Standards of modesty (also called demureness or reticence) are aspects of the culture of a country or people, at a given point in time, and is a measure against which an individual in society may be judged. Though the term can be applied to both men and women, and boys and girls, it is most commonly applied to women, and girls.

Modesty is most often rendered as humility, shyness, or simplicity. The general principles of modesty include:

• Avoiding attracting attention to oneself by moderating one's actions or appearance;
• Downplaying one's accomplishments (see humility);
• Avoiding insincere self-abasement through false or sham modesty, which is a form of boasting.

Fashions and fads at times test the limits of community standards of modesty. People can be subjected to peer pressure, both to comply with community standards or to flaunt them.

Necessity

At times of public or private emergency expectations of modesty are suspended, or modified to the extent of the emergency. For example, during the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, large numbers of people had to strip to their underwear in parking lots and other public places for hosing down by fire departments, often in front of TV news crews covering the events.Fact: date=February 2007

On the other hand, even in an emergency situation some people still insist on maintaining their standards of modesty.

Body modesty

Standards of modesty usually discourage the non-essential exposure of the human body. This applies to the bare skin, hair and undergarments, and especially to intimate parts. The standards not only call for the covering of parts of the body, but also obscuring their shape, by means of suitable clothing. There are also standards covering the changing clothes (such as on a beach), the closing or locking of the door when changing or taking a shower, etc..

Standards of modesty vary by culture, and vary depending on who is exposed, which parts of the body are exposed, the duration of the exposure, the context, and other variables. The categories of persons who could see another's body would include -

• a spouse or partner,
• a friend or family member of the same sex,
• strangers of the same sex,
• people of the same social class,

The context would include matters such as whether it is in one's own home, at another family member's home, at a friend's home, at a semi-public place, at a beach, swimming pool (including whether such venues are considered clothes-optional), public changing rooms or other public places. So that wearing a bathing suit at the beach would not be considered immodest, while it would be in a street or an office. One's occupation is another consideration, so that the standards that would be expected of, say, a dancer while performing would not be as "strict" as those that would be expected of, say, a school teacher. Some people even argue that a school teacher should not perform as a dancer even outside of the school context. This is usually termed "bringing the profession into disrepute", but is based on notions of modesty and "proper" behavior.