I, like every other LDS girl, have sat through very many lessons on modesty. I've read the handbooks that lay down rules for how high necklines are supposed to be, or how low skirts are supposed to go. For this reason I am somewhat hesitant to put this subject in the folk knowledge group. We can, after all, learn about modesty from a book.
However, I do put this here because I didn't learn what was or was not modest from a book. I learned it from things other people said. When I was a teenager, I always shopped with my mother. I would come out of the dressing room, and sometimes she would say things like, "those pants are too tight," or "that shirt is cut too low." I listened to those comments and comments of others. I observed what other people did, and how people reacted to it, and from that gained a concept of just how low a "too low neckline" was.
I imagine that girls from earlier cultures learned much the same way, even though what they learned what was different. In Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, at one point one of the characters falls and twists her ankle. A mysterious and romantic man rides up on a horse and "ascertains whether the ankle is broken" by feeling the ankle. This is a big deal, because ankles are, apparently, scandalous. Running around with copious amounts of cleavage, on the other hand, is not. I doubt girls of this time learned these things from books.
(sorry this post is late)
I really liked this post and the topic is definitely an interesting one. I wouldn't say it's intrigued me, but it has been interesting to learn and hear about how much the "standards" of modesty have changed. Even my grandparents talking about how shorts or pants were inappropriate for girls at some points and many other things like that. This type of knowledge will forever change and the point that it was at 100, 500, 1000, or 2000 years ago is hardly even comparable to todays ways. One thing I think we can be certain of however, is that the church dress standards won't be swayed by the ever changing ways of the world. Also with great parents to guide along the way is always helpful...I can definitely relate and often heard my own parents making the same comments in my home.
ReplyDeleteModesty is definitely a type of folk knowledge that has evolved. The Greek word for modesty is "adios", which literally translates to "bashfulness, reverence, and shamefacedness". I don't know many women who have that attitude towards their bodies, I mean bashfulness and reverence for my body aren't what compel me to be modest (though maybe it should!) It's interesting to think that as the attitudes of women towards their bodies have changed so have the common dressing standards. Kody's comment about the church dress standards always being the same almost make me wonder if by setting this standard (and reverting back to the dressing standards held by everyone centuries ago) our attitudes towards our bodies will change too? We'll "unlearn" what centuries have taught us about what our bodies are for
ReplyDeleteWhile it’s good to note that the standards of modesty are changing (both in the LDS culture and in the general population), it is also important to understand why these standards are changing. Perhaps it is because women are conforming to the demands/likes of men? I’m sure that’s not the reason for all girls but it nonetheless demonstrates the power that the opposite sex has on the way we girls dress- either modest or not.
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