Big Hair, Big Love

Because of the numerous references to the HBO series, Big Love, on the news and elsewhere, I don't feel that bad making light of the polygamist/child abuse situation in Texas. (On a serious note though, child abuse intake 101 states that removing the child from the home is the LAST RESORT, and disrupting an entire community is basically retarded. That's all I'm saying. This is bringing a lot of my child abuse intake experience back, even dealing with that kind of religious community in Sarasota, FL.) And a note to my Mormon friends, there's a difference between cult religion, and religion...this is not about you, obviously.

Instead I want to focus on the whole Big Hair, Big Dresses look. In this pic, Rozie, who says she is 23 (must be a really hard life if she is 23), has achieved the Mormon Mullet - perfect upswept hairdo, feminine tendrils hanging down, with the party hair going down her back. The de rigeur lavender pastel dress only accentuates the beautiful silver of her braces. I ask you, if you are going to have that hairdo and that dress, do you really need to worry about having straight teeth?

Of course, this is not this woman's choice. This appearance is obviously a community requirement, dictated by the men. So everything we are seeing is what these men want. At best this is to desexualize the women; at worst it is a form of emotional abuse - turning women into objects by making them all achieve the same appearance (hmmm, the same thing fashion magazines do to women every day). On the other hand, maybe this is the look that is as hot to men living in the cult as implants and thongs are to the average Joe.

Yearning for Zion? Zion is pastel dresses, covering every limb no matter the weather, long undyed hair, and multiple versions of the same woman under your roof.