2012-12-16

Pants svithe

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First, if you don't immediately grasp the meaning of pants today, please do not read the rest of this post. You're happier remaining ignorant (I'm not including any links) and I'll be addressing an audience already vested in the question of what color tie I wore today.

Now that the pants-ignorant (and thus blissful) have left, so's you know, I did wear a purple tie today.

When I first became aware of the Wear Pants to Church people I thought it was silly, poorly described, unnecessarily antagonistically presented, silly, etc etc etc; I rolled my eyes, and proceeded to forget about it, stupidly assuming the rest of the world would do the same.

The rest of the world would not do the same.

Next I was aware, the Pants people had turned into a bevy of shameless media-grubbers, and I went back to the Facebook page, hit DECLINE, and said as much.

To be clear, I am completely in favor of the group's intentions, but I thought the execution was awful and the courting of media frenzy tasteless.

Last night however, I reconsidered my position. Not because I felt any differently about the event, but because of the hater trolls that had come out in force. An army of fools and dopes and crueltymongers had come out to attack the Pants people. And as poorly as they had made their attempt to effect awareness, I never thought they were demons in pantsuits.

No one aware of both me and Pants Day can doubt that I would be aware of the latter.

And so today, in solidarity with the pantsers, I wore a purple tie.

I would rather be intentionally associated with a bunch of media-hungry but good-intentioned social hacks, then mistakenly associated with the hoard of antichristian haters that rose up to attack them.

So yes. Purple I was.

And seriously: Wear pants. As a symbol, it ain't bad.

previous svithe

5 comments:

  1. This reflects pretty well my own evolving feelings on the subject, with the exception that I wasn't (and am still) not super bothered by the grab for media attention. It seems like nothing drives institutional shifts in the church like PR, so if that's the playing field, I can't blame people for suiting up to play there.

    I'm not really sure how much of lasting significance has been accomplished by a bunch of women wearing pants to church, and I also rolled my eyes and figured I'd ignore the whole thing when I first caught wind of it. Then facebook exploded with people who thought it was so ridiculous that they couldn't stop coming back to tell everyone who stupid and petty and bitchy and ridiculous they were, and then I thought, I think someone struck a nerve.

    Anyway, I look good in pants.

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  2. .

    So you are the more callipygian, after all?

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  3. No pants for me. Dresses are more fetal-friendly, and it wouldn't have made a bit of difference in my ward anyway. I've never been in one so excessively kind and welcoming--pants or otherwise--and you better believe I'm wallowing in the love.

    BUT. It made me think about some things I hadn't thought about before. And I was hyper aware that not a single sister participated in our sacrament meeting program today. (You better believe I asked two women to pray during gospel doctrine to compensate.) Most importantly, I was reminded of the need to love people more fully and openly and unconditionally so I'm not "mistakenly associated with the hoard of antichristian haters." Somebody's gotta do us proud; it may as well be me.

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  4. Were there many wearing pants/purple in your ward? I forgot until that evening that the event had been that day. Oops. As far as the pants movement being "media-grubbing," watching a video interview from the founder made me think that she was looking more for a change on the local level instead of institutionally. Knowing what I know about gender roles in the Gospel, there are certain things that simply cannot be changed with a protest. However, on the local level, I believe there are some changes that could be made. But those changes do not require changes in the Church institution. Anyway, just a few thoughts.

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  5. .

    In my ward we had lots of pants (but we do every week) and purple (this was more notable). But I agree: it's on the local level that the possible changes will begin. The only question that matters in cases such as this is what can be done today where I am?

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