Posted on 12/11/2011 12:56:43 PM PST by Colofornian
Updated. The first time I read this, I thought it was parody: Independent Brigham Young University publication The Student Review reports that BYU-Idaho has banned skinny jeans as part of its honor code guidelines against "form-fitting clothing." Skinny jeans: trousers of the devil? Don't tell Mitt Romney.
"It's useful for us to realize that fashions will come and go. There will always be some tempting new style," University Vice President Henry J. Eyring explained in September. Fun fact: According to Wikipedia, Eyring is a member of Romney's extended family.
Anyway, I'm 95% sure that this Student Review article is not a joke, just a straightforward dispatch from the strange, sexless world of Mormon higher education. There's a 5% chance I just don't get Mormon humor, though.
Update: BYU-Idaho's skinny jeans kerfuffle is, indeed, real. After I requested a comment from Eyring, he responded twice, and looped his two BYU-Idaho colleague Kevin Misayaki into the conversation.
from: Henry Eyring to: Maureen O'Connor cc: Kevin Miyasaki date: Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 5:43 PM subject: RE: Gawker Media Question: Skinny Jeans
Dear Maureen:
I appreciate your interest in BYU-Idaho. I'll share your questions with my colleague Kevin Miyasaki, who will know the answers better than I.
Thanks so much,
Henry
from: Kevin Miyasaki
to: Maureen O'Connor
cc: Henry Eyring
date: Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 6:29 PM
subject: RE: Gawker Media Question: Skinny Jeans
Dear Maureen:
Thank you for your concern and interest. I hope my response satisfies your question, and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
We have not identified "skinny jeans" as a specific violation of the dress and grooming standard. We are aware of the incident and the Student Honor Office is working with the Testing Center to address the issue.
The wording in the BYU-Idaho dress and grooming standard regarding formfitting clothing is as follows: "Clothing is inappropriate when it is sleeveless, strapless, backless, or revealing. It should not have slits above the knee or be formfitting."
The foundation of this standard comes from "For the Strength of Youth" which states, "Immodest clothing includes short shorts and skirts, tight clothing, shirts that do not cover the stomach, and other revealing attire. Young women should wear clothing that covers the shoulder and avoid clothing that is low-cut in the front or the back or revealing in any other manner."
The Testing Center has not made any new standard, nor has there been a ban of a particular piece of clothing. The effort of the Testing Center as well as with other employees and students is to encourage others in their commitment to comply with the Honor Code.
I hope this is responsive. If not, please feel free to contact me.
Kevin Miyasaki
Student Services and Activities Vice President
200 Kimball
Rexburg, ID 83460-1640
from: Henry Eyring
to: Maureen O'Connor
date: Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 6:35 PM
subject: RE: Gawker Media Question: Skinny Jeans
Dear Maureen:
Purely by chance, after sending my earlier message I listened to a 1973 Ricks College/BYU-Idaho devotional address by my father, Henry B. Eyring, in which he articulates our rationale for modesty in dress. If you click on the attached link, search for 1973 addresses, and scroll down to 28 August, you can get the audio recording of the talk. His remarks about dress and grooming appear about ¾ of the way through. I hope that you find them helpful.
Thanks again,
Henry
http://web.byui.edu/devotionalsandspeeches/speeches.aspx
Don Carlos, Class of ‘59 (Whoop, Whoop)
As usual with MoPologist Ripliancum, who implies the account ends with that sign coming down...:
The university in Rexburg started to receive student complaints last week about a sign posted at the testing center prohibiting skinny jeans. Cargal says university administrators contacted the department and the sign was taken down.
...What Ripliancum fails to mention, is that
...(a) Another sign replaced the one taken down...yes, the part about "please go home" was removed from the secondary signage, but that didn't help the original student banned from the testing center, now did it?
...(b)The application of the policy led to a REAL student -- not one conjured up by "anti Mormons" -- being banned from the BYU testing center: "...the male employee refused to let her in" -- referencing senior psych major Rachel Vermillion, who they banned from the testing center but did not kick her off campus. See: Provo Herald, Dec. 8 article found at: http://www.heraldextra.com for quotes above.
If what she was wearing wasn't appropriate for one BYU building, why would it be suddenly "OK" elsewhere? (IOW, if what she wore was so "offensive," then it seems to me that they could have temporarily suspended her or kick her off campus...No mention of such actions are mentioned anywhere)
If one student can be banned, why not more?
Was there any apology from the university for banning one of its students? No. Therefore, BYU has officially sanctioned such a banning.
A modest dress code is fine, but BYU consistently goes overboard. When I was there, my roommate was sent home her first day at BYU because her shorts came just above (less than 1/2 inch) her knee.
If it was only about modesty that would be one thing, however, having been there, it is just another way of control.
BTW, when I was there, you could have your ears pierced more than one time (mine are pierced twice), that has since changed.
Isn’t this just about modesty?
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Having attended BYU for over 2 years, no it isn’t, it is more about control.
