Thursday, March 18, 2010

Found: Hair rules

From time to time, I venture back to check in on the highschool that I graduated from and I find beauties like this one hidden in their website.

This lovely depiction of what is acceptable (note the happy face) vs. unacceptable (poor depressed youngling plagued by his modern haircut) was followed by this delightful bit of copy:

Male contestants must have standard, conservative haircuts. The hair is to be tapered and off the collar. It is to be above the ears, with sideburns no longer than the middle of the ear. Please refrain from modern hairstyles (emphasis mine).  Male sponsors and guests may wear neatly-trimmed facial hair.
Those who require a haircut will not be permitted to register until they have located a barber and complied with the directive of Master Control.

Surprisingly, as this is your typical right of conservative Christian organization, the stipulations for the female appearance aren't nearly as explicit.  Just that you may be asked to kneel to ensure your dress or skirt is long enough.  And don't even think about wearing pants.  And you better be wearing hosiery.  But no helpful pictures - sadness.

I think I go back (virtually) to be grateful that I'm no longer in that community and to be amazed that this organization is still around.  I can only hope that at some point the children who are being indoctrinated to this way of life get a chance to meet someone who can show them that this faith that we share is more about love than judgment - both toward ourselves and others.

2 comments:

Christine's Arts said...

I thought at first that this was some old 50's rules for school poster. It's still there today? I agree with you about love vs. judgement. I think we can't love others well without loving ourselves and our personal quirks and style.

KT said...

Hee, one of our best acolytes started dyeing his hair various colors. Our (female) priest declared she didn't care what color his hair was, as long as it was liturgically proper! It's funny to me how hung up we get about how people are on the outside when what we should care about is nurturing and supporting what is (or should be) on the inside... KT