The mom upset over leggings at Notre Dame was right

If you've heard about the Notre Dame leggings debate, you know about Maryann White, the concerned mother of four boys who wrote a letter to the editor for the school's newspaper, The Observer, about the leggings young women wear today, particularly at mass. Here's a portion of what she wrote:

"I wonder why no one thinks it’s strange that the fashion industry has caused women to voluntarily expose their nether regions in this way. I was ashamed for the young women at Mass. I thought of all the other men around and behind us who couldn’t help but see their behinds. My sons know better than to ogle a woman’s body — certainly when I’m around (and hopefully, also when I’m not). They didn’t stare, and they didn’t comment afterwards. But you couldn’t help but see those blackly naked rear ends. I didn’t want to see them — but they were unavoidable. How much more difficult for young guys to ignore them."

For writing her letter — and by the way, White deserves credit for not submitting her letter anonymously — White was lambasted in the media and elsewhere. For two days, Notre Dame students wore leggings in a show of group defiance. There was also a #leggingsdayND hashtag on Twitter with women, and even men, posting pictures of themselves in solidarity with students who choose to wear leggings.

Yet, Maryann White was right. Of course wearing leggings sexualizes women's bodies. So do high heels. So do tank tops worn in the manner I saw this past weekend, when I had difficulty focusing on the face of the waitress who served my husband and me. Her breasts and her cleavage were so purposefully accentuated that my eyes naturally gravitated in that direction.

And if my eyes gravitate to whatever a woman wants me to notice, you can bet a man's eyes will. That was the point of White's letter. She's 100% correct that men are visual creatures, much more so than women.

Coincidentally, I've just completed the manuscript for my new book, due out later this year, that I co-authored with Syracuse Anthropology Professor John Townsend.

Here are a couple paragraphs from chapter two: