Well, that was the most disappointingly reasonable and benign modesty debate I’ve ever seen.  I guess it’s allergy season, and everyone is just too dopey to care.  One point was worth drawing out, though.  One commenter asked why the boys in the article about track uniforms

thought it was appropriate to be ogling and teasing the girl in the first place? Why is it always on the girls and women to cover up, not on the boys and men to behave themselves and act like gentlemen?

She clarified:

I’m the mother of three (soon to be four) boys, and I hope to teach them that no matter WHAT a woman is wearing, it is rude and crass to make comments about her body and make her feel uncomfortable.

If you are so unfortunate as to be a combatant in the weird and unseemly world of Catholic Skirt Wars, perhaps you have seen the story about the high school girls’ track team that performed better when they ditched their skin-tight uniforms for skorts.

[Athlete Destiny] Phillips used to have to break concentration to fix a uniform that may have shifted unexpectedly, but those days are over. Since the Crimson Tide started competing in skorts in February — the black compression shorts with a miniskirt over top were designed to eliminate embarrassing moments — the Dunbar girls have spent more time focusing on their events and less time feeling self-conscious because of what they’re wearing.

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When I was a student (1993-1997) at Thomas More College in NH, the nearby Magdalen college had an unpleasant reputation.  Some students did well and were happy there, but many were bitter and frustrated:  academics were not as high a priority as the tight control the administration exerted over every aspect of student life.

But last year, the college changed its name from Magdalen to the College of Saint Mary Magdalen, and its new president, George Harne, has promised meaningful reform to the school’s curriculum and student life.  In an interview with the Register from April, Harne said,

This year we renewed and expanded our liberal arts program built on the study and discussion of the...READ MORE

Most Catholics will agree that it’s not only wrong to have sex before marriage, but it’s stupid: It confuses you and just generally makes things more complicated, especially for women. But marriage-minded virgins don’t automatically attract or recognize suitable mates, either. When deciding about marriage, it’s not enough to check off the sin-free boxes and expect a perfect relationship to fall into place.

So how are we women supposed to know if we’re making a good choice, saying “yes” to someone who at least gives us a chance of building a strong marriage and a happy home?

In a depressing article that explores the economy of 21st-century relationships, Cheryl Wetzstein of The Washington...READ MORE

Raise your hand if you’ve had a harrowing week so far. Yeah?  In the words of Steely Dan,

“Everywhere around me, / I see jealousy and mayhem, / Because no man have their peace of mind / To carry them.”  And then further on:  “When the dawn patrol got to tell you twice, / They gonna do it with a shotgun.” I know!  It’s like they’re inside my head, all. The. Time. So how about some just plain good news, some things we can all be happy about? I’ll start:

1. Jen Fulwiler’s having a baby tomorrow! If babies are God’s way of saying that the world should go on, then a Fulwiler baby is God’s way of saying, “See? I told you the world should go on!”

2.  More young priests. “The average age of men...READ MORE

Glenn Gould is the second person I ever heard who plays Bach properly. The first one is my father, who is not a very good pianist.

My father has the ear of a great musician. He takes orchestral scores to bed as a little night reading. Haydn eludes me, but his music brings my father to tears. Once, when he was striving to explain sonata form, I coolly answered that I’d rather let the music just wash over me, instead of wrecking the mood by overthinking it. By the look he gave me, I think he heard me say something like,  ”I prefer to let small children be mutilated by elephants, rather than harsh my buzz.”

The radio always played classical music as I was growing up, and the awkward,...READ MORE

It’s common in Catholic circles to speak of all women’s vocation to “spiritual motherhood.” Even if we have no physical children to care for, we women are all called to be nurturing in various ways, using gifts which are peculiar to our sex.

This notion gave me hives for many years, since I was already fully surrounded by my offspring before I started to feel really comfortable or confident in my role as mother. Maybe my problem was that I was expecting to feel motherly right away (maybe reading too many of those gushing “lovin’ every minute of it!” mommy blogs), when really all I needed was the ability to act motherly—which I did manage to do, more or less.

And yes, the feelings...READ MORE

Here’s something I just realized: Vanity and self-loathing are two sides of the same coin.

That sounds odd, because vanity is an excessive interest or concern with your own assets—an inordinate attention to your looks, talents, etc. And self-loathing means you can’t admit to yourself that you have any assets. Hard to imagine a vain person hating himself—and hard to imagine someone who hates himself ever succumbing to vanity. But I think it’s actually extremely common for these two to go together. This relationship is something I think of as “the Matrix/Disney Heresy.”

I liked the 1999 move The Matrix when it first came out—it was original and entertaining. But now I see its premise—that...READ MORE