Thank you Lynn for re-sending those. I really apprecite it.
'Image integrity'
Appearance is about respect for self and respect for others
By Sarah Jane Weaver
Church News staff writer
What people wear does matter — both in the way they feel about themselves and in the way others view them.
Just ask Judith Rasband.
A former BYU faculty member and popular BYU Education Week speaker, she has spent the last 40 years as an image educator, author and consultant. The director of the Conselle Institute ofImage Management, she has appeared on "Oprah," "Good Morning America" and the "Today Show" and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor and USA Today.
Her message is simple: "Appearance communicates."
Dress, she said, is an emotional, sensitive — even controversial — subject. "Few people recognize how their dress affects them," she said. "It is a controversial topic largely because people don't know what they are dealing with."
Research, she said, indicates body-baring clothing sends many messages: "Look at me." "I'm sexy." "I am open to advances." "I am insecure." Tight-fitting clothing sends some of those messages and others: "I don't care anymore." "I don't know any better." "I need to look like everyone else." And finally, deconstruction of clothing, clothing that is ripped, ragged, torn, dirty, backwards and unfinished, sends other messages: "Anything but the norm." "In your face." "Anything for shock value." "I'm cool, edgy, defiant, and tough."
She works to help people recognize the message their clothing sends and choose fashion trends that maintain their "image integrity."
"There are options for comfort, individuality, creativity and style as well as economy," she said.
In making a choice, she recommends consumers ask themselves, "Why is it in fashion?" "What is this look saying?" "Why do I want to wear it?" "What is my intent?"
Sister Rasband stressed that there is more to modesty than being covered up. "Modesty is also about attitude and fit," she said. "Modesty is about common sense."
Ultimately, people should decide what they want to "adopt, adapt or avoid" before feeling pressured.
Over the years she has designed a "Personal/Professional Style Scale" which she uses in consulting for businesses and others on dress codes and design elements. Research indicates the way people dress affects the way they think, feel, act and behave. It also impacts the way the people they come in contact with react and respond to them.
"As dress standards go down," she said, "we get a relaxation of manners, morals and productivity."
For example, she said, companies with a "business casual" dress code often see a decline in effectiveness and ethics. "Contrary to popular belief, dress-down days in the workplace bring a decrease in mannerly behavior and productivity, along with an increase in harassment litigation within corporate settings," she said.
A person's image is always at work, Sister Rasband explained. "It can work for us or against us, and often without our awareness," she said. "We are so unaware of the influence of how we present ourselves."
Everyone practices some kind of image management everyday. They dress for the weather, work, the occasion or to save time or money or both. "It simply needs to become a more conscious effort," she said.
When people dress immodestly, they may send a message they didn't intend. Immodest fashions are about "defiance, rebellion, sex and sleaze" and are a reflection "of our own insecurity."
And she warns, "You can be fully covered and still immodest."
Even modest clothing can send the wrong image when worn to the wrong places without thought or planning, she adds. For example, when choices are available, Latter-day Saints should choose carefully the clothing they wear to Church.
Denim, for example, is a durable, tough, utilitarian fabric brought to America from deNeims, France, to clothe the men working in the California gold mines. Denim is in total harmony with physical labor and play. In surveys, she said, teens admit the reason they love to wear jeans to school is because they are "all ready to play."
But when people have a choice, denim sends the wrong message when worn in sacrament meeting, Sister Rasband said. "If the intent is to be reverent, respectful and refined, then we will choose a garment of a more refined fabric, in harmony with the location and the occasion."
Another example, she said, is a T-shirt. Originally worn as an undergarment, T-shirts are generally comfortable and communicate a relaxed demeanor. "A white T-shirt hanging below a shorter top for the purpose of modesty appears more like underwear exposed," she said. If T-shirts are being worn for modesty, she recommends Church members opt for a colored tee. Then she adds the same warning when wearing T-shirts to Church. "When our intent is to be reverent, respectful, refined, or invite the Spirit of God, then we will choose a more refined shirt, in harmony with the location and the occasion."
