In preparation for writing his book Dressing for the Lord, David Cloud, famous fundamentalist pontificator, asked some number of fundamentalist men this question:
“In your opinion, which of the following items of female dress cause a real potential for lust?”
- short skirts
- tight skirts
- slit skirts
- long skirts with slits to the knees
- sleeveless blouses
- low cut blouses and dresses
- tight blouses
- sheer blouses
- T-shirts
- V-neck dresses
- form-fitting jeans
- looser-fitting pants
- shorts
- one piece bathing suits
and then comes my favorite part where he feels led of the spirit to mention that:
We included pedal pushers and capris in the original survey but most of the men did not know what they are, so it turned out that the comments on those items were too irrelevant to include in this book.
Pedal pushers? I’m surprised there wasn’t also a question on whether bustles give you boners.
Of course, the results of asking a bunch of fundamentalist men what they think about low cut blouses is about as predictable as asking a bunch of NRA members what their views are on French gun laws — and just about as thoughtful and nuanced.
Unsurprisingly, when you’re a fundamentalist confirmation bias is actually considered a positive.
Sometimes, the internet actually changes the way we think about things or the way we see the world. Other times, it merely allows us to keep doing the same things we’ve always done on much larger scale.