oomis:
“When you call someone untzniusdig, you are making an extremely megative judgment about her character. Those women were nashim tzidkonios, most of them, and no one should be maligning them because they wore short sleeves or yes, even pants.”
This has nothing to do with judging people or people’s character. This has to do with what the halacha says we must do. The halacha says that women must cover above their elbows – therefore, anybody with that area uncovered is in clear violation of the halacha. They could be the nicest people in the world, they could be covering what they are covering with great mesiras nefesh, they could not know any better. But at the end of the day, what they’re doing (or what they did) is still wrong. Period.
“There is a big difference between not dressed according to understood and accepted standards, and outright being untzniusdig.”
Perhaps there is – but not covering parts of the body that the halacha states must be covered is being “outright untzniusdig”, with no two ways about it. Unintentionaly being outright untznisdig, perhaps; but being outright untznisdig nonetheless.