JWs and Clothing

by the_classicist 36 Replies latest jw experiences

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  HEAVENS DESTINY

  As a JW student, when I went to the KH in the spring/summer time the girls and woman wore summer sleveless dresses or evan spaggettii straps no stocking but of course cute pedicures with there plateform pumps, big hooped earings, lovely hairstylies you know the ones you pay $100+ (hair dying/strikes/weaves) almost looking like your going to the club. Oh dont forget the long colored nails and to my surprise a few had nose rings ( I always thought that was odd, but I never questioned it, but is that approperite?)

  As for me well I wore what ever I can put together I wasnt going to spend major bucks, my study teacher told me that a good time to buy cloths was during easter, x-mas sales cause the church looking cloths were on sale. Well I either bought KH cloths at the 2nd hand store or barrowed my moms cloths or maybe once a a while I would try to put a club alfit together what would they know it looked almost the same as what the other girls were wearing. I have a major tatoo on my arm that well lets say it not "approperite" my first time wearing a sleevless dress one of the sisters said next time you might want to wear a sweater, well I just didnt bother wearing sleeveless dress, well one day it was sooooooooo hot that I did wear a sleeveles dress and man people must of thought I had some surgery on my arm cause I covered my tatoo w/ guaze and tape.

  That my take on JW dress code, oh by the way I am an Ex-JW student and get to were what ever the hell I want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)
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  MungoBaobab

  Carefully Faded, I figured a female would take issue with what I said, and I guess it turned out to be you! I completely agree that insisting on women wearing skirts all the time is demeaning and weird. Even Dubs think religions where women have to wear skirts all the time are strange, just another example of them pointing their fingers at the world and ignoring the three fingers pointing back. You bring up a valid point about women's clothing being more uncomfortable than men's, but that applies to most of the planet, everything from Islamic burqas to Chinese foot-binding to Western high heels. Generally speaking, though, in the West women have alot more freedom in their choice of dress, also. For example, a woman can wear her boyfriend's jacket or sleep in boxers, but if a man wears his girlfriend's clothes or sleeps in panties he's a crossdresser and lumped in with homosexuals. All of us were fair game for being picked on in the Kingdom Hall, that's for sure, but I still think the females have a little more freedom than the males.

  Merry Magdalene, I think you're absolutely right about the elders letting a little eye candy into the Hall. I think also the sisters have it easier because they're not held accountable for their dress in having privilges dangled over their heads. In one of my old congregations the older generations (60s & 70s) were constantly attacking the teenagers and twentysomethings for "stumbling" others, but what could they take away from the girls that they couldn't take away from the guys? By the way, it sounds like you had nice style back then; I love a woman in a hat!
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  HadEnuf

  In our uppity and fashion-conscious cong...it was a never ending one-upmanship (or should I say one-upwomanship) to see who had the nicest clothing and best hair and shoes and coats and purses and on and on and on. And I, the fool that I am, went along with this and spent so much money on expensive dresses and jewelry to keep up with the Upper Class in our cong. I wish I had all the money back I spent on those clothes to look "the part" of the well-dressed, well-heeled JW. What a crock.

  Now I mostly dress in sweats or jeans & t-shirts and sneakers. I LOVE it. My sister was in competition with her sister-in-law, who went to the same congregation, on who could have the most new outfits in a period of a week or so. My sister couldn't keep up and she ran their credit card up to the max. So much for modesty and staying humble.

  Cathy L...with the closet filled with my JW clothes about to be boxed up for Goodwill!!!!
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  spike2

  I remember in my congregation that there was a bit of a tift over the nylons/stockings issue always. Women would judge the other women about wearing stockings... I know because it was a big issue of contention between my sister and her. The debate would go around and around about who would wear nylons or not. I wanted the same debate about wearing suits and ties to outdoor assemblies.
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  PrettyRed

  Oh hell yeah, the dress code at our hall was extremely strict. Not to mention the make-up code(no black eyeliner under the eyes). Especially after I was DF'd everytime I wore some thing to the hall someone just had to say something to my mother and it had to be changed immediately.
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  rebel8

  Can some male on this thread please explain what is so scandalously sexy about wearing a skirt and sandals without stockings? I just don't get it. What is the big whoop with skipping a see-through layer of nylon on the calves (assuming she is still wearing panties)?

