Facebook is a weird place. Though I have my friends list pretty well curated, every now and then something comes through my newsfeed that at best raises my eyebrows, and at worst infuriates me. What follows is one of those times. It was accompanied by a picture of a young women from behind, wearing very short shorts (I am not including the picture), and was followed with cries of “Amen!”

Young ladies, this is for you!!!

A woman arrived in a store wearing clothes that showed her body all too well. The shop owner, being a wise older man, took a good look at her, asked her to sit down, looked straight into her eyes, and said something she would never forget for the rest of her life.“Young Lady, everything that God has made valuable in this world, is covered up and hard to see or find.”For example:

1. Where can you find diamonds?• In the ground, covered and protected.

2. Where are the pearls?• Deep in the ocean, covered and protected in a beautiful shell.

3. Where can you find gold?• Underground, covered with layers of rock, and to get there you have to work very hard and dig deep.

He looked at her again and said, “Your body is sacred and unique to God.”You are far more precious than gold, diamonds, and pearls, therefore you must be covered too. He then added: “If you keep your precious minerals like gold, diamonds, and pearls deeply covered, a “reputable mining organization” with the necessary machines, will work for years to mine those precious goods.

First, they will contact your government (family),

Second, sign professional contracts (marriage),

Third, they will professionally extract those goods, and tenderly refine those precious goods. (marital life).

But if you let your minerals find themselves on top of the Earth’s surface (exposed to everyone), you will always attract many illegal miners to come, exploit, illegally, and freely take those riches and leave you without the precious goods God gave you!

WOMEN, YOU ARE VALUABLE!! Remember – Class is more desirable than Trash.

Author – Diane Walls.

Holy moly.

First, the human body is not an object. Let’s just start there. I don’t care if you’re comparing it to pearls or gold or diamonds, objectifying it is problematic in and of itself. Do we want other people to think of us as objects or as people? We are more than our bodies! We are not “precious minerals” to be mined, and the whole analogy is creepy and unnecessarily sexual.

And this whole idea of contacting your family and signing contracts and being “extracted” and “tenderly refined?” Yikes. Your body belongs to you. Full stop. It does not belong to your family. It does not belong to your partner. It does not need to be hidden. It is not up to someone else to “tenderly refine” anything about you. You’re allowed to take up space, and to show up in the world in the way you feel the most comfortable. Your body has worth because YOU have worth. I don’t care what you are (or are not) wearing.

The last full paragraph reads like a page out of the Victim Blaming handbook. If we expose our body, we’re told, it will “always attract many illegal miners to come, exploit, illegally, and freely take those riches.” It is no different than saying that someone who was dressed “provocatively” was asking to get sexually assaulted. To be very, very clear: If someone is assaulted, or disrespected, or treated poorly, it is 100% the fault of the perpetrator, 100% of the time. Dressing a certain way does not give someone carte blanche to treat you the way that they like. Ever.

Finally, that last line?

“Class is more desirable than Trash”?

It is not classy to judge someone on their appearance. It is not classy to treat someone as lesser-than because they are dressed in a way you disapprove of. It is not classy to call someone “trash”! Dressing a certain way does not make someone trash, nor does a lack of covering up. Even if I’d agreed with the entire previous tome, she would have lost me at the last line. It’s not nice to call people trash. Also, class is more desirable than trash? I thought the whole point was to make yourself less desirable? Is it okay if you’re desirable if you’re dressed “classy?”

And make no mistake. If you feel more comfortable in conservative clothing, great! It’s your choice to make. The beauty is that we ALL get to choose how we’re most comfortable. When my daughter (15 at the time of this writing) asks me my opinion on what she’s wearing, my questions are simple. “Are you comfortable? Do you feel good in it?” If she answers in the affirmative, she is good to go. Actually now that I’m thinking about it, even if she’s physically uncomfortable, it’s still her choice to make. People make all kinds of interesting choices in the name of fashion. 🙂

I’m far more concerned with how we treat each other – regardless of how we’re dressed – than I am with how much skin Suzy Thompson happens to be showing.