Ask a guy raised in the Mormon church
04-14-2014
, 01:56 PM
Since a few people have been asking about the magical Mormon underwear, I thought I’d give some information about them.
Basically, when you go to the Temple for the first time to receive your “endowments,” you receive the “Garment of the Holy Priesthood.” Garments are underwear with special symbols on them, one over each nipple, one over the navel, and one over the right knee that symbolizes covenants you make in the Temple. You make a promise to wear the garments at all times. Well, almost all. You’re allowed to take them off for bathing, swimming, exercising, and sex. But you’re supposed to immediately put them back on once you’ve finished those tasks.
You are required to wear your garments while doing yard work. Seriously, the president of the church actually sent a letter to every ward to make sure that the local leaders emphasize that members have to wear their garments while doing yard work:
Do they give you protection?
While some people have stated that garments saved them from harm, that is not official church policy. Official church policy is that garments serve to protect the wearer from Satan (i.e., temptation). It’s an “outward reminder of an inner commitment” to follow Jesus. (They don’t explain how it can be an “outward” reminder if it’s hidden from view).
What do garments look like?
Here’s a history of the garments through the years:
But that’s just a drawing. And the only place you can officially buy garments is the LDS website, which also just shows drawings:
So what do they really look like?
Although I think that’s a picture of old style garments, because other pictures show the women’s bottom’s being a lot tighter.
There are several unfortunate things for women about the garments. First, they allegedly don’t hold the pads in very well during that time of the month. So women are often forced to wear regular underwear under the garments for that time period.
Which is bad because you’re not supposed to put anything between the garments and the skin. Yes, that means that most women (I’ve seen online polls that put the number at about 55%) wear their bras over their garments! Yes, that sounds as silly and unsexy as it sounds:
The top covers the shoulders, meaning that women can’t wear sleeveless tops, spaghetti straps, tube tops, tank tops, or anything else that leaves the shoulders uncovered. Really sucks if you live in the desert, for example Utah.
The other unfortunate thing is that the bottoms are long, which means you can’t wear certain clothing, like shorter shorts or skirts. And if you do wear above the knee skirts, your garments may show. The church teaches “young women” (basically teenagers) to dress modestly. But they enforce it in adults by making them wear underwear that will show if they wear immodest clothing.
For men, garments are basically longer than normal boxer briefs. Still annoying, especially in a desert, to always be wearing two layers of tops, but nowhere near as annoying as it is for women.
The good news for non-Mormons is that you too can buy garments now. An ex-Mormon set up a site at www.mormonssecret.com, where you can buy garments. They are knock-offs and they charge you an arm and a leg, though. $86 for a women’s set of garments that would be $8.50 at the official LDS website. But the catch there is that you can only buy them at the official LDS website if you have a valid LDS.org log-on. I actually have no idea if that site is just a joke or if they will actually send you garment knock-offs.
BTW, that site uses sexualized images of men and women to try to sell the garments, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
You can see that the model is wearing panties underneath the garment, meaning she’s most likely not Mormon.
Basically, when you go to the Temple for the first time to receive your “endowments,” you receive the “Garment of the Holy Priesthood.” Garments are underwear with special symbols on them, one over each nipple, one over the navel, and one over the right knee that symbolizes covenants you make in the Temple. You make a promise to wear the garments at all times. Well, almost all. You’re allowed to take them off for bathing, swimming, exercising, and sex. But you’re supposed to immediately put them back on once you’ve finished those tasks.
You are required to wear your garments while doing yard work. Seriously, the president of the church actually sent a letter to every ward to make sure that the local leaders emphasize that members have to wear their garments while doing yard work:
Do they give you protection?
While some people have stated that garments saved them from harm, that is not official church policy. Official church policy is that garments serve to protect the wearer from Satan (i.e., temptation). It’s an “outward reminder of an inner commitment” to follow Jesus. (They don’t explain how it can be an “outward” reminder if it’s hidden from view).
What do garments look like?
Here’s a history of the garments through the years:
But that’s just a drawing. And the only place you can officially buy garments is the LDS website, which also just shows drawings:
So what do they really look like?
Although I think that’s a picture of old style garments, because other pictures show the women’s bottom’s being a lot tighter.
There are several unfortunate things for women about the garments. First, they allegedly don’t hold the pads in very well during that time of the month. So women are often forced to wear regular underwear under the garments for that time period.
Which is bad because you’re not supposed to put anything between the garments and the skin. Yes, that means that most women (I’ve seen online polls that put the number at about 55%) wear their bras over their garments! Yes, that sounds as silly and unsexy as it sounds:
The top covers the shoulders, meaning that women can’t wear sleeveless tops, spaghetti straps, tube tops, tank tops, or anything else that leaves the shoulders uncovered. Really sucks if you live in the desert, for example Utah.
The other unfortunate thing is that the bottoms are long, which means you can’t wear certain clothing, like shorter shorts or skirts. And if you do wear above the knee skirts, your garments may show. The church teaches “young women” (basically teenagers) to dress modestly. But they enforce it in adults by making them wear underwear that will show if they wear immodest clothing.
For men, garments are basically longer than normal boxer briefs. Still annoying, especially in a desert, to always be wearing two layers of tops, but nowhere near as annoying as it is for women.
The good news for non-Mormons is that you too can buy garments now. An ex-Mormon set up a site at www.mormonssecret.com, where you can buy garments. They are knock-offs and they charge you an arm and a leg, though. $86 for a women’s set of garments that would be $8.50 at the official LDS website. But the catch there is that you can only buy them at the official LDS website if you have a valid LDS.org log-on. I actually have no idea if that site is just a joke or if they will actually send you garment knock-offs.
BTW, that site uses sexualized images of men and women to try to sell the garments, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Spoiler:
You can see that the model is wearing panties underneath the garment, meaning she’s most likely not Mormon.