By Nikolaos Friedrich

Suppose fashion were a woman. What then? Would she wear a midi skirt and a crew-neck blouse? Or would she wear a tight skirt and a revealing top, hoping to catch a young man’s eye? Certainly, the answer is clear to anyone who has stepped outside on a warm summer day. Men do not help the issue of immodesty. They do not encourage their girlfriends or their sisters to dress modestly. Fashion should not be defended. Instead, it should be uprooted and destroyed. So, on behalf of all Voltaire and Aristophanes enjoyers, on behalf of all drunken millers, and on behalf of all sensible people, I begin my attack.

To provide some context for this article, I should tell you about a man who wrote a silly article in this publication titled “A Defense of Fashion,” in which he supposedly showed how fashion, that is, the influence of those controlling the culture, can be used for good. Indeed, he did not write a defense of fashion, but rather a defense of his own ignorance. Any such writer can likely be found with his cross-eyed companions on the floating island of Laputa, and his writings ought to be dismissed as armchair philosophy until their author moves his nose more than three inches away from a book.

Before proceeding any further, I must make a distinction. Unlike philosophy, this distinction is real, observable, and easily understood. All people can be divided into these two categories: the strong and the weak. There are strong men, weak men, strong women, and weak women.

I will use this distinction later. In the meantime, I shall explain how fashion leads people astray. Artists are those who control culture. When young men consume art — watch movies, television series, or listen to music — they swallow the ideals that the artists feed them. Thus, when they see the stud of a main character get the half-dressed brunette, they begin to want her. And when they listen to the talented vocalist or badass rapper speak about his favorite lady, is he singing of her virtues and painting a picture of chastity? Of course not.

At this point, the strong man — who is hard to find  — puts away his iPhone or listens to something else. The weak man, however, continues consuming this art, and so molds his desires by it. He begins searching for a lady who can fulfill the ideal portrayed in his favorite media. And how does this weak choice affect women?

The weak woman here sees her chance: “Now, finally, I know the way to his heart. All I have to do is wear this revealing dress and I’ll have him at my fingertips.” The hard-to-find strong woman, not wanting to degrade herself, keeps her closet full of what she knows is modest. But when she sees the “success” of the weak women around her — and when she can’t find other strong people to support her in her modesty — she tells herself that she knows what they’re thinking: “Look, it’s that prude again. Won’t she grow up? A little bit of skin never killed anybody.”

So, one day, the “strong” woman’s heels can be heard through the hallway as she walks to class in her brand new mini skirt. Again, she thinks she knows what everyone is thinking: “She’s so confident now, so pretty.”  She might not be completely comfortable, but, “It’s only for one day,” she tells herself. “And if that cute guy from chemistry notices me, maybe I’ll try it again.” What are the chances that “cute guy” is one of the weak men? I know where I’d put my money.

How the mighty have fallen. The strong woman has given into the social pressure. The overwhelming lack of strong men and the actions of the straw men have caused her to stumble. But where has the strong man been all this time? “Here,” he says to himself, “is where I step in. I’m chaste. I’m careful. Sure, sometimes I need that confession before mass, but I’m not nearly as bad as those other guys. Right?” But if that were true, then why does he allow his female friends to dress immodestly? Why not look for an opportunity to remind them of their dignity? I have no doubt they would be delighted by a compliment on a modest outfit or encouraging words about their dignity and worth. Instead, he slinks along, ignorant of his idleness as he waves to his friend on her way to her chemistry class.

It seems that now, the strong men and women have been reduced to the weak.  This is where fashion leads us. Since the majority of people are weak, if the ideals in the culture are bad ideals, then the great majority of people will aspire to bad ideals. When the great majority of people aspire to bad ideals, they will often do bad things. Then, doing bad things becomes fashionable. And when doing bad things is fashionable, the strong lose their strength.

You become those you spend the most time with. When the only people around you are the weak, you will make their bad ideals and their bad habits your own. This leads me to conclude that there are neither strong men nor strong women. I suppose the philosophical distinction was unnecessary after all.

This implies that all people’s moral character is subject to fashion, which is subject to art. Of course, art can be good and encourage good action, but sex sells. Art repeatedly portrays adultery, murder, theft, and other evil things as good or morally ambiguous. Immodesty is a tame example of this kind of incorrect portrayal. Art is often made only to please its audience— because a pleased audience is a paying audience. All of this— the incorrect portrayals, the making of art just to make money, and the consumption of bad art— stem from fallen human nature, which has never changed and never will change. History proves it so. For this reason, I cannot help but conclude that the evil influence of fashion is inevitable.

I think I may have judged the philosophers too harshly. Though they may be incapable of doing anything useful, their method is not unconvincing. I shall bury my face in the pages of Plato and Descartes. I shall keep my eyes and ears closed off from the popular media of the world. Otherwise, I would be subject to fashion as well. And there is nothing I fear quite so much as that.