Hello!

39 Comments

Mum faces backlash after suggesting women should stop wearing leggings for the sake of men.

She penned an open letter published on student site, The Observer, writing: “I’m just a Catholic mother of four sons with a problem that only girls can solve: leggings.”

The mother details her issue with leggings and it boils down to this: leggings expose women’s bodies, men are compelled to objectify them and that isn’t fair on the good guys.

She describes them as an ‘unforgiving garment’ ‘naked’ and ‘exposing’.

She argues: “The fashion industry has caused women to voluntarily expose their nether regions in this way.”

The mother writes that leggings undermine mothers like her’s attempts to teach their sons to respect women.

“(Fashion like leggings) makes it hard on Catholic mothers to teach their sons that women are someone’s daughters and sisters,” she writes.

“That women should be viewed first as people — and all people should be considered with respect.”

People soon slammed the mother’s post as problematic and it has sparked vocal protest from people who say a woman shouldn’t be held responsible for a male’s gaze.

They argue the mother plays into the ‘victim-blaming’ mentality of evaluating a woman based on her dress.

Share your comments below

We may get commissions for purchases made using links in this post. Learn more.
  • I would like to ask her if this is just her judgement or have her sons said something to her about woman in leggings?

    Seriously…..how many males butt cracks have you seen, beer guts poking out under their t-shirts, etc?

    Reply

  • Leggings are something I opt for as they’re so comfortable and help keep my loose skin from flapping about. I like the comfortable material.

    Reply

  • Personally don’t like leggings as fashion & never have. I don’t see how they became fashionable tbh. In saying that I don’t feel like wearing them sends the wrong message at all. There is a lot of other garments that come to mind that could be worst.
    Also I have no idea how old this
    Mother is but wasnt the mid drift top fashionable in the 80’s & is making a come back these days?
    To me that’s even more revealing!

    Reply

  • I personally do not wear Leggings or even Jeggings just find them not comfortable at all

    Reply

  • I don’t love leggings as fashion, I feel they need to be worn under something than just be the main part of the fashion but… nobody gets to tell women how they should dress to please males EVER.

    Reply

  • This woman is off her nut, totally and utterly ridiculous.

    Reply

  • Ffs really???? OTT MUCH

    Reply

  • I hope her son’s aren’t allowed to go out wearing low cut muscle shirts to show off their arms and abs. Women might get the wrong idea…

    Reply

  • Would you rather women walked around in micro minis and showed off their underwear (what there is of it). Wouldn’t people stare more then. Nothing wrong with leggings if you ask me.

    Reply

  • Hahah! Leggings (as long as they aren’t see-through) are way more modest than most the short (short, short) shorts being worn by many teen girls and adult women. Im talking the ones that show butt cheeks hanging out the bottom of them. Why has this mum not taken aim at those teeny tiny shorts? Or super-low cut tops that can leave bras or boobs hanging out if they swing open? (I have seen a lady’s boob once by accident when her low cut top swung around wrong and she wasn’t wearing a bra!) or even at the cropped tops that are all the fashion at the moment?
    Lol, I don’t enjoy seeing other womens butt cheeks falling out under their short shorts, but I don’t mind leggings that much.
    Also, who does this mum expect to enforce her “no leggings rule”?

    Reply

  • What? Surely the point is to teach children to respect everyone – women, men, gay people, short people, overweight people, atheists, vegans…? Just treat everyone with respect. End of.

    Reply

  • Well, when men start putting on shirts when they are hot and wearing a bikini top on to cover their disgusting hairy sexual nipples when they swim and STOP wearing lycra on bikes, then, and only then will I have a ‘leggings are not pants’ discussion.

    Reply

  • Leggings are super comfortable, that’s why women where them. It would be nice if people didn’t make such judgements.

    Reply

  • Wearing leggings without a long top should be something that most women wouldn’t want to do. As a woman I always check what I look like in the long mirror before wearing it outside – don’t most modest women do that? Or is the idea of being modest abhorrent to women these days? And I am not talking being modest to a male’s gaze, but what about other women’s gazes? The other women are usually the most bitchy about how women look and I doubt too many of them think that tight leggings look fantastic on any one – similar to men wearing lycra on pushbikes.

    Reply

  • Oh dear the poor woman she has issues. Why is a woman’s choice of clothing means men have no choice but to objectify. She isn’t just insulting women she is pigeon holing all men

    Reply

Post a comment
Add a photo
Your MoM account


Lost your password?

Enter your email and a password below to post your comment and join MoM:

You May Like

Loading…

Looks like this may be blocked by your browser or content filtering.

↥ Back to top

Thanks For Your Star Rating!

Would you like to add a written rating or just a star rating?

Write A Rating Just A Star Rating
Join