Ah, modesty.

[Guest Anonymous]

I came across this today and thought of this board: bycommonconsent.com/2011/07/09/perverting-modesty/

Then, in the comments of that blog post, found this neat-o little nugget of bedtime story insanity: lds.org/friend/2011/06/hannahs-new-dress?lang=eng

So. Much. :doh: .

[debrand]

I find it absolutely immodest that sleeve length on a prom dress is considered the marker of a girl’s virtue, rather than the sparkle of her eyes and quality of her character. I find it absolutely immodest that the lines of my underwear can be seen by other church members and that I can be judged or questioned based on knowledge and presence of those lines. I find it absolutely immodest that little girls are told to be modest, and not left to be innocent children finding joy in the movement and glory of a body unencumbered by the projections of others.

As a child, the author writes that she went nude and it was not considered sexual for her to do so. She grew up confident in her own skin. After she started attending church, she was taught to be more ashamed and conscious of her own modesty. I found her description of the change in her attitude to be sad

[emmiedahl]

I thought it was sad too, and my first reaction was: so why are you raising your kids this way???

I had a similar naked/dirty hippie upbringing. I can't imagine going from that to 'newborn babies can't wear sundresses'. I have an LDS family who receives my hand-me-downs and they told me when their baby was a newborn that they don't want the sundresses and sleeveless stuff. In my home, a sundress is 'dressed up' for a baby in the summer because they are wearing more than a diaper!

[snarkykitty]

A four-year old's shoulders are immodest? My stomach churned while reading that story.

[Rachel333]

I thought that was a really good post. It's sickening and disgusting that a child can be immodest, not to mention that the LDS church has actually gone backwards on that issue. It used to be fine and completely modest to show your shoulders before you started wearing garments.

I thought it was sad too, and my first reaction was: so why are you raising your kids this way???

I don't think she is--here's a picture from her blog with her young daughter in a sleeveless dress: dandelionmama.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/286350_10150260817105963_635790962_7648830_4484724_o.jpg

[Kitten]

That's her at church? I LOVE it - wearing a modest STAR WARS shirt. Bet the other prissy moms were whispering about that, as well.

I had the same reaction as another poster - if this bothers you, WHY THE HECK ARE YOU ATTENDING THAT CHURCH? There are plenty of churches out there that don't ascribe to this stupidity. That's the part of her post that I simply don't understand, and she never addresses. If she's intent on pushing the boundaries (as it seems with the Star Wars shirt), then good on her, but why doesn't she say that? Instead, she makes it sound like she has meekly adopted all these idiotic guidelines for her own...

[Rachel333]

That's her son, actually. :)

I guess it's just that she truly believes what the LDS church teaches, and I don't get the impression at all that she agrees with all the cultural standards of the church.

I've been following her blog for a while, and I think it's fairly interesting and she's a good writer. She embraced the whole LDS housewife thing, but then her marriage fell apart and she's now going back to school. She's been pretty open about her life and the difficulties of living with her situation in the LDS church, as well as having an autistic son. Her blog is: dandelionmama.wordpress.com/

[Jessica]

I let my son run naked when we're in the backyard (it's surrounded by trees and bushes so if you're walking past you'd have to stop and look to even see in and see anything) and there is nothing cuter or more natural than a toddler running free, enjoying the sunshine. If people think that's dirty, they have issues and need to get their head examined.

Edit - We took him to church last summer in nothing but a diaper and quite a few people told us "I wish *I* could come to church like that!" An old lady said, with a very mischevious grin, "I wish I could come to church dressed like him but that would be a little obscene!"

[finleeport]

I could never understand why fundies (and most religions) can be so prudish and Victorian. They are always so ashamed of nudity or sexuality of any kind.

Even during my fundie-lite days, I had a secret pleasure of being naked; when I was in my teens, I had my first orgasm, it was when I learned about masturbation, I learned about sex by myself. Now I might of said that I am asexual but I still have fantasies.