Is it inappropriate for women to wear pants ?
June 6, 2008 – 3:22 pmHaving a fundamental Baptist Background we were made to believe that women should not wear pants. Our church leaders finds justification in this position in Deuteronomy 5: 22 which says that “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God”
I am not going to give an in-depth theological discussion here, but I plan to do so in the near future. However I was just wondering if this verse applies to women wearing pants that are made exclusively for women. Some dogmatic preachers would answer in the affirmative, but are what they are saying Biblically correct?
What pertains to man or woman is confined to the culture and traditions of a certain society and age. We cannot establish a set of rules and judge which belongs to who. Doing so would be dabbling would legalism which is contrary to what the essence of Christianity really is.
I can cite various examples that can be found all throughout history and in modern times. Just to cite a few, Scottish men wear “kilts” that look like women’s skirts during special occasions.
History tells us that men use to wear corsets for aesthetic purposes. Today only a handful of men do and usually it is for medical purposes.
The Greeks, Romans and even people in the Medievel ages wore Tunics, which look like a women’s blouse.
Until today in some parts of Asia, parts of Africa, and on many Pacific islands men still wear the traditional “Sarong” which is a large sheet of fabric, often wrapped around the waist and worn as a skirt.
In Bible lands, even until today some people still wear the same robes and sash that was the traditional clothing that was worn in ancient times.
If we pass judgement upon men wearing the kilt, sarong, tunic and robes with our own Western Culture and tradition, we can certainly say that they have violated Deuteronomy 22:5 because our values, culture and tradition dictates that these kinds of clothing are associated with what our women wear.
We cannot deny that in our own culture, there are pants that are made exclusively for women. Before we use Deutornomy 22:5 to judge women who wears pants, we need to know what the verse truly means by considering the contextual and cultural background of the text. There are certainly a lot of issues that could be further discussed to support the argument theologically. I wish to write about this more in the future.
Tags: Women
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