Letter warning women not to dress provocatively was offensive

I am appalled by Bob Sargent’s condescending letter suggesting that women dress modestly or suffer the consequences of receiving unwanted attention by easily aroused men (“Watch those plunging necklines, ladies. They’re asking for trouble,” Jan. 9).

His philosophy is contradictory: On the one hand, he applauds “female liberation”; on the other, his suggests, ridiculously, that grandparents and great grandparents were correct in “encumbering” their daughters with strict discipline and chaperones in an effort to protect them. This provincial attitude can only be explained by the fact that he has clearly not evolved with the rest of the Western world.

His suggestion that women should listen if they “hear your mother’s voice when you are about to do something questionable, or downright stupid” is totally offensive. Perhaps he should move to a Middle Eastern country where women are completely concealed by an abaya. Surely women there who did something “stupid” — like getting raped, and then executed — must not have had moms who warned them.

Hmmm, who’s to blame?