Mormon Girl's Modesty Club Campaign At South Pasadena High School In California Goes Viral: The Story Of Saige Hatch

A high-school freshman who was tired of seeing her classmates dress like tarts at school each day has started a Modesty Club in a bid to teach her peers a lesson, and it's now gone viral, reaching the pages of the Daily Mail. The courageous crusader is 15-year-old Saige Hatch (screenshot at left), who felt overwhelmed by the crop tops, exposed cleavage and unnervingly short shorts at South Pasadena High School in California, and is now crusading for a more traditional dress code. She told ABCNews "From elementary to middle school, and then to high school, I noticed immodesty. I really wanted to start a club to bring awareness to it and bring remembrance to what modesty is".

Saige defines immodesty is showing cleavage, stomach or shoulders, as well as shorts, dresses, and skirts that are too short or too tight. The existing dress code is liberal enough as it is, requiring students to only cover the range of skin from armpit to The Bottom Line, which is further defined as at least "a hand's width below the bottom of the buttocks", but Saige says that's not even being enforced. Her Modesty Club currently has 17 members, but her website, ModestyClub.com, reaches a wider audience, with more than 1,000 members from the United States and 14 other countries. And while it may appear she's preoccupied with female dress standards, she appeals to boys to help out. One way boys can help out is to respectfully decline dates with girls who dress too provocatively.

Saige also employs feminist arguments to persuade more people. On the home page of ModestyClub.com, she writes "...Our bright heroic women are being made the fool. A fool to think that to be loved they must be naked. To be noticed they must be sexualized. To be admired they must be objectified". Smart move, because some feminist Mormons have expressed concern about these modesty campaigns being disproportionately focused upon women. Any feminist woman who is truly concerned about women being overly sexualized and objectified should support modesty campaigns.

In the Los Angeles Times version of the story, it was revealed that Saige Hatch is the daughter of Brent Hatch, further identified as a cousin of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was also revealed that one of her siblings, McKay Hatch, made national headlines and appeared on The Tonight Show after founding a No Cussing Club at the same school in 2008, which subsequently led to a California resolution establishing Cuss Free Week in 2010. Since neither the Daily Mail nor the Times mentioned their religious affiliation, I immediately did some Googling to find out if they are Mormon. And sure enough, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported on September 19th, 2012 that McKay Hatch is now serving a mission in Salt Lake City and talks about Saige attending church. This LDS Church News article also confirms that the family is Mormon. There's your answer.

Saige's campaign has attracted variable reaction. While she receives considerable support, her father's van was egged and vandalized with graffiti, and some people called their house making threats. But South Pasadena Mayor Michael Cacciotti paid tribute to Saige's efforts by proclaiming December 3-7 as "Modesty Week" in South Pasadena. And Saige is just getting started; in the long term, she plans to put together an online petition to members of the film and magazine industries for more modest attire, and to write to clothing designers to urge them to make more modest clothing for women. In the short term, she wants to arrange a vote in school to either enforce the existing dress code or switch to uniforms.

BYU Student Brittany Molina Gets The Last Laugh, Lands Modeling Job At Chris And Kate's

Remember BYU student Brittany Molina, who got a mash note from a male student on February 14th telling her that her skirt was too short despite the fact she was wearing leggings underneath? Well, it looks like she got the last laugh. She's landed an endorsement and modeling job with Chris and Kate's, a Utah-based clothing company that specializes in modest attire. KSL news video embedded below:

BYU student chided for outfit becomes model for modest clothing company | ksl.com

According to her Twitter site, Brittany was extended the offer on February 19th. Brittany says she still doesn't know who gave her the note, and doesn't seem too particularly interested in finding out. Apparently the Honor Code office has not gotten involved, because she maintains a highly positive attitude towards both BYU and the LDS Church as evidenced by a post on her blog. She writes the following:

When I was being interviewed I really didn't know what to say but to be very careful in my wording because I truly love BYU, and I think the Honor Code is here to protect us and help us be better people. but like I said earlier, the honor code is to help us be modest. not be self-righteous and judgmental. I LOVE the LDS faith. (I served a mini mission and during high school I invited all of my friends over for discussions.) So I didnt want the news people to cut me in a way that was unfavorable towards the church or BYU. But, after thinking about it. I really wish I would have shared more of my thoughts (to the people of the LDS faith, not for the whole world...) about how men like this really aren't approaching the situation in the right way.

