Connection to Modern Life: The Bible's Effect on Women Today

               My first blog post addressed the most prevalent piece of literature in early America: the Bible. Today, I wanted to briefly come back to that with respect to modern life. As I discussed in my previous post, the bible had a profound effect on colonial women and American women during the 16^th through 19^th centuries, particularly during colonial times. Their apparel and overall modesty, although not specified in the bible, was an issue which dominated religious teachings during that time.

                Obviously, many women no longer adhere to those principles. However, there are lots of religious American women who still allow the bible to govern their lives in many respects, one of those being how they dress. Our culture as a whole has moved away from that, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still a great many women who believe that being modest is their duty to men everywhere. The following two youtube videos are just a couple of the numerous examples that I found of modern American women whose lifestyles are clearly still effected by the Bible.  One point that the woman in the second video comes back to again and again is the fact that she believes it is the woman’s responsibility to ensure that men are not tempted by her style of dress. I think that this goes back to the topic I discussed in my post about the Bible portraying women as the “guilty” sex, as though all sin is inherently their fault somehow. In summation, the Bible remains an influential text for many women today, more so than we may realize. Tune in tomorrow for my post on early American women writers!

Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOkFEsyfjl0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73d27V2riW0