This is something that has always bothered me. As a born-in JW I was raised as a little girl wearing skirts and dresses which is clearly quite normal in terms of gender-appropriate clothing. However, the older I grew, the more I realised that ALL JW women and girls wore skirts to meetings and when out in FS, but would wear trousers in their everyday life. I didn't 'get it'. In JW literature, real-World photos of sisters (with the rare exception of sisters in extreme cold climes) always showed them in skirts. Gilead grad photos - sisters in skirts. Missionaries - sisters in skirts. Bethelite sisters - in skirts. I often noticed that female studies would turn up to their first few meetings in a pair of smart trousers and, if they were serious, I'd notice that these interested ones would eventually succumb to the cult 'good associations' peer pressure, and turn up one Sunday morning in a skirt!
So, why did it bother me so much?
The older I got, the more awkward I felt in a skirt or dress. By that, I don't mean the kind of awkwardness a transgendered individual might feel about being in the wrong gender's clothing. It was more to do with body confidence as a pre-early teen. I was (and still am actually) long-legged with big feet, so I felt I looked a bit daft. Kind of like Florence from The Magic Roundabout. Skirts always fitted a little shorter on me than they were supposed to be and my big feet in sensible lace-up shoes didn't look particularly genteel and lady-like.
Again, with growing up I went from the little girls fashion of knee-high/ankle socks or thick cotton tights - which were temperature regulating, soft and comfy - to bare feet & legs, or nylon tights/stockings which would result in sore feet, sticky legs and a heat rash from spending a couple of hours glued to the horrible plastic chairs in the KH. Some of the brothers would complain about wearing a constrictive shirt and tie, but considering I knew what that felt like from wearing compulsory school uniform, I still think they had it made by being able to wear trousers.
I could never find a concrete scriptural basis for it. Obviously it was OK to wear trousers otherwise I'm sure the FDS would have had something to say about it. They sure had enough to say about short skirts being immodest dress.
I especially couldn’t see how pro-skirt could be a modesty issue. Our KH had stairs and the main hall was upstairs. If you stood in the right place at the bottom then you’d realise that no skirt or dress would hide your modesty. No wonder so many young brothers volunteered for attendant duty downstairs! Plus we all experienced our fair share of Marilyn Monroe moments whilst out on FS on a blustery day, or a wet skirt on a rainy day clinging to our curves.
To add further weight to my anti-skirt feelings, when I was 11 years old, I wore a lovely puffy 1950’s style knee-length skirt to book study group, complete with knee-high socks on a warm summer’s eve. The elderly couple whose home hosted the study had huge deep seated leather sofas. I stayed sat down for the duration of the study. When the study finished I found my legs had stuck to the leather. So when I leaned forwards to reach my lemonade from the coffee table and then sat back, my legs stuck to the sofa seat whilst my skirt rode up exposing 2 inches of flesh above my knees. No biggie. Like I said, I had/have long legs so it certainly didn’t look like a mini-skirt. Well, I went home and my mother took me aside and counselled me on how an elderly pioneer brother (a widower if that detail makes a difference..?) in his 70’s had told her he was severely embarrassed by me!!! At the time I felt ashamed and hurt that I’d embarrassed him, but looking back on it and knowing what I know now about how the bOrg treats child molesters it suddenly seems very icky, especially as this brother had a thing about tickling all the young kids at the KH and asking them “Where’s your self-control?!”
Any thoughts on this?
Mummatron - sat in comfort in a pair of breathable and very modest Nike Dri-fit track pants, cotton ankle socks and Reebok trainers.