Sunday, October 3, 2010

I Hate Bra Straps

Grams can't stand it any more. I just have to finally say it. I hate it when women deliberately show their bra straps. I'm not talking about the occasional, stray strap peaking out now and then. I'm talking about blouses, tanks and dresses that are clearly meant to be worn with a strapless or T-back bra, yet women just go ahead and wear their regular bras and let the straps just show. I've noticed that young girls even seem to wear contrasting or matching colors. I hate it!

Grams tries to be tolerant, really I do. If you're just hanging out at the park or maybe even the mall, I'll just look the other way. But, if you're going to church, come on people, show a little respect.

As I've told you before, I was raised in the Southern Baptist Church. I know it's different now, but in my youth we didn't even wear pant suits to church. Dresses were the only acceptable attire for church. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was okay to wear slacks when I started attending the Catholic Church.

The church we attend now is in a very small farming community. Casual attire is very acceptable and we often wear blue jeans to church. But, this morning there was a young woman seated about three rows in front of me who was wearing a blouse that had deep vees cut into the armholes on both sides of the back creating kind of an X-back and baring almost all of the upper part of her back. She had two sets of straps in two different colors showing. I assume what I was seeing was a bra strap and a camisole strap. It was all I could do not to take off my sweater and drape it over her shoulders and back.

Aside from the inappropriateness of the blouse and exposed straps, the weather was cool this morning; cool enough that I had a sweater over my blouse. It is highly unlikely that she was not uncomfortably chilly. But most of all, it was just not proper attire for church. My mother would have described it as "trailer park trash" and I would have been sent to my room to dress properly. To borrow a phrase from Bill Cosby, "Come on people!"

I do want to point out that there is no photo to accompany this post. I resisted the urge to snap a picture with my cell phone for two reasons. One, because it would have been inappropriate behavior for church and, two, because my mother-in-law was sitting right next to me. See, I know how to behave.