Polygamist Sects: A Lesson In Style

Have you ever wondered what exactly the deal is with Fundamentalist Mormon hair and the Little House On The Prairie-esque dresses?

Because I have.

And I've searched long and hard, far and wide to try and find something that would explain it to me. There were lots of articles on the rules for the women, like how they had to dress and how they had to wear their hair, but nothing on why. And, considering that the news of late was starting to feel like a 24/7 Big Love marathon, my interest was getting increasingly piqued.

And then I found this.

And so, I bring to you, the only (and therefore most comprehensive) article on what is up with Fundamentalist Mormon Style.

In elaborate polygamy fantasyland, the idea of a haircut can keep a sheltered wife in line.

When the elders of YFZ Ranch in Texas tried to quash a 16-year-old bride's rebellion, they warned that the outside world would force her to have sex with "lots of men." Apparently equally important, she would have to cut her hair and wear makeup.

As threats go for a young woman in polygamy, a bob or a bit of blush seems minor. But the girl's terror about changing her appearance is heartbreakingly naive and very real.

The compound fence isn't the only cage for the women of polygamy. There is also a prison uniform - yards of pink and blue fabric, inches and inches of hair and ugly orthopedic shoes.

Utah and Arizona television stations and newspapers have been photographing the polygamy costume worn by Warren Jeffs' followers for years. But for the rest of the country, the billowing dresses and poofy French braids must look like a cotton-candy variation on 19th-century fashion or the voluminous folds of a burka.

Clothing and hairstyle distinctions between individual polygamous families and sects could fill an anthropology notebook.

"You can modify people's behavior just by putting them in a certain kind of dress," says Carolyn Jessop, a former spiritual wife of Merrill Jessop, the bishop of the Texas FLDS enclave. "It is a uniform. You have nothing about you that's individual. You're just a part of a whole."

The homespun prairie styles - most can be traced to modest Mormon pioneer fashions - are intended to make polygamists stick out from the rest of us and band together.

"By dressing the same, you have this solidarity," says Janet Bennion, an anthropology professor at Lyndon State College in Vermont who has studied fundamentalist Mormon polygamists.

Read the rest of the Salt Late Tribune article here.

Oh, and if you think my concern with their hair is, well, inappropriate considering the rampant sexual abuse rumors running around, I'm not sure what to tell you. Other than: at least it's less inappropriate than this!

Comments

[Trueheart]

What an idiotic approach to something which could have helped mainstream people understand a lifestyle which seems foreign to them.

What's next: a follow-up on those freaky Amish? or howzabout those Mennonites? And let's not forget Hasidic Jewish women who shave their hair and wear wigs because it is immoral to be vain about your hair. Oh yeah, and while we are at it, let's make fun of the way Moslem women dress.

Who is the model for American Womanhood? Housewives of Orange County? of New York City? Girls Behaving Badly?

[pithymaxim]

good post

[JimReed]

Regarding your "this" link, I was wondering, is it even possible for a 23/6 story to be inappropriate?

I think many of us older people don't really understand what is in style the last couple years among young people, but that is probably the point. They wear their pants that way because they are conforming to a style that they know many people won't like. In a similar way the cult dresses in a way that you and I might not understand. They want to conform to themselves and be as different from us as possible so that they can feel cut off from us for various purposes dealing with aspects of group psychology. I guess the message is style must be incomprehensible, and when you have different groups hating each other you need multiple different versions of contradicting styles so that you can keep the various groups happy.

[kcal2000]

Here in Los Angeles there are many young women (under 18) walking around half naked, and in the summer it gets worse. Although these FLDS women's attire may seem a little outdated, I'd rather see young women, especially under the age of 18, dress more like them and less like the women you see in strip clubs.

[deckard70]

A new use of the word "worse"!

[Xochitl666]

Sometime a "brief clothing" is nothing more than a way of keeping comfortable in Los Angeles in the summer. It is not a sexual display and is mostly done with naiveté and innocence by teenagers. If you think they look like strippers, that' s your dirty mind. My anatomy is not responsible for your bad behavior.

If you don't like it local fashion, move to a cooler climate.

[FatherWolf]

Read your New Testament. These women look like what St. Paul said women should look like.

[Mormondude]

Apparently it's not illegal in texas for Gentleman's Clubs to employ minors in Texas. In Dallas there's a case of a 12 year old being hired and dancing nude in a cabaret club. The club's license can't be revoked, because there's no law preventing them from doing so.

Isn't it strange that this sort of behavior is condoned while on the other side of the state they're swooping in and seizing hundreds of kids without one shred of evidence that they ever have been or ever will be abused?

[Wadworth]

Okay you might be Mormon, but the problem with this situation is child abuse, not a question of religion. Rape is still a crime, regardless of which religion you currently practice. Also, I would like to point out once again the fact that Mormon does not equal fundamentalist mormon, as similar comparison would be to call a protestant a reformed catholic. I personally enjoyed the tags on this article featuring Mormon Hair and Mormon Raids. Bravo! You've confused the 4th largest religion in the united states, numbering over 4 million Americans, with a much smaller religion, numbering about 4,000.

[imjustsayingthat]

That is pure balderdash! 12 yr olds are not allowed to dance in "Gentleman's Clubs" in Texas!

[maddogbitesback]

Mormondude; Its you again. How could it be that you are finding it strange to take the children from a sect which sexually abuses children and that is part of the religion. I don't know of any religion which actually defends or even requires twelve year old girls to dance naked. And there is a big difference between dancing naked for a bunch of men and making a girl become wife ten for an old man. And of course the boys can't hope to find a bride since they are going to be taking the girls the dirty old men have a god given right to impregnate as often as possible. Mormon women have the highest usage of tranquilizers of any group in America.

