[Avodah] Tzeni'us and gender roles

[Joseph Kaplan]

RMB's analysis of tzni'ut is very interesting but I believe it has  
absolutely nothing to do with the real world.  Sure, men have the  
same obligation of tzni'ut that women have, but men are "forced" to  
participate publicly because someone has to daven for the amud etc.  
Really?  The rabbi of a shul "has" to have maftir on Shabbat Shuva  
and Shabbat hagadol.  And a man  "has" to have maftir on his  
yahrtzeit or auf ruf or sheva brachot?  A regular aliyah wouldn't be  
sufficient? Why not parcel all haftorot out among all shul members  
Shabbat by Shabbat so everyone will has an equal, and lesser, burden  
of reluctantly accepting public roles.  Same for reading the ketubah  
under the chupah. Why should RY take upon themselves this "violation"  
of tzni'ut.  Let's parcel it out among all.  Or better yet, let's  
have a tape recording of the reading of the ketubah (which, I  
believe, RHS said was okay).  I could go on and on, and you can come  
up with your own examples.  Quite frankly, I think this is something  
people say (or some people say) but simply do not really believe.  If  
they really believed it, Jewish practice and communal life would look  
very different. Almost NOBODY acts this way; not the regular folk and  
not their leaders.

Joseph Kaplan