The other day, I wrote a simple blog post about a friend's Facebook status, wherein she glowingly crowed about her finally being able to fit into some jeans that she loved. Within that status, she mentioned that she was wearing those pants to church.
I read it and was happy for her. Then I penned my thoughts in the blog post, Women Wearing Pants to Church. As I noted above, it was simple. A realization that something I had forgotten was even an issue in my past life, was actually so pointless to be arguing over, that even fundamentalists, in the circles I hung and hang with, were beginning to draw back on the whole idea.
But are they all? I don't think so.
That blog post went viral, for Incongruous Circumspection standards. Thousands of hits in a week. Not many of my writings reach this status. So it made me wonder why it was such a popular piece.
I really have no answers, except to assume that women, in many areas of Christianity, are still being told what they can and cannot do, according to pre-set, artificial rules of femininity. Sure, in fundamentalist circles, the men are also expected to wear a suit and tie, but those expectations don't even come close to measuring up to the heavy-handed requirements for women to be "real ladies".
I know. I experienced it. Once, as a fundamentalist Sunday School teacher, I wore a pair of jeans, a turtle-neck sweater, and a tie to church. I did it to make a statement. No philosophical statement, per se. Just a "this is who I am, and you're going to LOVE me!" kind of message. I was called out from the pulpit with a "that's awesome brother!" slap on the back, the whole congregation laughed, and I was left feeling very loved and accepted.
Later, I was caught in a room with all the men of the church and the conversation went the way of how a woman should dress. Words like "whore" and "slut" were bandied about when anything but a skirt, jumper, or dress was said to have been worn. Yes. From the mouths of purported Christians.
I understand. Women, in many circles of Christianity, are treated as second class citizens, protecting the sexual drives of men, who are much too weak, having no ability to exercise self-control over their hand grabbing of her breasts - just because she wore jeans to church. I get it.
I read it and was happy for her. Then I penned my thoughts in the blog post, Women Wearing Pants to Church. As I noted above, it was simple. A realization that something I had forgotten was even an issue in my past life, was actually so pointless to be arguing over, that even fundamentalists, in the circles I hung and hang with, were beginning to draw back on the whole idea.
But are they all? I don't think so.
That blog post went viral, for Incongruous Circumspection standards. Thousands of hits in a week. Not many of my writings reach this status. So it made me wonder why it was such a popular piece.
I really have no answers, except to assume that women, in many areas of Christianity, are still being told what they can and cannot do, according to pre-set, artificial rules of femininity. Sure, in fundamentalist circles, the men are also expected to wear a suit and tie, but those expectations don't even come close to measuring up to the heavy-handed requirements for women to be "real ladies".
I know. I experienced it. Once, as a fundamentalist Sunday School teacher, I wore a pair of jeans, a turtle-neck sweater, and a tie to church. I did it to make a statement. No philosophical statement, per se. Just a "this is who I am, and you're going to LOVE me!" kind of message. I was called out from the pulpit with a "that's awesome brother!" slap on the back, the whole congregation laughed, and I was left feeling very loved and accepted.
Later, I was caught in a room with all the men of the church and the conversation went the way of how a woman should dress. Words like "whore" and "slut" were bandied about when anything but a skirt, jumper, or dress was said to have been worn. Yes. From the mouths of purported Christians.
I understand. Women, in many circles of Christianity, are treated as second class citizens, protecting the sexual drives of men, who are much too weak, having no ability to exercise self-control over their hand grabbing of her breasts - just because she wore jeans to church. I get it.
