Guest Post: The garment hack that changed my life (and very well might change yours too)

Guest Post by LDS girl with opinions

My obedience game is strong.  All of my adult life I have checked all the appropriate boxes without too much resentment.  One of the biggest pride points of my life is that I wore garments without really complaining about them for 25 years! 

But that all changed one day as I folded a white load of laundry a few weeks after my young, recently endowed, soon-to-be a-missionary son had gone through the temple.  To offer perspective, my son and my husband are both a good foot taller than me.  I don’t know what it was about that particular moment in time but it hit me like a train.  I held them up side by side.  My son and hubby’s GARMENT BOTTOMS WERE HALF THE LENGTH OF MINE!   (I’m 5’2” and yes, I wear petites.) I could hardly believe it.  That was the first time it occurred to me that garments aren’t just about reminding us of our covenants.  Clearly, they are a means of policing women’s modesty too.  Why else would men’s garments be that much shorter than women’s?  

My mind flashed back to a scene 2 weeks earlier.  My son was getting ready to go to the gym.  He had on shorts he had worn, pre-endowment, to the gym but they were easily mid-thigh.  I pulled him to the side and reminded him that now that he had been through the temple he should really try to wear his garments whenever he could. He wasn’t much for cardio so I knew he was just going to lift weights.  “I know, Mom, I’m wearing them”, as he pulled the short up just enough to see the white indicator below his shorts.  “That’s crazy, I thought!  What I wouldn’t give to have garments I could wear with my tennis skirts.”  I thought of all the time I lost over the last 25 years  running home from the gym to dutifully change out of my gym clothes into my garment-accommodating ensemble for the rest of the day.   

I gotta admit I stewed over it for a week or so after my epiphany.  This is such a HUGE double standard!  It was so unfair!  Men can pretty much wear whatever they want!

I live in Texas and most summer days are at least 100 degrees.  The summer before I had found some really cute dresses just above the knee that kept me cool and yet I felt comfortable in them.  Imagine my surprise when the very next summer I pull those exact same dresses out of my closet and they were too short for the new garments I had.  Have you ever felt like the length line of your garment bottoms was a moving target?  Well, apparently it is!  I remember being so frustrated because as the obedient rule follower I was this only meant one thing!  I wasn’t going to be able to wear ANY of the dresses THIS summer that I wore LAST summer. 

I thought back to a line in my patriarchal blessing that has always stood out to me.  It tells me about how I rejoiced about the chance to get a body and to come to earth.  If I’m being honest, I don’t know that I had the best feelings about my body.  I workout most days each week,  observe a pretty healthy nutrition regimen, and I like to dress in cute clothes.  But I don’t know that I (at that time) really LIKED my body.  I pondered this for a while and realized that my shoulders and legs happen to be my favorite thing about my body and since they are always carefully covered, I don’t really see them very often.  Looking at my garment-clad body in the mirror left me feeling..not very feminine and not very joyful.

So I did something that shocked even myself.  I went online and ordered every type of men’s garment  bottom in MY size. 

Yep, you guessed it.  I wear men’s underwear.  (Technically if you wear garments, you do too because ALL garments are fashioned after men’s underwear.)  There aren’t any rules against this in the handbook. And I can confidently affirm that I do indeed wear the garment as instructed when I’m asked in my next temple recommend interview.

But now I can wear a lot of things that show more of my legs.  (I’m looking forward to the new sleeveless Gs so that I can wear tops that show my shoulders soon. )  My brilliant solution has opened up a lot of clothing options I never had before.  And for the first time in my adult life, I am so much happier about being in my body.  

So try my garment hack for yourself.  And if you see me in a cute skirt that’s way above my knee, know that I’m wearing garments.  (They may or may not have a penis pouch.) 

LDS girl with opinions and her husband are the proud parents of five children. Not because they can check certain LDS boxes but because they are just all around good people. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor that works with females. She spends her free time reading good books, journaling, magnifying her calling(s), and FaceTiming with her missionary.. She also enjoys simple pleasures like a dirty Diet Coke and a Target run.