[greylox]

**Seems like EXACTLY the same thing to me.

[dutchgirl55]

Even if no sexual abuse is ever proven, I call it abuse to lie to the children about the outside world and force them to dress in a way that sets them apart so that they remain within the cult. For an interesting parallel look at the Amish. One might say they practice the same abuse because they dress differently and remain apart BUT they also practice Rumspringa where teenagers are encouraged to experience the outside world so that when they make their decision to remain with the Amish, it is an informed decision.

[ErinDanger]

It's not considered abuse for a minor child to be forced into a polygamous marriage to a man old enough to be her grandfather, who she then must please sexually? Or for a minor child to be taken to town limits when he reaches 12-14, and abandoned, lest he seduce, you know, a girl his own age and ruin her for the old grampas who are bidding for her?

Surely you jest.

[montestruc]

*alleged* to "have minor child to be forced into a polygamous marriage to a man old enough to be her grandfather, who she then must please sexually?"

*alleged* Big difference between alleged and proven.

Also one cannot take it as proof that all FLDS marriages are like that from the fact that their leader Jeffs was convicted of rape as an accomplice in Arizona ( for marrying a girl over the local age of consent to her 19 year old cousin (not close enough cousin to make it incest by the local laws), in that the girl (years later) alleged threats were made and her saying no was ignored.

My take is that this was a load of BS legally as too much time had elapsed and the people whom the girl was now staying with, and was dependent on for economic support, had an ax to grind with the FLDS in general and Jeffs in particular. But the jury did convict.

Being in favor of prosecutes being required to actually prove accusations beyond reasonable doubt is not the same as being in favor of the crime, or being against the (alleged) victim.

[mamacat]

Just a quick personal observation: it seems that the religions that treat women the worst have the strictest dress codes for women.

God forbid, that a woman be allowed to think and make her own decisions! What's next, women voting, serving on juries, flying space stations, and running for public office? It's the Devil's work!

[esgabel]

In the Catholic Church of the 50' and 60's when Religious Teaching Sisters and Cloistered Nuns wore the full habit--I went to an All- Girl Catholic High School and College and entered a semi-cloistered convent myself--those nuns were all about women's rights and feminism. The Society then didn't offer as much to women--but in those Religious Orders women were very much in charge...Interesting...

[JScott]

It's that 'Stepford Wives' look.

[pixel105]

If you want to know the inside story of the polygamous cult lead by Warren Jeffs (who live at the YFZ Ranch in TX and in Colorado City, AZ.), check out the recent documentary BANKING ON HEAVEN. http://www.bankingonheaven.com

[LanceJetson]

OK Verena, how can you say you've "searched long and hard, far and wide," and then give us an opinionated quote from a FEATURE writer from the Salt Lake Tribune (And one whose viewpoint is often criticized.). Sure, you can take the anthropological slant and say it's all a matter of mind control -- anything to make a cult appear more cultish, huh? I have been enjoying and admiring your spiritual journeying up to this point, but did you even search to find the reason that the FLDS give for their dress code? And they certainly aren't the only "Christian" church to have dress and hair restrictions. You want to know WHY? Because the Bible tells them so! It's the word of God! (Which opens up a whole new avenue of how religious people are manipulated.) Sure, there MIGHT be some big Male sitting somewhere, rubbing his hands, saying: "Now that they we have them dressed peculiarly , they'll do whatever we say, nyah ha!" But it is more likely "This is what the Word of God says, we believe it and follow it. We are a special people."

Now I'm not saying I agree with any religious control over hair and dress habits, and I certainly don't care for the FLDS' beliefs (Among a thousand other religions...), but when you go looking for the reason why, don't stop with only the opposing viewpoint and claim you've looked "far and wide," please.

[wildflowermaven]

I rather doubt the bible has a passage which says women should wear Little House on the Prairie dresses. If you can quote the chapter and verse, okay, but otherwise you are spreading a falsehood.

[LanceJetson]

I was only saying that is what the FLDS' reasoning would be. And what falsehood would I be spreading? That the FLDS say that God tells them to dress like that? And as far as chapter and verse that's something you should ask the FLDS about. (Although the Bible does exhort women to dress modestly and not to cut their hair. And don't forget the FLDS have two more "holy scriptures" besides the Bible that inform their beliefs.)
Again, I'm not saying I agree with the FLDS or that my interpretation of the Bible is the same as theirs. I'm just say Verena should not get her opinions from only one [second-hand] source is all.

[mbh78213]

Exactly. The pioneer look does not date back to biblical times, but to the time when these sects were founded. Just like nun's habits resemble the outfits that married women (after all, nuns are supposed to be Christ's brides) in the Middle Ages wore.

[Pearldiver]

The polygamists' "style" is no more weird to me than the current legions of fatties sprouting "mushrooms" on top of their too-tight jeans, beneath their too-tight and way too revealing tank-tops. Then there was the ubiquitous sight a few years ago of all the "running-suits" in colors ranging from pukey to nightmarish. What these sartorial disasters have in common is the vain attempt to cover-up, play up or disguise billions of pounds of disgusting flesh...at least the Mormons are in general a very physically attractive group, testifying to the benefits of a healthy diet!

[happytrails]

Are you confusing "religious" with "legalistic?"

Who or what is this "god" who makes up rules to cover hair and clothing?

[LanceJetson]

Exactly.