Fashion and Divorce by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 9, 1911

Fashion and Divorce

By C. M. S.

Not all things that are synchronous are related or interdependent; but some are. Among these are fashion and divorce. The increased devotion to the goddess of fashion keeps step with the increase of divorce and wife-desertion. Rev. Myra C. Hoyt, pastor of the Wales Avenue Free Baptist Church, of Brockton, declares that the extravagances and unhealthful fashions in women’s attire are “offensive in the sight of heaven.” There is no question about the truthfulness of this statement. But Mrs. Hoyt might also have stated that they are offensive in the sight of men, and in that fact lies one of the reasons for the increase of divorce. Of course, there are in every country brutes in human form, and immoral persons, whose brutality and unfaithfulness swell the number of divorces. Of this phase of the epidemic we are not speaking.

Fashion and intemperance are two evils which are working to the same end—the ruin of the home; and there are many who believe that fashion is not playing a second part in that blighting work. Fashion is a foe that comes closer into the citadel of a Christian’s heart than any other of his enemies. Wherever selfishness has driven a peg in that citadel, fashion hangs a gaudy cloak to catch the eye, hold the attention, and captivate the heart. As far as that succeeds, piety vanishes, humility gives place to vanity, and the service of self looms high above every other service, even the service of God. That puts a mighty foe of Christianity in the home, and the foe of Christianity is never the friend of the home. With fashion and selfishness conspiring together in the home,

and each strengthening the other, the home is bound to suffer.

Fashion is the foe of Christianity because Christianity teaches humility and the sacrifice of self. Where true humility is, the worship of fashion must die out; but where fashion reigns, humility ceases. Without humility, Christianity can not thrive; and where Christianity does not rule in the home, the home has no safeguard against disruption and disintegration. Thus fashion undermines the home by undermining those things which are essential to its maintenance. Said a noted preacher:—

Fashion is the greatest wrecker of the home. It is a foe to Christianity. Women who labor in the shops here neglect their homes, their families, and their churches for dress. I have had occasion to hear many of their stories. They said their husbands left them. I asked why. They answered, because their husbands could not support them. “Can’t he give you the necessities and comforts of life?” I asked. Invariably they answer: “Yes, but he can’t give me what other women have. He can’t dress me.”

A man must earn not less than fifty dollars a week to satisfy the desires of his wife in the matter of dress. I am speaking of the common people. I do not mean those who are millionaires, and go to extremes.

Christian people would do well to start a reform in dress. I wish we could convince women how foolish it is to wear tight corsets, false hair, and high heels, and persuade them, instead, to dress for the glory of their Maker.

This preacher lays at the door of fashion the responsibility for very much of the increase in the divorce evil. Women having a longing to “dress well,” to “be in style,” make demands upon the family exchequer that it is not able to bear. Then there is dissatisfaction on both sides of the house, discord, recrimination, and separation.

There is in the heart of every true man an intense desire for a place of quiet and peace and happiness and love, a shelter to which he can flee when his day’s work is done, and gain strength and courage for the conflicts of another day. But where fashion rules in that place which he has prepared, he finds no such shelter and satisfaction. The worries of the day are often added to by the worries of the evening when fashion is demanding what he can not supply. And even if actual separation does not come, still fashion drives a wedge of separation between hearts which robs the home of that which alone can make it what it ought to be.

On the other hand, where there has been no lack of money to supply the demands of fashion, the style of the costume worn by many a wife has inspired such a feeling of disgust in the heart of the husband that he has revolted against the ties he promised should always bind him, and has drifted out of the life of the one he had sworn to love, cherish, and protect. The ludicrous headgear, the ridiculous and dangerous hobble skirt, the immodest narrow skirt, the near approach to success of the harem skirt, and the threat of the militant suffragette to don masculine attire completely,—these all are adding to that condition that facilitates the operations of the divorce courts. When men lose their respect for women or when women lose their respect for men, there is not much to hold them together. And just as drunkenness, immorality, and brutality on the part of men cause women to lose their respect for them, so do the follies and foibles of expensive and ridiculous fashions cause men to lose their respect for women. Upon both these lines the way is made easy for one of God’s own institutions—marriage—to be trampled in the dust, and be made a mockery and a jest. And in destroying the home, Satan has destroyed one of God’s most potent agencies for good in this world. Christian manhood and Christian womanhood should rally to its support and protection, and make vigorous war upon those agencies that make war upon the home. C. M. S.