Tzniut in front of non-Jewish men - a response to Ms. F's query

Ms. F wrote:

May I say that I feel so validated by what Mrs. Knoll wrote! I always felt the same way, even if I couldn't articulate why I felt that it was right.
Now I have a question, I was told that I could walk around an amusement park in my bathing suit if the only men there were non-Jews? Besides the obvious point that how can one possibly be 100% positive that all males are not Jewish - does tzniut only apply in front of Jewish men?


First, I'm so glad you liked what I wrote - thanks!

Now to address your question:
At first I didn’t understand how anyone could have even suggested to you that it might be OK to walk around in a bathing suit in front of non-Jewish men. It seemed almost absurd; in fact, in some ways, it seemed even worse than wearing a bathing suit in front of Jewish men – at least a Jewish man a girl might want to attract so that she can marry him, but nothing good can come of THIS scenario! But then, through an unrelated discussion with my Seminar class (about hair covering), I realized what the question is based on and I think there actually is a very logical basis for the suggestion, even though I think it is ultimately incorrect. I think the suggestion is based on the possibility that all the tzniut prohibitions are really on the man (i.e. he is not allowed to see immodestly dressed women); a woman needs to cover up only so that she does not cause a man to see something he is not allowed to see (lifnei iveir), but there is no objective issur upon the woman herself to be dressed in an immodest way. If that were the case, then it would make sense to say that if there are no Jewish men around, then there is no one around who has the issur of seeing immodestly dressed women, and so the women can dress however they want. However, I think this is an incorrect view of tzniut. I think that tzniut is very much a woman’s mitzvah – I think that we ourselves are obligated to dress modestly in front of men, not only so as to prevent them from sinning, but b/c we are obligated vis-à-vis ourselves to carry ourselves with dignity and dress modestly in front of them. If I am correct about that (and I apologize that I don’t have the time right now to research it and find out for sure - when I do, I will hopefully add to the blog), then I think it is irrelevant whether the men around are Jewish or not Jewish –either way, we have a mitzvah upon ourselves to dress appropriately.

In addition, I agree with Ms. Hoenig/Mrs. B’s point that this is a case in which sensitivity to tzniut would hopefully lead someone to decide not to wear a bathing suit in a park full of non-Jewish men, even if it turned it out that it was technically mutar (though I really don’t think it is, as I wrote above). To me this seems significantly less tzanua than wearing sweatpants while playing basketball when a man happens to walk in or wearing a bathing suit at an all-women's beach when one man happens to show up where he doesn't belong.