The “ND” stands for Notre Dame.
Young men will be distracted by young women regardless of what they wear. Young women will be distracted by young men. It just goes with being young and healthy!
@hebegebe , as a woman, a wife, a mother of a son and a sister of brothers, I get what you are saying. Duh, guys are going to look & appreciate. Most women understand that.
The issue is the idea that women need to change what they wear because guys are somehow not responsible for what they do if they think a woman looks hot. I know for a fact that my husband, son and brothers (and my brother’s son) believe men are wrong (and should be held accountable) if they act inappropriately and blame what women wear for their own unacceptable actions.
As someone who wears leggings and yoga pants - I say no worries. I really could care less what a stranger’s internal monologue is. Enjoy the leggings, disapprove, picture me wearing less than leggings, be disgusted, think about whether leggings are appropriate… as long as you keep those thoughts to yourself it’s all good. You go about your business and I’ll go about mine.
The problem arises when strangers feel free to attempt to control the clothing choices of others or to treat the other person poorly due to disagreement with their clothing. But as for what we all think to ourselves? That’s no more of a problem than what we each choose to wear - our own business.
…and distraction attraction certainly is not limited to members of the “opposite sex”. (That term, as I typed, seems very outdated now!)
I would also like to post in some amusement as a Catholic School parent that the “modest dress” enforced therein is a joke. The girls have been rolling their skirts to make them more attractive since before I was born - even at all-girls schools. It has nothing to do with the boys and leggings are far more modest than a typical plaid mini skirt. The mother in the OP’s article is also a joke. Girls bodies are their own, to be shown or covered as they see fit.
Try going to a nude beach sometime. Amazing that the men can control themselves!
@suzy100 You raised your daughters right.
I agree with everything you wrote.
@hebegebe – I have only one reaction to your #15 post: poor men. Poor sons. (Yes, I have one.) My heart bleeds for them. So little brain to control so much of their bodies. If it’s true what you say, men are no more than plankton reacting to stimuli, reactions they cannot analyze or control. How they ever got out of caves is beyond me. (It was probably a female that got them out. While they were “distracted.”)
Men react much more strongly to visual stimuli than women do. And when it comes to college students, you are not just talking about men, but men at their testosterone peak. You can pity them, compare them to plankton, decry it as a tragedy, but it is a biological reality. Here is a paper on the topic:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2739403/
Note that none of this is meant as any excuse for men to treat women badly.
^So why is it there is not chaos on nude beaches or in naturist resorts? Or on a cruise ship with 3,000 naked people? (And don’t ask me how I know - I will deny everything!)
Like I say. Poor men. Life’s so tough.
“The “ND” stands for Notre Dame.”
Yeah, not gonna lie, when I saw the title of the thread I was hoping ND was North Dakota!
My ND alum and all her friends were doing the big eye roll as this was circulating thru social media.
Here is a terrific response from another Mom: https://ndsmcobserver.com/2019/03/leggings-another-moms-view/
(here is the complete original letter to understand the reference to Princess Leia https://ndsmcobserver.com/2019/03/the-legging-problem/)
I have to admit, I have a lot of internal monlogues. I have internal monlogues when men wear bicycle pants into the local coffee shop. 
Love that letter in response, @gosmom. Thanks for sharing it.
Seems like the article plays into the stereotypes about women and being judged by how one dresses, whether or not they are true:
A. Women are seen as more likely to be judged by how they dress (by both men and women).
B. Women are seen as more likely to be judgmental about how others (both men and women) dress.
I’ve personally never dressed for casual situations with other people’s opinions of me in mind. I have always worn what was comfortable. I’m lucky that I was raised by parents who didn’t associate skin with temptation. I don’t care what others think of me. That’s their problem, not mine.
When I was sexually assaulted, I was wearing a baseball uniform. I can think of less few less sexy and less revealing things than that. It’s not the clothes that cause men to act a certain way. I promise.
The longer I think about the mom’s letter, the more disgusted with her I become.
The issue is not that men like to look at women in leggings. The issue is framing that as a problem, and moreover a women’s problem.