(non) Conformity
head coverings. cape dress. modesty. plain. I have been researching women's dress at EMU this fall. And in the past few days I have been spending a significant amount of time on that research. of it all, one concept has stuck out to me: NONCONFORMITY. It has been noted that in Mennonite circles, woman's dress held the standard of nonconformity - a physical signpost of what it meant to be "in the world but not of the world." the ideal was not to be catchy, not to be trendy ("disassociated from the trends of the world" - Marlene Epp), but for their very dress to be a witness to the counter cultural message of God and the church. the values of pacifism, of mutual aid, of community, and of humility were enshrined in the head covering and the plain dress. when dress changed there was fear that Mennonite values would disappear along with it. If Mennonites were no longer to be dressed differently than the community, would they continu...