> I have never heard a sermon preached from
> the Bible on why women shouldn't wear pants.
> I don't think you can support that position
> scripturally.

Me neither. The Bible doesn't seem to get stricter on clothing than saying that you should dress modestly, that men should dress like men, and women should dress like women. Crossdressing goes against biblical teaching, and I believe that's where the attitude that women shouldn't wear pants comes from. Of course, what is "male" clothing and what is "female" clothing comes largely from society. A hundred years ago, I suspect it would indeed be questionable for a woman to wear pants -- pants just weren't women's clothing, then. In Scotland, men can get away with wearing dress-like things called kilts. But even there there are kilts for men and kilts for women.

But in modern western civilization, pants have been gender neutral for decades. In fact, certain styles of pants are manufactured specifically *for* women. There isn't a sane soul around that would look at a woman in pants and presume her to be a crossdresser. So as far as I'm concerned, spiritual leaders have no business crying out against women wearing pants.

That said, we Rinkies are mostly quite young and probably therefore react with more shock and horror at such restrictions than we would if we understood past generations. My parents -- just one generation before me -- lived in a time where women could not wear pants even in ANY school. My parents went to the University of Maine in Orono, where the winters are quite brutal, and the women couldn't really get away with wearing practical winter clothes unless it was COLD, and even then it wasn't always comfortable. In my grandparents' generation there would have been even less freedom. In light of the fact that attitudes toward women's clothing have shifted so far in such a very recent period of time, I don't think it's that appalling that there are still institutions that cling to the old standards.

And so I do think that the mandate that women not wear pants is inappropriate and based upon a (now) overreactive application of a biblical principle, but in the same breath I would caution against being too quick to dismiss such attitudes as militant extremism but instead acknowledge them as vestiges of part of our cultural history, good or bad.

S "realizes this post will be utterly hilarious to British readers" am