numbers apply to them, what their dress size is and whether or not they look fat in this pair of pants.  And all because of marketing to both men and women of private womanly things using thinner than average models and tools to erase blemishes.

It’s truly a much crueler form of slavery than they endured before!

Instead, we need to tell women where they get their real worth from, and what makes a real woman beautiful.  We need to help them look on the inside instead of the outside.  And we need to continue to shatter the myth that women should have to look like a super model in order to have the appreciation of their husbands. 

This means that those of us that our guys need to stress to the women in our lives that we do not need them to look like a supermodel for us to be happy with them.  We need to reinforce their attractiveness to us regardless of what someone else is wearing.  We especially need to guard our eyes so that we can enjoy the wife of our youth.

As it turns out, we may hold the key to helping women learn these truths about themselves.

There are many things that have changed in the whole realm of having children since the days when our parents had us. For one thing, dads are actually expected to be in the room and– GULP– cut the extension umbilical cord. They are given all sorts of instructions about not holding their wife’s hand and they see things that their dads never saw (and some never wish to see).

Another thing that has changed is the fashion relating to maternity and nursing. Just a generation ago the whole process was something that was almost hidden away. It was as if you didn’t want anyone to know until the last possible second that you were actually with child.

When going shopping with my wife while expecting our three children I was impressed and amazed about what has changed. There are larger sections of maternity clothes in the major stores. There are catalogues to order things that are not there. And let’s not forget the new stores explicitly for mothers that are expecting and nursing.

NursingPJs.com is one of the companies that are stepping up to meet the needs not only of the women that are expecting, but those that are nursing as well. From Nursing Bras to Nursing Dresses, NursingPJs stocks a wide selection of clothing to keep you modest while nursing.

Many of the tops and dresses are modest, although there is some immodest fashion on there. So, men should proceed with caution?but it?s definitely a great place to go to and work together with your wife to pick out things that would be both appropriate and fashionable at the same time.

From now until the end of the year they are offering free shipping on any order, so that makes it the perfect place to find the perfect nursing attire for the woman in your life. So, go on over and check them out and see if there?s something that would work well for the nursing mom in your life.

The man on the right is said to be the father of the girl on the left. What is wrong with this picture? What bothers you more?

• That the girl is dressed in a provocative way?
• That the father doesn’t seem to care that his daughter is immodest?
• That the father allowed this photograph to be taken of him and his daughter?

I haven’t really had the chance to write up a review of Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know, but I really like this book and it’s a must read for both Christian and non-Christian fathers.

One of the chapters starts out in a shocking way. Dr. Meeker starts off that you’re out on some camping trip, dad, and you happen to see a Playboy or other adult magazine around and you start leafing through it and as you’re seeing the different girls in different stages of undress you stumble upon your daughter– and it gets you mad, and you want to get all the copies there are and burn them…

This is the appropriate reaction a real father has in protection of his daughter. He doesn’t want her parading around in clothing like the girl above. He doesn’t want her to be looked at by sex hungry guys as an object, a thing. He loves his daughter and wants her best.

Shame on you, dad, if you’re not actively taking steps to help guide your daughter into being the best that she can be! Stand up and be a man– she is your daughter and she needs you to say that there’s a line and she’s not to cross it.