Double-Using Words

I was reading one of Steve's poems recently, and he was writing about the whole sheitel dilemma, and ended up with a comment about vanity in modesty (The whole "prettiest most realistic sheitel" thing). And it's a perfectly valid point to my mind- if you're going to cover your hair, don't make it look like you don't. But that isn't so much where I wanted to go with this. The whole thing was based on using the same term for a regulated religious err, behavior, and also for an attitude/social perception. Tzniut isn't quite the same as secular modesty- secular modesty comes across as much as a matter of attitude and even color scheme, and style as much as how much of what parts of your body are covered. Certainly tzniut can incorporate much of that, but most people see it as "must cover this limb this far, that limb that far, and don't draw too much attention to the other bit", as far as I can tell. Must go, To be continued...

Continuation: (same day, 10:28pm) I suppose secular modesty is a relative thing- it is to be more covered or unassuming or less pushing-of-self than the rest of society, while religious modesty is a set of regulations, and hence means something completely different. The two are supposed to refer to something similar, but if one is relative and the other is absolute (or is supposed to be absolute, I think- what do you say about someone who approximates tzniut, or follows certain parts carefully and ignores others? Does it matter if they are secularly modest or not? What about people who follow tzniut, but not by the same standards as the person talking?), then there is clearly a difference in implication. Can one be vain and still be tznius (to lapse into bad Hebrish again, because to say someone is tzanuah just sounds funny.)?

Double-Using Words

I was reading one of Steve's poems recently, and he was writing about the whole sheitel dilemma, and ended up with a comment about vanity in modesty (The whole "prettiest most realistic sheitel" thing). And it's a perfectly valid point to my mind- if you're going to cover your hair, don't make it look like you don't. But that isn't so much where I wanted to go with this. The whole thing was based on using the same term for a regulated religious err, behavior, and also for an attitude/social perception. Tzniut isn't quite the same as secular modesty- secular modesty comes across as much as a matter of attitude and even color scheme, and style as much as how much of what parts of your body are covered. Certainly tzniut can incorporate much of that, but most people see it as "must cover this limb this far, that limb that far, and don't draw too much attention to the other bit", as far as I can tell. Must go, To be continued...

Continuation: (same day, 10:28pm) I suppose secular modesty is a relative thing- it is to be more covered or unassuming or less pushing-of-self than the rest of society, while religious modesty is a set of regulations, and hence means something completely different. The two are supposed to refer to something similar, but if one is relative and the other is absolute (or is supposed to be absolute, I think- what do you say about someone who approximates tzniut, or follows certain parts carefully and ignores others? Does it matter if they are secularly modest or not? What about people who follow tzniut, but not by the same standards as the person talking?), then there is clearly a difference in implication. Can one be vain and still be tznius (to lapse into bad Hebrish again, because to say someone is tzanuah just sounds funny.)?