In the age of ceaseless distractions and fleeting attentions, I stumbled upon a film that exudes a rare blend of nostalgia and historic significance. The movie “Young Woman and the Sea,” featuring Daisy Ridley, now graces Disney+ with its presence. If you have yet to immerse yourself in this cinematic offering, I wholeheartedly commend it to you. The film chronicles the true story of Gertrude Ederle, the indomitable woman who etched her name into the annals of history by swimming the entirety of the English Channel in the mid-1920s.
One cannot help but be immediately struck by the quaint modesty of the film, and, in fact, that modesty is a central theme. As with any period piece, part of the allure is how different the world was then, for better or worse, not just in appearance but in attitudes, and in “Young Woman and the Sea,” the swimwear itself plays an important role in this. It is offered, one supposes, as humorous. The attire, almost Victorian in its conservatism, evokes an era far removed from our own. Indeed, the spectacle of socks in the water feels almost absurd to our modern sensibilities. Yet, this was the reality of the time, a period when police were charged with enforcing decency laws on beaches, scrutinizing the modesty of swimwear with TSA-level vigilance.
Our contemporary society would blanche at the thought of decency laws because, frankly, we blanche at the thought of decency. In an age marked by unparalleled levels of immodesty, it seems the only thing we find shocking is the very idea of modesty itself. I’ve spoken about this before, but it deserves to be revisited, because it is so self-evident that the erosion of public decency in attire has coincided with a broader decline in civility and respect towards one another. These may appear to be distinct issues, but I am increasingly persuaded that decency is an indivisible virtue. We are either decent or indecent in all aspects of life; there is no middle ground. The notion that one can be decent in one form while being indecent appears to be a fallacy. We are either a decent society, and all that entails, or we are indecent, with consequences as real as they are unpleasant.
This is not to suggest a simple cause-and-effect relationship, that wearing less automatically leads to worse behavior, though there is undoubtedly some truth to that. Rather, the correlation is so robust that it suggests a deeper, more intrinsic connection. The various ways in which we manifest decency –whether through our attire, our speech, or our actions — seem inextricably linked. To diminish decency in one area is to diminish it in all areas. Can we not see the obvious correlation between the rise of indecency in our appearance and language and that in how we treat others, and even ourselves? And perhaps that’s part of it right there: that indecency results from a lack of self-respect and self-worth, and people who can’t even respect themselves and their own value have difficulty respecting that in others.
Consider, for a moment, the broader implications of this cultural shift. In the film, the enforcement of decency laws may seem anachronistic, even draconian, and I would never want to return to that, but one has to admit that such laws do speak to a societal commitment to standards of behavior. Today, such standards are often dismissed as antiquated or oppressive. Yet, in casting off these restraints, not of the laws but of the standards and expectations, we have not liberated ourselves; we have merely unburdened ourselves of the very norms that foster mutual respect and social cohesion.
It could not possibly be more obvious that the decline in public decency is mirrored by a decline in decency towards others and respect for ourselves. It is no coincidence that as our attire has become more revealing, our discourse has become more coarse, and our interactions more uncivil. Decency, it appears, is not a piecemeal virtue but a holistic one. It pervades all aspects of life, and its erosion in any single area heralds a broader societal decline.
I don’t suggest that the complexities of social behavior cannot be reduced to a single cause. But then, maybe we aren’t that complex. The parallel decline in public decency and civility towards others is too striking to ignore. It is symptomatic of a deeper malaise in our culture, one that is eroding the very foundations of our social fabric.
In watching “Young Woman and the Sea,” I am reminded of a time when society placed a premium on decency and propriety. Perhaps that’s part of its allure. How could it not be? Today, we live in an age of unrestrained self-expression, where the boundaries of decency are continually pushed and redefined. This relentless quest for personal freedom has come at a cost—the erosion of the very values that underpin our communal life.
Decency, it seems, is not merely an old-fashioned concept but a timeless virtue that remains as relevant today as it was in the 1920s. If we are to reclaim a sense of civility and mutual respect, we must begin by recognizing that decency is a foundation upon which a truly civilized society is built, and it cannot co-exist with indecency.