Finally, she said, rubber flip-flops were originally worn as public shower shoes, pool shoes or beach shoes. "The wearer simply appears undressed. Worn with day, evening, Church, or wedding clothes, flip-flops communicate that the wearer didn't have time to dress, didn't make time to dress, didn't care to get dressed and/or didn't care about refinement and respect for the people, place or occasion." In addition, the "shuffle-slop" sound of flip-flops is distracting, she said.
She encourages people to put a little thought and allocate some of their budget for their wardrobe. In many instances, people could buy an appropriately stocked wardrobe with the cost of what their family spends each month eating out, she said.
In essence, Sister Rasband said, image and dress are about respect — "respect for self, respect for others, respect for occasions, roles and goals"
They addtionally came out with an article because there was such a huge response to this inital article.
Modesty is more than covering bodies
After recent articles on various social issues, the Church News called for questions from readers. Following is an answer to one question, prompted by an article title, "Image Integrity" (Church News, June 29, 2007). In future weeks, experts will answer questions on other social issues. To submit a question, e-mail sarah@desnews.com, or write 30 E. 100 South, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84110.
Can you articulate why modesty is more than being covered?
Regarding issues of modesty versus immodesty, we're dealing with something much bigger than the simple matter of what's covered and what's not.
Knowing that modesty is not just a Mormon matter, let's go to the very public Webster's New World College Dictionary. There we find that modest and modesty describe "behaving, dressing, or speaking in a way that is considered proper, decent, or decorous; quiet, humble, in moderation, not extreme or excessive; humble in appearance, style." References to being or not being "humble" are intriguing, as we have people taking pride in not taking care of themselves.
There is certainly more to modesty than simply covering our bodies. Modesty has everything to do with attitude, manner, and manners, which reflect the inward condition of our heart and mind.
When you see people wearing a skimpy tank top in 30-degree weather, shirts three sizes too small, ripped and ragged jeans or baggy pants with three inches of underwear exposed, common sense says the choice of what to wear has nothing to do with limited availability, high cost, or comfort. It's all about attitude and intent. It relates to women and girls, men and boys.
Oh, yes, immodest dress is about fashion, but not fashion as the praiseworthy art form that strives to create beauty and harmony in clothing design and appearance. Immodest fashions of our day are about fashion for shock value to get attention or express defiance and rebellion.
Fashion today is too much about attitude and deconstruction — trash fashion that's ripped, ragged, dirty, stained, faded, frayed, and raw. Instead of fashion coming together in modest, well-fitted, finished, attractive, handsome, or beautiful, harmonious garments, we're now seeing body-baring, tight-fitting, deconstructed clothes; underpants and undershirts sticking out; lingerie-style-camisoles worn on the outside over T-shirts instead of wearing a blouse; clothes worn inside-out with tags and raw seams exposed; suit jackets worn with faded jeans, cargo-pants, pajamas, or brown-stained dirty denim with "whiskers" (streaks) at the crotch. Each of these looks is immodest, as it distracts or draws undue and negative attention to itself and to the body, making the "anti-statement" of defiance or rebellion.
We need to pay more attention to what we're buying into. When a popular line of low-riding jeans is labeled the "Offenders," you know it's all about creating an appearance intended to offend others. When fashion advertisers push "dirty denim" and "whiskers," purposely designed to draw attention to the lower torso, you know it's designed to be suggestive. When fashion industry articles are titled, "Trash Fashion," and "Sewer Chic," you know we've sunk to new lows. But knowing and admitting these points are entirely different.
Immodest fashions are also about blindly following the trend just to fit in, a reflection of our own insecurity and also pushed for the sake of sales. "But it's in fashion," and "everybody else is wearing it," never were justifiable excuses for wearing immodest clothing.
Elder Spencer W. Kimball, who later became Church president, knew what was coming and did not mince words in warning: "We are witless accomplices in Satan's efforts to deconstruct the tradition for modest, beautiful styles in clothing to ragged jeans and T-shirts with stupid pictures." (Spencer W. Kimball, "A Style of Our Own," BYU, 13 February 1951).
"Immodest" describes anything that draws undue or negative attention to ourselves and to our body. It's distracting. Anything that distracts from the purpose of education, business, leadership or worship does not belong in the school, the office, the home, the community, the Church or temple. — Judith Rasband is a wife, mother and grandmother, and director of the Conselle Institute of Image Management.
