Q&A: Can women wear pants?
Q-Kim: I am 24 and have 3 children I don't think that I dress totally immodest, but my problem is I like the new fashions... my mother in law is Baptist and she never wears pants only dresses, she thinks a woman should never wear pants, is that too extreme? or what's your idea?
A-Dannah: I can respect your mother in law for preferring dresses to pants as is often the case due to generational traditions. However, when anyone attempts to present their own preference as a Biblical command they are crossing the line into a spirit of legalism and I think that is harmful. Let me show you some scripture that helps us to understand what is acceptable for us to wear as women.
Many who believe that women should not wear pants point to Deuteronomy 22:5 which reads "A woman must not wear a man's clothes and a man must not wear women's clothes. The Lord your God hates anyone who does that." This simply does not mean that women cannot wear pants. Let me explain why? First of all, keep in mind that this was written during Old Testament times in the Middle East when and where a man was wearing a tunic or dress just as was a woman. Second of all, you must study scripture in context. This particular verse is believed to be referring to the practice of the day in that area of worshipping Venus whereby a woman wore armour and a man wore feminine attire. (This view is supported by verse 10 in the same chapter which warns the people of God not to wear clothes made of interwoven wool and linen as this was the custom of another group of idol worshippers.) Thus, the main point of these verses is to encourage those people of the day to avoid doing things that could be associated with the occult. At best, it begs men to appear masculine and women to appear feminine.
The pants and jeans that I wear are cut for the female body. The pants and jeans that my husband wears are cut for the male body. We'd look ridiculous in each others clothes.
That said, even women's pants or jeans or shorts that are too tight, too low or too short miss the mark of God's call for us to be modest in how we dress, considering our Christian brother's God-given weakness for our female shape.
Don't be proud in your liberty to wear pants. But always be testing your fashion choices to make sure that you are not showing off too much of that God-given shape. As much as we sometimes hate to admit it, you CAN find modest fashion options and should go out of your way to do so!
