Jan 06 2009
WARNING! Fashion Lemming alert
guest post by Erin Straza from Filling My Patch of Sky
Recently, my grandmother purchased her first nonwhite bra. Ever. It was the wild color of . . . beige.
As my grandmother shared her mutinous experience, I thought of how different the world was when she was young. Those differences shaped her understanding of appropriate dress and behavior, providing rules and guidelines for femininity—just as today’s society has shaped ours.
But society’s vision for fashion and femininity is ever shifting. Sadly, women tend to race right after it.
We’ve seen major changes in the acceptance of everything from exposed skin and women’s roles in society to pant styles and crass attitudes and actions. Some rules ride the winds of consumerism—for example, fashion gurus urge us to once again embrace fringe and the patio dress. Some rules have withstood the winds yet remain questionable, such as if white shoes can be worn after Labor Day.
In eras past, norms led women to shun colorful undergarments; today, women shun modesty. And in other cultures, norms have led women to bind their feet or stretch their necks, all in the name of womanhood.
Some of these changes are rather harmless; but much of it is costly. And most tragic of all is that the world has the final say in defining feminine expression.
As Christian women, we face the dilemma of living out authentic femininity in a constantly changing world.
If only the solution was as clear as my grandmother’s white-only underwear rule! But God doesn’t make such determinations for us. God wants to teach us—not merely tell us—how to properly express our femininity.
We need God, the Author of femininity, to teach us what He meant it to be.
Although women express themselves through dress and demeanor, true femininity is woven into each woman’s heart and soul and being. It’s there in the secret place that our true womanhood is found.
The world’s pollutants have infiltrated us to the core though. We’ve willingly ingested its rules. But the apostle Paul said this to the Roman believers: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
In countless ways, we have blindly and mindlessly conformed to the world.
With fashion and femininity, the times dictate what’s acceptable, and we too often play the lemming.
Thankfully, God rescues us from this madness that leads us over the cliff’s edge. By rejecting the world’s ideals and yielding to God’s transforming work, we can know God’s will for us: what is good and acceptable and perfect—even in femininity and fashion, even in today’s society, and regardless of what’s considered vogue.
We have new rules and new freedom.
My sister and I were inspired by my grandmother’s recent detachment from the world’s white undergarment standard. So we surprised her with a bright pink, rhinestone-accented bra. It’s a vivid reminder not to live by the world’s rules—for in radical relationship with God, we can live a truly free, authentic femininity designed by the Author Himself.
As you exchange conformity to the world for conformity to Christ, you may be led to wear a more modest neckline or white shoes after Labor Day . . . or a rhinestone-accented pink bra. That’s the beauty of walking with God—you never know where He’ll lead you next.
So don’t be a fashion lemming; be a lemming for the Lord.
_________
Erin Straza is passionate about the wholeness and rest found in Christ alone. Drawing from her own brokenness and restoration, Erin offers women encouragement and insight from a fellow sojourner’s perspective on the mystery of God’s redemptive work. Erin and her husband, Mike, live in central Illinois, where she works as a freelance writer, copy editor, and speaker. To read more of her musings, visit her blog at erinstraza.wordpress.com
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Well written! Very important topic.
Great post! It’s crazy to see how quickly our standards as women, and as Americans, have changed. It blows your mind.
Lol! Loved the pink rhinestone-accented bra for grandma. That’s hilarious!
I’m not exactly sure what you’re saying with the whole bra example. Is there something wrong with wearing all white undergarments?
*Sigh* It’s so easy to sound offended or angry on the internet. I assure you I’m not! I love your posts. I’m just a little bit confused with the example you used. No rhyme intended.
God bless!
Hannah L.
Dear Hannah,
Thank you for commenting, I appreciate your candidness. No, there is certainly nothing wrong with wearing all white underthings, more power to you! Erin was just using it as an example of a stereotype in the past (a woman only had white to choose from and was only expected to wear white).
Does that clarify?
God bless you as well,
Christa
[...] and Lemmings Tuesday, January 6, 2009 — erinstraza See how these things relate in my guest post featured at Christa Taylor’s site, Empowered [...]
this was cute
like kirsten i just had to chuckle a bit thinking of a grandmother receiving a pink and rhinestone bra as a gift! i don’t think i could convince myself to give a rhinestone bra to my sister, let alone my grandmother, lol.
this post has a great message though, and one i often struggle with myself. my mother was in the fashion industry when i was growing up so what was ‘trendy’ was what we were encouraged to wear. i still have to remind myself often that i don’t need her approval or anyone else’s if my clothing is beautiful in the eyes of the Lord.
This is right along with what I think when I read some of the passages in the New Testament regarding dress. It’s then I start to question the church’s declaration that some things are cultural and not for today vs. something that we should really take into account.
I struggle with passages about women wearing hats, etc., because I know that God exists outside of culture– and calls us to be bigger than culture. He wants us to follow Him, and we say we’ll do anything, but most times that means that we’ll do anything that we consider rational.
Very True MintheGap and Sydney, God does exist outside of culture. But because we live in culture it is easy to impose our own paradigm, or pre-suppositions on the text. In fact, it is this type of thinking that has opened wide the door for feminist theology in the church.
We are to use scripture to study scripture, looking to the Greek helps us understand what Paul was pointing to, what his central thought was in the passage. The issue isn’t braided hair, or pearls, or costly attire in and of themselves. The issue is the association through this attire with values that are clearly worldly and not godly. Context is important, Paul is talking about the corporate church gathered on Sundays. He wants worship (or youth-group) to be unhindered! He addresses the men and the women, don’t be a distraction. It was ostentatious dress, dressing to attract attention.
Moreover, these were things the prostitutes wore- which adds another cultural element.
While we cannot use “that is no longer culturally relevant” as an excuse for ignoring biblical commands today, it is helpful to understand Paul’s intent and the setting of the writer, in the first place.
Thank you for being women who consider these issues, I am honored to walk with you along the same road as we seek to apply scripture to our lives today.
I really needed to read this post. It reminded me that it doesn’t matter what our culture or the people at college think or say to me. I belong to Christ and what He says is all that matters.
I have to chime in…I chuckled too on the pink rhinestone bra deal…lol! Funny, that sounds like something my gramma actually might have bought for herself just for the fun of it!
MInTheGap:
I know what you mean. I’ve had trouble when reading such passages concerning the headcovering or the braided hair, etc. In Biblical times, braided hair, I learned, was considered a style worn mostly by prostitutes. Yet, today…LOTS of girls braid their hair and prostitution has nothing whatsoever to do with it. The culture is VERY different. So, I sometimes wonder if such commands were based on the culture of that day. But…you could rip that theory to shreds in other areas. ‘Tis rather confusing. As for me, I pray to God and ask Him to lead me in the way I should go, and if I should do or wear something that’s not pleasing to Him , that He would give me a clear sign. Which He has done before.
Shalom!