Monday, September 14, 2009

Poking holes in yourself

Random thought while sitting in church yesterday looking at a girl with 2 earrings in each ear:
How did it become fashionable to poke a hole in your ear lobe and then use it to put jewelry on? And after that happened, who decided that it was perfectly normal, but that poking holes in other parts of yourself or more holes in your ear was weird?

Not saying I disagree with Pres. Hinckley's statement that men ought not to wear earrings and women should stick to one pair or less. Just saying that it seems like the whole piercing thing is pretty strange, and that the difference between poking holes in yourself and not poking holes in yourself is much larger than the difference between just putting one set of holes in a specific spot and putting multiple holes in various places.

3 comments:

CJ said...

Haha, I like your thoughts. Honestly, very few of the stylistic norms now endorsed by the Church have much to do with some fundamental principle behind the specific stylistic norm. I think the idea is that the Church embraces whatever the current notion of conservative/respectful attire is. We've seen that as attire and grooming of leaders has changed over the years. It's pretty ironic, though, when you think about it: the norms are taught as though based on unchanging truth, when really the specifics are almost completely dependent on larger cultural--human--trends. Granted, there are limits, but this dichotomy is notable, I think.

j said...

Yeah, another reason why it's important to teach principles, rather than just policies. I loved Elder Oaks' conference talk about passing the sacrament when I was in the MTC, where he said:

"I will not suggest detailed rules, since the circumstances in various wards and branches in our worldwide Church are so different that a specific rule that seems required in one setting may be inappropriate in another. Rather, I will suggest a principle based on the doctrines...The principle I suggest to govern those officiating in the sacrament--whether preparing, administering, or passing--is that they should not do anything that would distract any member from his or her worship and renewal of covenants."

Important to make the distinction between principles and rules.

Larissa said...

I have often had this though Brother Tripp. Doesn't make any sense to me. I like my sparkly little earrings, yet...who thought a sparkly little nose would be fun? Eyebrow? Other "things?" And who was the person who first thought, "I will contort my body and do two back flips in the air and cause injury to myself for fun (pertaining to gymnastics) and then I will walk on a small piece of wood and try to do equally stunning acts of possible death." It is just weird for me....