Imagine: You are no longer a person of modesty. Your mind has been transported into the mind of an immodest female (ala Charles Wallace in A Swiftly Tilting Planet, for all those fellow book nerds out there). The following scenario occurs, a scenario in which an excuse is used to ignore modesty, a scenario that might have happened before….

*dream  fade, complete with the stereotypical dream sound effect*

You wake up in the morning. You’re sweating like a pig. You wonder at first whether you have the flu. But once you get up and look at the thermometer, you realize that it’s not just you: it’s 105 degrees outside! Quickly, you run to the air conditioner. You try to turn it on, but it doesn’t work! You suddenly feel tired. You decide to take a nice, icy cold shower. As you stand under the refreshing water, you remember that no one else is at home today….you have the house to yourself…. With the heat… and with no air conditioner?!?! You consider: Do I need to wear anything at all? I mean, no one’s home. Then you remember: I have ERRANDS TO RUN! Gah! Now you have to go meet with people in this hot, hot weather. Be modest at a time like this? It’s too hot out! I can’t go naked in public, so I’ll go for the bare minimum: Short shorts, bikini top. That’s ok, isn’t it? I mean, it’s wicked hot out, who could blame me?

*GASP*

You're awake! It was just a dream. And its Hot out too! As you go to turn on your AC, it doesn't work either. So you hop in the shower. As the icy water flows over you, you wonder what to wear. You remember your dream clearly, and what you wore then. But that's crazy talk! Bikini top in public? FAHGETAHBOUTIT!

While it may be foreign to you, this mindset is out there, and out there in force. Just visit the mall on a hot day, or drive by the nearest teen hangout. When the heat comes, the easiest thing for many people is just to whip of a layer… or two. Sooner or later, there aren’t any layers left, or at least very few. Some people (the majority of readers here) don’t want to be at the bare minimum – you want to be fully clothed, but also don’t want to suffer from heat exhaustion.

As a person who wants to be modest, how do you stay cool while looking appropriate? Light clothing is the key, both in weight and in color. It’s tricky though – you need to get rid of all the excess weight with thin cloth and light color tones, but you don’t want them to be too thin, resulting in see-through clothing. Cargo shorts work well, knee level, maybe a little bit higher. Just thick enough to repel eyes, but airy enough to allow the exchange of air through your short’s legs. Plain T-shirts work well for tops, but I am mostly at a loss to shirt choices due to my being a male.

So how do you get advice about your summer clothing choices from actual females? Well, that’s easy: just go over to the "Well, It's hot out!" thread in our BRAND NEW FORUM, and ask away! I’m sure that the lovely lady writers here would be more than glad to offer assistance.

Foy Lyndström