Facebook debate about prom dresses, girls and modesty heats rapidly

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Christian Examiner) – Christian singer Plumb sparked a debate on Facebook Sunday about modesty and prom dresses, and then stood her ground when some of her fans pushed back.

"Ladies: a challenge tip for dressing for the prom... or any other day really," Plumb, whose real name is Tiffany Arbuckle Lee, wrote. "Does your dress draw the attention on you and cause others to lust? If so ... It might be time to be honest with yourself about your insecurities and your agenda ... And to all the mothers out there encouraging her daughter to dress in such a way that makes her an object of not someone listening to her heart and mind but staring at her boobs ... You will answer for that also. ?#?modestysaysconfidence ?#?fightforourdaughters."

The comment by Plumb, who has 318,000 Facebook fans, quickly drew both support and criticism.

By the end of the night, her comments had more than 5,000 likes, 1,300 shares and 400-plus comments. About 50 people clicked on the new Facebook button signaling they were "angry."

"Can I [say] how much this post irks me?" asked one fan, Jen Honeycutt. "We should teach the girls to be comfortable in their skin. With people such as the likes of you telling them to cover up constantly because of how males or others perceive them is not right. People should teach their little boys how not to view females as a piece of meat and how not to judge. Just because a girl or woman shows some skin does not mean they are insecure; in fact just the opposite it shows they are confident in their skin."

To that, Plumb wrote, "God is a judge... He's the only judge... And He gives us wisdom through His Word to guide us towards our lives pointing others to him and glorifying Him. Sexual dress takes the attention off of God and puts it on you."

Another fan, Andrea Lynn DeLeon, wrote, "I believe girls should be covered without body parts hanging out or over exposed, but our boys, our men need to be taught to respect women and control themselves. Women should dress how they want without fear of being molested, mistreated, or raped."

Plumb retorted, "I absolutely agree that no means no... always. However, in God's Word we are very clearly given wisdom to not provoke or be a stumbling block to others on purpose... So all of these mothers out there that are vicariously reliving their teenage years through their daughters are doing their daughters a huge disservice... And they are also doing our sons a huge disservice as well... you can certainly run the opposite direction when someone blows a loud horn and you can try to get as far from it as you can to where you no longer hear it, but wouldn't it be thoughtful of ladies to not blow the horn at all? It's as if girls want to dress with total immodesty and then completely criticize men for looking at them... What do you expect? I don't buy it."

Plumb, in fact, replied to more than a dozen comments on the post.

Most of the comments were positive.

"As the mom of an 18 year-old-young man, thank you," Natalie Eckhart Johnson wrote. "I have always taught him to 'bounce his eyes' away from young women who over expose themselves and don't have an understanding of their own worth."

Another fan, Stacy Ashby, wrote. "Thank you! Thank you!! So glad to see this coming from someone who is in the public eye."