  I just remembered another story. A jw woman showed up out in service with pants, saying she couldn't stand the cold because she had some medical problem. She also wore pants to the meetings. She was brought before the elders. She stuck to her guns. They told her to stop going in field service until she was able to wear skirts. She eventually stopped going to the meetings, too. Can't say I blame her.
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  rwagoner

  Can some male on this thread please explain what is so scandalously sexy about wearing a skirt and sandals without stockings? I just don't get it. What is the big whoop with skipping a see-through layer of nylon on the calves (assuming she is still wearing panties)?

  Rebel8,

  I dont think the scandal is NOT wearing them...personally I think the JW men have a nylon/pantyhose fetish. I do sort of like the idea of some naughty dub sister enjoying the breeze up her knee length skirt with no stockings or panties. LOL But then again, I'm a perv.

  RandyW
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  upside/down

  Yeah I was "counseled" from the "platform" once for wearing **brace yourselves** a $40 dollar tie! The brother who counseled me said his whole suit only cost $20 at a thrift store (wonder if it was deemunized). His suit looked like Herb on WKRP in Cincinnati- checkerboard. It was so bad it was hilarious! This same "body" counseled me privately saying I was immodest as you could see my bikini underwear "lines" through my pants- I'm a dude, what's up with that?

  Then I finally figured out it had nothing to do with clothes but control- their version of washing up to my elbows.

  Sick bastards,

  u/d (of the formerly always obediant to those taking the "lead" class)
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  heatherg

  I was always amazed at the level of strictness of the dress code depending on each cong. In central WI it wasn't as strict, we got away with knee length, makeup, and trendy hairstyles. Of course I didn't, elders daughter, had to set an exmaple!!! Then when I moved to a cong in Chicago, man it was anything goes. It was great, and at the assemblies down there, both guys and girls dressed the part to pick up each other, and no one thought anything of it. But then when I moved to northern WI watchout! Floor length skirts only, nothing trendy, no makeup or as little as possible. And because it's cold up here for service you had to dress like an Eskimo, and only stuff from the 2nd hand stores. God forbid you actually have a nice formfitting warm coat! But no pants for us sisters when it was below zero out in field service. Gotta love their stupidity. hg
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  cyber-sista

  The witnesses here on Maui are having a ball. The men wear often no ties in service or at the hall. The women wear tropical things, but I will say they are modest. From what I understand, when you give a talk is when a tie is mandatory, but you can do that with no coat on and simply a short sleeve shirt.
  

  But then I have seen some on the nude beach too,, so go figure.

  hey puter...
  

  On this island and in my neck of the palms it is a different story...Young men got reprimanded for wearing tasteful dressshirts with patterns on them. Solid colored shirts were the rule in the congo I attended (neutral colors of course). . The JW men walk around this funkey little rural town with wearing dress shirts and ties, carrying their briefcases around and looking terribly out of place with everyone else running around in surf shorts and tank tops.

  But in JW land things don't seem to make a whole lot of sense. One young girl here got up at an assembly and gave a talk about dress and grooming and she was wearing on of those skirts with the slit sides and a top that wasn't that modest either. There were a click of young beautiful girls in my congo on the mainland and they dressed to kill and got away with it. I think it was because while immodest as they were they looked really good.

  One elders wife I know wears really modest clothes, but has some see through blouses (which require a camisole) but only wears a bra underneath and you can see her bra and everything and she ususally wore these special see throughs when she was on the platform--that was a bit strange to me .

  I am easily chilled in the cold weather and on the main land I tended to bundle up. I remember going on on freezing cold days with sisters skimpily dressed all made up and wearing high heals. there was one sister who looked like an avon sales lady who made no efforts to hide the fact that she didn't like me. One especially cold day we were out in service and in a car group together. I was bundled from head to toe--scarves and hats and a big wool coat. It was clear that she didn't want to go to the door with me I guess because I had too many clothes on--I don't know. But when we got away from the car group she nastily looked me up and down and asked me if I wanted to work alone. It wasn't just me she was a genally uptight person.

  I think there could be chapters written on JWs and clothing. The rules vary from congo to congo and region to region. I know a lot of places on the west coast are pretty loose about their dress and grooming and some places in hawaii as Puter described, but not all. It seems to be up to the elders what rules are enforced.

  Ever know any theme dressing JWs? I knew of a few--sometimes they wore western clothes cowboy boots and all (the woman too) sometimes they dressed like they were from south america, etc.

  cybs