No one is “forced” to do anything in my Church. What in the world are you talking about? Haven’t you ever heard of free agency?
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That is absolute BARBARA STRIESAND! There is constant peer pressure, expectations and threats if a person fails to conform to the LDS demands, even at the smallest level.
Why not force Mormon adults to adhere to comprehensive wardrobe policies where they meet for worship?
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They do. No pants for women (skirts only to the knee minimum), sleeves must be at least ‘garment length’, men are to wear dress shirts and ties, no ‘loud clothing’, in my ward, women were to wear pantyhose and closed toe shoes, etc...
God forbid a homeless woman stumbled into their place of worship..."no room" for them in the "Mormon Formal 'Inn.'"
"But, hey, you can worship out in 'Smithmas Vermont Nativity' scene with the animals out back."
Heaven help us if some toes get exposed.
It has the unwritten "Remember Rachel" enforcement attached to it.
I mean, tell me. What Mormon coed wants to run a repeat risk of even getting anywhere close to the "campus message" now sent out loud and clear: Dare you wear the potentially forboden wardrobe around here, we'll plaster your name nation-wide as an implied Mormon "skank."
Tell me, Mormon men out there who've been considering sending your daughter to BYU. Is that the "reputation" you want BYU giving them for wearing the "wrong-styled" jeans that can be so subjectively enforced at the whim of any BYU employee?
Yup. In Mormonism, ya gotta toe the Mormon legalistic line.
God forbid a homeless woman stumbled into their place of worship...”no room” for them in the “Mormon Formal ‘Inn.’”
- - - - - - -
When I was a new convert to the LDS, I invited a friend (who was on welfare) to Sacrament meeting. I was pulled aside and told she didn’t meet the dress code and that I needed to inform anyone I invited that there were dress standards. This was in California, not even Utah. I was so embarassed that it was the last time I invited one of my friends to church when I was LDS.
I had an entire wardrobe of “LDS clothes”, long skirts, white blouses, low heeled pumps, molly mormon dresses, etc. To this day, MrR cannot get me to wear skirts if I can at all avoid it.
My daughter was in church tonight. She was in the Christmas play. She wore flip flops, because she was a shepherd. When asked if she had flip flops she said, “Yes.” They said to her, if you forget to bring them, you can just be barefoot.
OMGoodness! Can you imagine the heart palpitations that a Mormon legalist would have gone through seeing a barefoot child in church? LOL
Yeah, I can imagine it, I know how I would have reacted when I was LDS.
Now watch, a Mormon will probably show up and explain to us how we should dress up for church to show ‘respect’ for Heavenly Father and it is disrespectful to dress casually for church.
I remember when I invited my best friend (who was in town visiting) to church (Calvary Chapel), and her response was
“I don’t have any church clothes”. I explained how dress at CC was casual and she was surprised (pleasantly so). She accepted Christ that day. God cares more about our hearts than our clothing.
What's interesting per the Rexburg Standar Journal is that the banned student, Rachel Vermillion, "later showed her professor her pants and he told her that her pants were about as tight as his" (Source: Rexburg Standard-Journal, University's issue with skinny jeans goes national)
Of course, the end game for Mormon legalism, just like Muslim legalism in the way it treats women, is to humiliate women: Per the Standard-Journal article from Rexburg, Idaho: "Vermillion provided her story in the Scroll about her denial into the Testing Center, and told the Scroll the experience was "offensive and humiliating".
'Twas humiliating for Mormon women to be one of many wives among Mormon men in the 19th and 20th centuries; Mormon men have just needed to "fill the vacuum" with new patterns.
And yet Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. They were barefoot, with dirty bare feet in the presence of Jesus. And then He put Himself in the place of the servant and washed their dirty feet.
Bare feet do not shame my Lord. His children on the earth are born with them. Jesus Himself had bare feet that were nailed to the cross. They are a symbol of His sacrifice, just as much as His hands with nails are.
Dressing for church I believe should be according to the heart of the person. God welcomes the humble, the poor and beggars into His house in whatever dress they have on. His eyes see the heart and not the clothing.
This has attracted the attention of ABC news.
ABC hired Elizabeth Smart. Will she be called upon to give a positive Mormon spin to this story or not? She covered the Jaycee Dugard story for them. They exploited her fame as a kidnapped victim and tied it into the Dugard story.
She can give her point of view as a young, cute, blonde girl from a prominent Mormon family. She hasn’t been off the college campus for that long. She can talk about clothing, the stress of peer pressure and her faith.
The name Elizabeth Smart will get people to tune in.
Exactly, like tithing it is between the believer and God, not anyone else.
She wore flip flops, because she was a shepherd.
_______________________________________________
LOL
We had our Christmas play last night too...
I went bare foot as usual
Either people wore sandals or bare feet...
Only the Roman soldiers and the demons wore shoes
:)
BTW as Anna I preached some of Isaiah 9 in the temple scene...
Oh noez..
Whats worse... wrong shoes or a woman preaching ??? and in the temple ???
What does the mormon god say ???
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