This is, of course, an abortive attempt, for habit is a more potent protector against temptation than veils. The races which live practically naked are not more erotic than the fully clothed, civilised races or the Arabs who not only cover their entire body and heads but conceal even the shape of their bodies in the loose folds of their ample garments. A husband, no longer erotically aroused by his wife's naked body, may be attracted violently by the partly draped body of another woman.
=Suggestive Draperies.= One of the results of the policy of body-concealment has been to transform certain draperies into sexual symbols of great aphrodisiac power. Certain garments lend to the human body an appeal which it might not have if fully exposed. In other words, the obstacles which are meant to hold back erotism may be used neurotically as a morbid expression of erotism.
At the present day, however, that form of protection against temptation serves its purpose to some extent and cannot be discarded until mankind has been reeducated. Custom and the law uphold official modesty. The mere fact, however, that modesty has to be enforced legally is one of the best arguments against the sentimental, unscientific view that modesty is an "innate," "natural" feeling of "delicacy" based upon some "higher," "spiritual" values, etc.
Modern, official modesty is merely a compromise with sexual reality. It has been, like all inhibitory feelings, greatly overestimated and forced upon the weaker sex by egotistical men to prevent a display of their female's charms, likely to attract other women-hunters. Weak males with a sense of inferiority have called modesty the typically feminine virtue.
=Excessive Modesty=, in men as well as in women, is an abnormal phenomenon, a mask for unconscious lewdness and obscenity. It is a neurotic means of protection against uncontrollable desires, or at times an expression of one's "sour grapes" attitude to others.
It is always the shapeless and unattractive woman who is the most vociferous champion of highneck gowns and long skirts. A sense of bodily inferiority obsesses the woman who does not allow any caresses unless the room is darkened. Her modesty yields rapidly, however, to the praise of her attractions which she hears from the mouth of her lover.