I agree with BAP's observation that the modern West has acquired a curious resemblance to Saudi Arabia for men, though I'd venture one qualification: the demands of compulsory modesty are enforced exclusively on *ATTRACTIVE* men.
Earlier today I was told by persons in authority that my shorts were insufficiently long, and that I was required to remedy the deficiency by putting on longer shorts. I declined.
On another occasion, a young woman in the same establishment received the same admonition; her offence appeared to consist not in the length of the shorts themselves, but in the unfortunate fact that they were worn on an attractive pair of legs.
Meanwhile, in the very same place, sweaty old geezers and morbidly obese men wander about shirtless, wearing nothing but their undergarments (which are shorter than my shortest shorts), and they do so without provoking the slightest objection from the authorities, despite presenting considerably more skin, and exciting the evident disgust of the public.
The true object of objection does not appear to be the quantity of exposed flesh but the attractiveness of the person exposing it.
Modern modesty has nothing to do with decency and everything to do with the jealousy & instinctive discomfort that the old and the ugly feel towards the public display of physical attractiveness & superiority.
Watching The Odyssey now and got to say I'm not crazy about how it opens with Travis Scott looking at the screen telling the audience to "sit they yn asses down while a oldhead speaks on it"
you must believe you are special and then go so hard, for so long, with such violent refusal to accept any other ending, that reality itself starts running out of ways to tell you no. you must wage a war daily against the ordinary outcome, until the belief you invented out of nothing in a room by yourself has been hammered into the world so many times that it stops being a claim and becomes reality.