A MUM of four boys has pleaded with young women to stop wearing leggings as they look “naked” and she’s “ashamed for them”. Maryann White decided enough was enough and wrote a lengthy letter to the University of Notre Dame, entitled ‘the legging problem’, where she criticised the trousers as “unforgiving”. Based in Indiana, USA, […]
A MUM of four boys has pleaded with young women to stop wearing leggings as they look “naked” and she’s “ashamed for them”.
Maryann White decided enough was enough and wrote a lengthy letter to the University of Notre Dame, entitled ‘the legging problem’, where she criticised the trousers as “unforgiving”.
Based in Indiana, USA, she wrote to the university’s newspaper, The Observer, where she raged against leggings, which she said look as if they’ve been “painted on”.
Maryann, who says she’s just a “Catholic mother of four sons”, pleaded with women to buy jeans instead of leggings for the sake of modesty.
She gave an example where she was personally offended by leggings, while attending mass with her family.
She wrote: “In front of us was a group of young women, all wearing very snug-fitting leggings and all wearing short-waisted tops (so that the lower body was uncovered except for the leggings).
“Some of them truly looked as though the leggings had been painted on them.
“I thought of all the other men around and behind us who couldn’t help but see their behinds.”
She said people “couldn’t help but see” their bottoms which were “unavoidable.”
While assuring her sons weren’t looking at the womens’ behinds, she worried about the others who were.
Maryann continued: “I thought of all the other men around and behind us who couldn’t help but see their behinds.
I’ve thought about writing this letter for a long time. I waited, hoping that fashions would change and such a letter would be unnecessary — but that doesn’t seem to be happening. I’m not trying to insult anyone or infringe upon anyone’s rights.
I’m just a Catholic mother of four sons with a problem that only girls can solve: leggings. The emergence of leggings as pants some years ago baffled me.
They’re such an unforgiving garment. Last fall, they obtruded painfully on my landscape. I was at Mass at the Basilica with my family. In front of us was a group of young women, all wearing very snug-fitting leggings and all wearing short-waisted tops (so that the lower body was uncovered except for the leggings). Some of them truly looked as though the leggings had been painted on them.
A world in which women continue to be depicted as “babes” by movies, video games, music videos, etc. makes it hard on Catholic mothers to teach their sons that women are someone’s daughters and sisters. That women should be viewed first as people — and all people should be considered with respect.
I talk to my sons about Princess Leia and how Jabba the Hutt tried to steal her personhood by putting her into a slave girl outfit in which her body became the focus. (That’s the only scene in the whole franchise in which Leia appears in such a way — and it’s forced upon her.)
Leggings are hardly slave girl outfits. And no one is forcing them on the countless young women who wear them. But I wonder why no one thinks it’s strange that the fashion industry has caused women to voluntarily expose their nether regions in this way.
I was ashamed for the young women at Mass. I thought of all the other men around and behind us who couldn’t help but see their behinds. My sons know better than to ogle a woman’s body — certainly when I’m around (and hopefully, also when I’m not). They didn’t stare, and they didn’t comment afterwards.
But you couldn’t help but see those blackly naked rear ends. I didn’t want to see them — but they were unavoidable. How much more difficult for young guys to ignore them.
I’ve heard women say that they like leggings because they’re “comfortable.” So are pajamas. So is nakedness. And the human body is a beautiful thing. But we don’t go around naked because we respect ourselves — we want to be seen as a person, not a body (like slave-girl Leia).
We don’t go naked because we respect the other people who must see us, whether they would or not. These are not just my sons — they’re the fathers and brothers of your friends, the male students in your classes, the men of every variety who visit campus.
I’m fretting both because of unsavory guys who are looking at you creepily and nice guys who are doing everything to avoid looking at you. For the Catholic mothers who want to find a blanket to lovingly cover your nakedness and protect you — and to find scarves to tie over the eyes of their sons to protect them from you!
Leggings are so naked, so form fitting, so exposing. Could you think of the mothers of sons the next time you go shopping and consider choosing jeans instead? Let Notre Dame girls be the first to turn their backs(ides) on leggings.
You have every right to wear them. But you have every right to choose not to. Thanks for listening to the lecture. Catholic moms are good at those!
“I’m fretting both because of unsavory guys who are looking at you creepily and nice guys who are doing everything to avoid looking at you. [sic]”
She said in a world where women are depicted as “babes” by popular culture, it makes it hard to teach boys women should be treated with respect.
Maryann added: “I wonder why no one thinks it’s strange that the fashion industry has caused women to voluntarily expose their nether regions in this way.
“I was ashamed for the young women at Mass.”
She admitted leggings as a fashion choice baffled her, saying: “I’ve heard women say that they like leggings because they’re ‘comfortable’.
“So are pajamas. So is nakedness. [sic]
“Leggings are so naked, so form fitting, so exposing. Could you think of the mothers of sons the next time you go shopping and consider choosing jeans instead?”
Although she acknowledged women have “every right to wear them”, she said they “have every right to choose not to.”
Maryann’s strong opinion has caused a stir online and at the University, with women wearing leggings in defiance.
The hashtags #leggingdayND has been used across social media, with women proudly sharing snaps of themselves in leggings.
Posting online, one woman wrote: “If you’re uncomfortable of how your son is looking at women – teach him how to respect them instead of finding faults in how women dress.”
Another tweeted: “Once again women have become responsible for the immaturity and lack of respect by men.
These leggings might be tight AF, but they still fit my determination to treat every human respectfully and with autonomy in regards to their choices in there
#leggingsdayND #leggings #leggingsday pic.twitter.com/K5uYkrIYcy
— Meghan (@franklydarlin) March 29, 2019
“Maryann White, welcome to the 20th and 21st centuries.
“Where women wear comfy clothing and men are expected to behave like adults.”
A third wrote: “So proud of the strong ladies at Notre Dame for doing #LeggingsDayND, wear what you want and don’t let people make you feel ashamed!”
This post also went viral, after a pug locked its owner out of their own car.
And this student took to social media to try and track down a man she met on a flight, because he could be ‘the one’.
Plus this man’s cringe-worthy Tinder profile has been mocked mercilessly after making its way on to the internet.
