“I could argue that I would not do those things and let those who would, learn to control themselves, but it’s not “my problem” and
thus I should be able to ride and swim all I want, even on Shabbos”
SJSinNYC is right,and this other poster misunderstands my point, obviously, because he or she compares apples with oranges. There is NO question that doing certain things were feared by the chachomim to lead to chillul Shabbos, because in fact those things DID lead to chillul Shabbos (the mikoshesh aitzim, for example).
The issue of a skirt length being a half in longer or shorter (AND I remind you, I believe it should be longer, but that is my personal derech), is not the same inyan. If you really want a woman to be completely “tzniusdig” in dress, you may as well outfit her in a burlap sack from head to toe, as the Arabs do (and btw, they are among the MOST immoral of people). It is high time, in my opinion, for men to stop laying the blame for THEIR imnpulses, on women. Just as we have to refrain from eating certain foods, whether or not we have a taivah for them (AND WE DO REFRAIN EVERY SINGLE DAY even if it just to wait between fleishogs and milchigs), and just as a wise employee refrains from telling his boss what he REALLY thinks of him sometimes, even though said boss is a jerk, so too must we learn self-control in all areas of life. We are not little children with poor impulse control. We have to start acting like adults and not behaimas. And the half inch of skin is NOT the issue, though our women have been made to feel that way. When all is said and done at the end of the day, we alone are responsible for how we act. I applaud women who want to dress in a modest way that does not reveal too much, but I do not condemn women who dress in shorter sleeves or a skirt that skims the knee, as being “not frum,” as some people have implied them to be.