REVIEW: Reclaiming Dignity

Sarah Rindner reviews the much-discussed Reclaiming Dignity: A Guide to Tzniut for Men and Women by Bracha Poliakoff and Anthony Manning (Mosaica Press), writing:

Reclaiming Dignity prods one to observe that tzniut is something of a paradox. It testifies to the power of outer appearances while also insisting on the importance of the internal. It objectifies women and also emphasizes their inner worth. Its excess is problematic just as is its absence. The line between overemphasis and underemphasis is slippery and obscure. It seeks to remove sexual gaze from everyday interactions just as it potentially intensifies it.

Read the review, open-access in TRADITION’s recent Winter 2024 issue.

Sarah Rindner is a teacher and writer living in Israel. Read her earlier essay in our pages, “Ruptured Gender Roles in a Text-Centered World” from our 2019 symposium on “Rupture and Reconstruction.”