I realized today how little actual TV I’ve been watching
when I found out that one of the year’s largest prime-time events that annually
tops the ratings and attracts the advertiser-sought 18-49 demographic by the millions was happening tonight. I became aware
of this event when I saw this empowering article from Life Teen:R.I.P. Self-Esteem: On the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show
. The Victoria’s Secret Fashion show has been going on for 18 years since 1995.
While scrolling down my Facebook wall I saw the confirmation
of what Emily Wilson mentioned in her article, women gathering together for
viewing parties all over the world. I shared this article on my Facebook page
and it received multiple comments. The synthesis of the comments is an
agreement about the article’s point but the commenters would still watch to see
the art and fashion.
As referenced in the article, it is possible for women to
watch this program and enjoy it while not having their self-esteem affected. I
will concede that it is entirely possible for a woman to watch this solely for
the appreciation of the fashion. I am fully on the side of Emily’s article but
I want to approach this from a different angle. For those women whose
self-esteem isn’t affected, those who watch in appreciation of the art and
fashion, for those who may even say they are encouraged by the models to be
healthier, do you watch the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show with the men you
care about present?
For those women who chose to view the program, was your
husband around, was your brother, father, male friend, cousin, nephew, or any
other male in your life around? If so, do you know their struggles and desires
to live a chaste life or not? When I was dating my wife we had many great
conversations about each sex’s struggle with chastity. My wife would ask me if
it was really that hard for men to keep a chaste mind and lifestyle. She was
fully taken aback when I described to her the daily, hourly, by the minute
struggles men endure. Everything and anything can and is advertised using sex. When
we browse the internet, when we walk through the mall, when we drive past
billboards along the high way, we are inundated by society using our
concupiscence and fighting against our desire for chastity to sell a product
and make a buck.
So I ask again, were any men in your life around? When it
comes to fashion, the way we dress, the things we like to do or watch that may
be questioned as drawing others into sin, the common choice of defense is, “I’m
not responsible for their sin, lust, etc.” But, am I my brother’s keeper? That
was Cain’s question to God after taking his brother’s life. God’s answer,
banishment, was too much to bear according to Cain. So yes, we are our
brother’s keeper. Is your husband working to be a chaste loving man? Was
watching the fashion show worth tempting him? Was watching it worth possibly causing
your little brother, cousin, relative to drift into lust? Was it worth the
effect it may have on other married men present that would directly affect his
marriage?
I’m not placing judgment. I’m not saying that women that
watched the show are bad people. I truly believe that the majority of women
don’t fully grasp men’s struggles for chastity. I would bet that most women did
not realize they may have been giving the men in their lives an open invitation
to lust.
As mentioned in the Life Teen article, women want to be
empowered and respected and not objectified. But, when a woman sits with a man
to watch something like this, has it on as if there is nothing wrong, or even
goes as far as to tell the man she does mind if he looks at this or any other
source of possible temptation to lust, she is giving him permission to objectify
all women including herself.
I’ve personally had to struggle with how my actions may
affect others. At a certain time in my life I looked back on when I was not
living a life of holiness and I was terrified by how I may have caused others
to go astray. Christ’s warning against this convicts the heart, “Whoever causes
one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him
to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths
of the sea. Woe to the world because of things that cause sin! Such things must
come, but woe to the one through whom they come!” Matt. 18:6-7. My hope and
prayer is that this post does not hurt or offend but provides another
perspective, one that may not have been thought about.
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