Toward a More Humble Modesty

Why is Wendy Shalit, author of Girls Gone Mild, "in a good position" to talk about the dire state of American modesty? Well, explains Pia Catton at The Wall Street Journal, "as an undergraduate at Williams College, she caused an uproar by objecting to the school's coed bathrooms." This would seem to be Shalit's modus operandi: Choose an unusually sexually progressive pocket of American culture, declare it indicative rather than exceptional, and launch a heroically irrelevant crusade for change.

And the most modest among us, apparently, will rope in others. It is not enough to not fornicate in your dorm room; Shalit offers strategies for frustrating the lustful intentions of your roommates. (Wouldn't the modest thing to do be to feign ignorance and gracefully leave the room?) Thus, the massively ineffectual missionaries of modesty attempt cultural rollback. Imposing your bathroom preferences on others doesn't strike me as modest, exactly, but here's an idea that should please libertines and good girls alike:

A box called "A Recipe for Pleasing With Integrity" asks: "Is there a way for a young woman to impress others, without having to be mean or compromise her value system?" Why, yes: Bake an apple pie!

I would almost certainly be more impressed with scolds if they stuck to baking pies.