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So this isn’t really a theological question, but I have a writing related discussion for you guys involving modesty.

1 Peter 3:3-4

3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes.

4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

My understanding is that this verse relating to modesty really focuses on expressions of materialism and status rather than indecency or revealing clothing.  To be clear, we’re supposed to dress appropriately as well, and not wear revealing or indecent clothes (although I will say, this topic is really heavily debated, there’s a whole spectrum of stances on it, and I’m not really wanting to debate on that right now XD)

So here’s the issue.  I’ve got a few extremely fashion forward, impeccably dressed male characters in my story who all fall somewhere on a sliding scale of flamboyance.  Now this story is set in the upper crust of a vaguely mid-1900s society, so naturally the people in this circle are well dressed.  However, these characters are running around on a spectrum of “handsomely dressed” to “completely outrageous,” and are considered rather dressy even by their society’s standards (Kit from the character castle is the main example, but there’s a couple of others – including his eccentric older brother Jasper, who claims to have “taught” him fashion XD)

So, I was curious about what you guys think.  Is this an issue?  Are these guys being immodest?  Does it all depend on motives, or is there a clear “too fancy” line?  I personally think a lot of it has to do with motives – I don’t think there’s anything wrong with fancy clothes, but we shouldn’t turn to them for our self worth, and we shouldn’t rely on them to define our value.  I think a lot of it has to do with the context and occasion too – some clothes are appropriate in one time and place, but not so much in another.

As for these characters, it’s an expression of personal style – nothing more, nothing less.  They’re just having fun with it because they can, and because it they think it looks cool (they’ll disagree with each other on that one though lol).  And to be clear, these characters aren’t effeminate – and this has absolutely nothing to do with their sexuality or any gender issues or anything like that.  I don’t think they have ulterior motives – it’s not a competition or anything, and I don’t think they’re intentionally trying to show off their wealth.  Again, they just like nice things.

So, what do you guys think?

Unrelated, but I don’t know how all of the fashionistas ended up being male???  It’s funny to me, because it just kind of…happened XD

Also guys I’m really not looking to start an argument on gender roles or anything – I just have to throw that out there because the topics of modesty and masculinity are EXTREMELY volatile and I’m just not prepared to get in a debate on that XD