Anyone heard of Shari Braendel?

[Juliakitty]

I'm a librarian, so I come across a lot of books at work, and today I found a Christian book about fashion sense and style by someone I had never heard of called Shari Braendel. I haven't cracked open the book yet because I wanted to see if any of you guys had heard of her. There's a photograph of a high heel on the back, so it can't be super-fundie, but I Googled her and she's apparently very popular in regular evangelical circles. What do the fundies think? What do YOU think?

[notathumper]

Shari Braendel lives in Charlotte, NC. She started out with the group, Proverbs 31 Ministries headed up by Lysa Terkeurst. Now, she has struck out on her own and sometimes will meet up for events such as "She Speaks" that is put on annually by Proverbs 31.

That being said, she is quite typical in her views on women's modesty. I find her fashion sense to be about 6 or 7 years behind, but that is much like the rest of Christian culture.

She is actively promoting her "beauty boot camps" (why are Christians so wrapped up in the "boot camp" terminology??) to the tune of $400 for three days and two nights and that's down from a price of $800! And, she also does the cruises for Christian women. Sheri is one of many women in the Charlotte area trying frantically to make a name for herself with the evangelical crowd.

[Juliakitty]

I looked through the book and was annoyed by the way she kept saying I needed to wear makeup and jewelry. My refusal to wear makeup and jewelry has not hindered either my ability to attract men or my ability to land a good job, so, to heck with you, Ms. Fashion Expert.

She didn't say anything particularly shocking about modesty.

[debrand]

I found this article about one of her events.

http://www.sharibraendel.com/news_article_3.htm

Organizer Wendy Fontenot quoted part of Braendel's remarks: If you dress lovely, you attract love. If you dress sexy, you attract sex.

I have a lot of thougths about this comment. First of all, it isn't true. Lots of women wore low cut shirts and short dresses and still managed to meet someone who respected and loved them. Second, it almost sounds like the sort of justification for rape that some people use.

She added that a video about what high school guys thought about purity and modesty really hit home. A Carson High School senior, Megan said she loved modeling the fashions, all of which came from Dillard's.

I think that the message that your life is defined by men't thoughts is as harmful as the message that you have to be skinny or wear certain styles to be beautiful. It is still a negative message.

[notathumper]

I find the whole business about women dressing modestly to be the first step down a slippery slope about all sorts of things women can/can not do with their bodies. Shari has impressed the modesty thing with the younger Christian girls in this area (Charlotte, NC and surrounding).

So, we have women in their forties coming up with all these catch phrases in an effort to get the teen girls to toe the line. BUT, what actually happens? The girls give it lip service and then post twitter pics of themselves in the tiniest of bikinis:

https://twitter.com/#!/ashleyterk/statu ... 73/photo/1

The girl in the middle is Lysa Terkeurst's daughter, Ashley. She was on the Premier Christian girls cruise with her mother in January. See? Even Lysa Terkeurst who espouses the party line on modesty doesn't actually apply it to HER daughter. Or her other two daughters who regularly post pics of themselves.

The older, so-called Evangelical, women never publicly say that these girls can rock the whole look. It's always cover up, be modest...