Note: This blog was originally posted on my Substack.
This week news broke through social media that the LDS church is introducing “open sleeve” garments in select hot climates around the world. These styles will come to the United States in the 4th quarter of 2025. People around the internet are rejoicing about this change, but I can’t join in.
I feel like I should be celebrating. This is what I wanted, right? More garment options? But as I think it through, I realize no, it’s actually not at all what I want. It’s a crumb, an appeasement, something people can hold up and say “see, the church is changing” then ignore fundamental frustrations.
I can’t feel excited because at the core of it, my underwear is still being dictated by men. How and when it changes is completely up to men. I’m frustrated because the many decades of advocating, activism, and begging have finally culminated in women receiving one inch from men. Literally.
There are so so many things to say about garments. You can read my previous piece about them here. For the sake of post length, I’ll keep my thoughts today to the newest change. I also highly recommend posts like this or this that share more about this change and the painful feelings it brings up.
So why aren’t I rejoicing with the Saints over this “win?” Because nothing has fundamentally changed. The church has doubled down on garment wearing recently, instead of acknowledging that all bodies and circumstances are different. Instead of trusting members to do what is best for themselves, they are trying to appease us with small changes while maintaining ultimate control.
At the end of the day, women’s underwear is still being dictated and controlled by men. The patriarchal structure of the church makes it so no women ever has final say on decision made about their bodies. Male leaders may ask for input or suggestions, but they are always the final decision makers and gatekeepers. Whether women have long sleeves, short sleeves, no sleeves, is all up to men. By controlling garments, men control how women dress. They’re the ones who get to decide what is “modest” and what is acceptable for Mormon women to wear every day. Men get to dictate when women wear what clothing, down to the specific activity they are doing.
I’m glad that the men in charge seem to be listening to women’s struggles; that is an improvement. But how long have women been asking for changes to the garment? Literally decades! Decades of advocating have finally brought us in 2024 an inch of fabric difference that might allow for a few different articles of clothing to be worn. And nothing has changed to improve the many health issues women face while wearing garment bottoms.
We’re still going to get infections, bleed through the white fabric, struggle to keep a pad in place. We’re still going struggle with body issues when we look in the mirror. We’re still going to cry when we go into a dressing room and try on a dozen perfectly modest dresses that don’t work with one small curve of the garment neckline. We’re still going to struggle with never-ending guilt when its 100 degrees outside and we longing stare at the women wearing sundresses. We’re still going to judge and police each other, as if the perceived length of a sleeve or pant leg is the ultimate sign of righteousness. We’re still going to gaslight ourselves and tell ourselves it’s all in our heads and it’s only our fault we struggle, not the church’s. We’re still going to feel like Joseph Smith and the legacy of his polygamy is holding us hostage from almost 200 years ago.
So no, I cannot join in the celebration. I cannot thank the men for deigning to modify a style or add a new one because it doesn’t root out the real problems.
What we need is true equality and freedom in our own choices. We need women in the structures of power in the church and in every room where decisions are being made. (Diverse women. Women who aren’t specifically chosen because they bend to patriarchy either way.) We need to truly examine the history and purpose of garments and see if they’re actually serving us, or if they’re simply a tradition entrenched in our dogma. We need to allow every member to wear the garment as they see fit for their personal bodies and circumstances without judgment or punishment.
If you’re excited for this change, I hold space for you and I’m honestly very glad for you. If you love your garments, I love that for you.
But I am mourning and I feel my Heavenly Mother weeping with me.
4 Responses
I feel similarly. I wish I could be excited, but I can’t.
I hear you and don’t feel very excited as well, given that I’m not personally drawn to the compulsory rhetoric around garments. Like you, I would have loved to see that rhetoric change. For those women who do love garments and want to wear them, I am happy for them if they are happy with these changes.
I do see the slip option as a great step forward for women who want to wear garments and who often also wear a lot of dresses. This is also a good option for women who can now sleep in just that slip and hopefully have better health outcomes because of it.
All this.
Also, I am just stymied by the way it was rolled out internationally first. If it’s a “weather conditions are dire enough” situation to cut off a few inches at the top and switch to a skirt – then that signals that the church has the moral authority to determine which garments are appropriate for the situation – even though it is the voices in primarily America that have been bringing the issue up for decades. If it’s a “business decision”, then I’d argue that “not even allowing the primarily American segment to opt in at the beginning” is poor marketing, poor to neutral public relations, and opportunity cost to make money/lose less money overall by selling garments at the higher American prices to the primarily American women who brought the issue up in the first place. NOTE: Economics is not my strong point, so I am going off of a few general economics classes and my real-world experience in micro-economics.
Any way you look at it – there is “we really didn’t think this through and care enough talk to people about it” written all over the scenario.
When men police what women wear, say, eat, and do in the Church, women become mere robots where agency is denied and thoughts are policed. My neighbor was recently visited by the Elders Quorum President, who shamed and condemned her in front of her children for not wearing her garments properly. She will not be returning to Church.