More perspective on the guy who gave the note to Brittany is presented on By Common Consent, in the form of this comment:

BYU Student Says: February 16, 2012 at 2:04 pm
I know the guy who wrote the note. We were roommates last year. I would recognize that handwriting anywhere, and I know that he studies in the Tanner Building where this girl was studying, according to the original post on Facebook.

He’s an idiot. He also doesn’t believe women should have the right to vote. (If they’re doing as the Lord commands and staying home, and if they’re doing what the Lord commands and being of one heart and one mind with their husband [who incidentally belongs to the Constitution Party], then there’s no need for them to vote because their husband can handle the affairs outside the home. It’s the system God ordained, don’t you argue with me you follower of Satan, you!)

The best part is that he probably made some sort of lewd remark about the girl (either to himself or to a friend), then wrote the note anonymously and gave it to her, without any idea of the hypocrisy of it all. And he probably felt super righteous for doing it, too, and anybody who questions his methods or motives is simply questioning God. After all, the Honor Code was written by God.

Goodness I hated living with him.

(He once took our dishes — every last one of them — and took them to his parents’ house in Lehi. He left a passive aggressive not saying that if we weren’t responsible enough to wash them, we weren’t responsible enough to have them.)

Oh, and his number one complaint about BYU and life in general is that women won’t go out with him. I wonder why.

The story continues to spark debate, although most people are supportive of Brittany. The BYU Student Review has picked up the story, and a sampling of some of the 107 comments posted to the KSL story are presented below:

Bitsko3 posted 1 day ago:
LOL! I love it!

She was wearing thick winter leggings. Totally opaque. She was covered from neck to toes and all the way to her wrists. Short of a burqa she could not possibly have been more covered up.

Whoever wrote her that note has some very serious issues. Especially worrisome is the fact that he was concerned that the sight of her bare hands and face was dangerous to his moral purity. In other words, he was concerned that the mere presence of a female, with any part of her anatomy visible to his eye, could cause him to lose control of himself.

Sounds like a budding rapist to me.

green_eggs posted 14 hours ago:
This article provides a great opportunity to discuss leggings or any other form fitting clothing. Wearing leggings (even opaque) does not provide excuse to wear skirts or shorts that are cut shorter than what you'd normally wear. I've noticed women who believe that leggings give allowance to wear even only a long shirt with no dress. This is NOT modest.

This girl's outfit is no where near a burqa. I'm not saying that burqas are right or wrong, but they are not form fitting. Form fitting clothing "leaves little to the imagination".

Would this girl truly have worn the exact same dress on campus if she wasn't wearing the leggings?

BYU Student Brittany Molina "Counselled" For Provocative Dress In Valentine's Day "Love Note"

Brittany Molina, with the "love note"

This story has become truly viral, having been picked up internationally by the Daily Mail. A coed at Brigham Young University in Provo received what she thought was a love note, but turned out to be a critique for excessively provocative attire.

On February 14th, Brittany Molina, a 21-year-old accounting student, was handed a note by an unidentified male student. Since it was Valentine's Day, she thought it was going to be a love note. Imagine her surprise and her initial anger when she read this:

"You may want to consider that what you're wearing has a negative effect on the men (and women) around you. Many people come to this university because they feel safe, morally as well as physically, here. They expect others to abide by the Honor Code that we all agreed on. Please consider your commitment to the Honor Code (which you agreed to) when dressing each day. Thank you."

Since it came from a peer rather than someone in authority, she was initially riled up, even though the Honor Code encourages students to bring violations to their peers' attention, so she posted the note with a photo of herself and the clothes she was wearing online. Within 24 hours, it went viral. Her Twitter site is publicly available, but you must be a Facebook member to view her Facebook page. KSL news video embedded below:

Student tweet sparks conversations about BYU's dress code | ksl.com

There has been no official reaction from the BYU Honor Code enforcement office. BYU's honor code states that women's dress is "inappropriate when it is sleeveless, strapless, backless, or revealing; has slits above the knee; or is form fitting. Dresses, skirts, and shorts must be knee-length or longer." The latter phrase is the bone of contention; as is evident in the photo posted above, Brittany's dress is above the knee, but she's wearing non-form fitting leggings beneath it. Because of the leggings, it would not have occurred to me that it might be an Honor Code violation, but a number of people believe the leggings don't matter; the length of the skirt alone still constitutes an Honor Code violation. The dress code was obviously written to discourage female students from wearing miniskirts, but leaves a grey area when shorter dresses are worn in concert with leggings. The male student apparently took Elaine Dalton's "Guardians Of Virtue" talk a bit too seriously.