FEMININE MODESTY.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 775, 13 October 1922, Page 2

FEMININE MODESTY.

(By May Isobel 'Fisk (Daily Mail), “Modesty ” is a word we rarely hear in connection with the woman of the period. Perhaps it went out. when khaki trousers came in with the land girl and other occupations wherein skirts we/e fo/uncli hampering. But if, as we a,re frequently advised. morals are a matter governed by longitude and latitude modesty at least is left entirely to the dictates of Dame Fashion. Whatever she fiickle arbiter of chiffons and laces, decrees it right—for the moment—regarding portions of lovely woman's anatomy to be revealed; and is accepted unhesitatfngly ; and often what is perfectly decorous one season is anathema the next. A few centuries ago a (famous poet dilated 1 on the fascination of a woman's feet, peeping “like mice” from beneath her petticoats, Not so long ago other and lesser lights began to refer to well turned ankles silk clad ankles, delicate ankles. But it takes modern woman to go 'the “whole hog*’ and amblushingly flaunt her leg to the knee. Everywhere you go there a ire legs, legs* legs, staring you in the 'face. *' Together With this curious candour of my lady with regard to her nether limbs come's a, strange reticence concerning her ears. For ears are out of ' fashion * Therefore they must be (rigorously secluded. No woman, at present allows anything of an aural nature to be shown. In trains and omnibuses, and restaurants and theatres whenever humans congregate, may be seen women and girls hastily tugging at any stray locks tha*f threaten to uncovdr those carefully guarded ears ! Here is a valuable item lost to the' momanticist who can no longer describe the lovely heroine's ear, into wlV'Ch. the hero poured his heroics and the villain his villainies ! Now \v«jre a man daring enough to give a guess at the approximate position of a 1 ally’s ear and approach too closely for a private word, he would run the risk of being stabbed by an array of ambushed hair pins ! (The position nowadays of the feminine waist line (geographically) is left to the caprice ojf the dressmaker. It may vary a foot or so for; with the present corsetless vogue woman may be flat, or she may bulge or go in with impunity at any point,c oonfid’ent that she is thoroughly in the fashion. The odd point about civilised modesty in its variableness whereas the savages, more wholly frank in revelation display /themselves with no sense of coquetry, and their fashions in these matters are fixed. Iwonder which is the more decent 5