Reader Question: Will Christian Nationalists Control Female Dress?
Because if women are seen at all, they should look like ladies (Scroll to the end to listen)
When North Carolina pastor Bobby Leonard said he would acquit a man for raping a woman if she was wearing shorts, he set off a viral firestorm. He may have apologized, but his sentiment is in line with Christian Nationalist dogma.
A woman must control herself because a man cannot control himself. (Or Leonard’s version: A man is a man.)
So when a reader reached out to me recently and asked whether Christian Nationalists might limit her ability to wear a swimsuit on vacation, I thought her question was timely.
Christian Nationalist pastors drill female subservience into their congregations. Women must look like women. Some churches encourage women to wear dresses all the time; others allow slacks but they made this concession to attract members or to appease those who threatened to leave.
Dresses and Slacks, Shorts and Jeans
Dresses must not be form-fitting or revealing. No cleavage. No curve-hugging. No bare backs, midriffs, or shoulders. Sleeveless blouses are frowned upon because a man might glimpse a woman’s lacy lingerie. Skirts must hit the leg at or below the knee.
Slacks follow similar rules. They must not be tight or low-rise. I was not allowed to wear shorts that hit above the knee. Jeans were also frowned upon because they were originally made for men AND they were too form-fitting.
Swimwear
Forgive me for sharing a personal story, but it is the best way to hammer home how Christian Nationalists feel about women in swimwear.
Whenever my church sponsored youth activities that involved swimming, girls usually observed separate swim times from boys. That way, we could wear modest swimsuits without causing endless boners.
Our swimsuits were inspected for appropriateness. We couldn’t wear suits with high-cut legs, no backs, or cleavage-bared. Bikinis were forbidden. If our swimsuit didn’t please the inspector, we had to wear clothing over it to swim.
When swimming in a mixed group, girls had to wear dark shirts and long dark pants over our swimsuits. (Because females in wet t-shirts NEVER make dudes think about sex. *eyeroll*)
Makeup, Jewelry and Hair
Christian Nationalists have many feelings about the feminine appearance. Makeup should be minimal and natural. Women must not be overpainted because they look slutty. My school inspected our makeup at random. Girls were forced to wash their faces if they wore too much.
Jewelry can be used to draw attention to sensual female zones. Necklaces should not emphasize the chest area or dip between the breasts. Dangling earrings draw attention to the neck, another lust-inducing erogenous zone. Too much jewelry should also be avoided, as it looks unnatural.
A woman’s hair should be feminine even when it is short, though some Christian Nationalist churches forbid women to have short hair. Pixie cuts and similar are frowned upon.
The overall goal of these rules?
Christian Nationalist women are taught to be quiet, pliant, and subservient. Our culture of trolling women over their appearance is seeded in patriarchal Christian Nationalism.
Females should not draw attention to themselves. We must look feminine but not too pretty. Our faces must be natural and our bodies must be covered so as not to attract the male gaze. Women are to be neither seen nor heard.
While it is hard to imagine such a reduction of freedom in the United States, we have many global examples. Muslim nations operating under Sharia law always police female dress. Autocratic countries like Hungary also enforce strict Christian Nationalist gender roles and ideas about female dress and comportment. As far-fetched as it seems, restrictions on female dress could absolutely happen here.
On a related note, Christian Nationalists believe men should NEVER dress like women and vice-versa. They insist that God defined distinct binary genders: Male and female. (We covered this HERE.) Each must dress as God intended. This is one reason for their oppression of drag queens, trolling of females who look masculine, disdain for effeminate men, hatred of gender-neutral dressing, and disgust when men wear makeup and/or female jewelry (see Harry Styles or Timothée Chalamet.)
How could Christian Nationalist ideas about female dress impact YOU or someone YOU love?
Women could be required to wear Christian Nationalist “feminine” dress in public places or risk harassment, fines, or even arrest.
Christian Nationalists could foist their feminine dress codes on workplaces, leading to an exodus of women.
Many women could be forced to stay home because they do not have the funds to buy a Christian Nationalist-approved wardrobe.
Female movement could be further restricted. Women could be barred from public swimming pools, lakes and beaches because Christian Nationalists consider most swimsuits to be immodest.
Women could be blamed when men sexually assault them simply because they were wearing something Christian Nationalists deem “inappropriate.”
A bullying culture could develop around dress whereby female violators are ganged up on, harassed, and even assaulted for failure to conform. (Similar to what happened recently in Iran. A woman died because a group beat her for wearing her burkha “incorrectly.”)
Women could die.
Female mental health could suffer from the constant pressure of conforming to rigid Christian Nationalist rules for dress and comportment.
People could be oppressed, assaulted, or arrested for failing to dress according to the binary gender assigned at birth.
They'll start with dress codes and uniforms in schools, and dress codes in government buildings / on government property. If they get away with that it will progress from there. Authoritarians know that if you can control someone's appearance, you've made a big step in taking away their autonomy, and you're well on your way to controlling their behavior, and subduing their mind.
It is so obvious to the vast majority of humans that these churches are nothing but Cults. "A leader who indoctrinates members with unorthodox or extremist views, practices, or beliefs".
It's completely a subjective and self-serving proclamation for them to claim they are an actual religion as if they have some authority from god, , as if they are somehow sanctioned. To hide behind a title such as "Baptist" then implement such outlandish and extreme positions to manipulate for power, control, greed are classic signs of a cult.
In my opinion, all religion is a cult, that's how against religion I am. From the moment any particular religion or church or minister tries to make me conform, tells me how to act, who I befriend, how I dress, how to vote, rituals I must follow, etc......game over. Bye bye! Because at that point they prove who they really are.
I would though be willing to give certain churches a concession on my hardline view if they would allow parishioners to come as they are, be who they are, not control them, not manipulate them,.... to only pray for peace, love, and compassion.......to help the most vulnerable..... and be pro-choice. A church who had clergy that would actually speak out against Christian nationalism. I might then have a teeny tiny bit of respect for them.