Slips Stink! Former Jehovah's Witness Women Speak Out 

Misogyny, sexual harassment, and pedophilia are always added baggage for women in any situation. But I can't imagine how much worse it is inside of a cult. I hope every woman heals from these disgusting people

Grew up in the 70’s in Germany. Things that were not liked or tolerated were, perms ( as a white girl you wanted perms to make your hair more curly ,looking more full) , painting toe nails, long hair, even for female teenagers, denim skirts or jackets, no short dresses or skirts , if possible no make up , and on and on…..today , wife of elders were short dresses even though they have huge legs, green toe nails, fake hair, fake eyelashes and on and on…..oh how things have changed!

I remember being told to pin together my 3" kick pleat in my suit skirt before my part on the assembly program. And told "no short sleeves" or "sleeveless" blouses. And a n elder said before the CO visit...."remember sisters it's time to let down the hems and raise up the necklines". They weren't joking either.

Trauma flashbacks!!! I recall one time in service a brother told me that I should no longer wear any size hoop earrings because it represents a loose women. He implied that the bigger the hoops were the looser the women was. I never wore hoop earrings again….

Wow, just watched this and a flood of memories poured out. Then went and threw out the last slip I owned. I was set free 30 years ago and don't regret it even if my parents disowned me.

All ex sisters have had the ritual of throwing away out “meeting” clothes 💃🏻

Hi Phil, when I was a witness I was often counselled for many petty and trivial things such as looking unhappy whilst out on field service, having my Hair to long, having Side Burns, Unpolished Shoes, working at a Secular Job which didn't pay enough wages, being referred to as a "Walking Rainbow" for wearing a Red Shirt, Green Sweater, Flowery Tie, and Maroon Jacket whilst out on Field Service. Many moons ago in the 1970's I had bought a Purple Shirt and matching Tie which cost a bit. I was scheduled to read the Watchtower the next day (Sunday Morning Meeting) and wore the said recently bought new Shirt along with a Dark Blue Suit. After the Meeting an Elder approached me and in a brusque manner said "I like your Shirt and Tie John but it is not for the Platform". Like a scalded Puppy with his tail between his legs I meekly accepted the counsel. Funnily enough this same Elder committed Adultery with a Teenage Sister (Daughter of the presiding Overseer/Elder) a few years later and was removed from his position. I wonder what counsel he should have received. Especially as I noticed that he used to frequently worked with this Sister in the Field Service. What a Hypocrite. Shortly afterwards he moved away from the area.

This was disturbing, upsetting and hilarious all at once. The joys of being a mere female in an archaic, repressed, patriarchal cult! Thanks Phil ☺️

beings I wore mini shirts/dresses as a teen, and 3 inch above the knee was acceptable at school, I thought I was doing fine as a young adult at the kingdom hall with my homemade dresses I had carefully hemmed to 3 inches above my knees. Not so! A couple of older sisters had been told to straighten me out with an invite into the back room. We didn't have much money and all my dresses were suddenly too short! So a planned trip to a flea market to buy some used dresses made me acceptable, although I remember feeling guilty because the only time this flea market was held was on a Sunday and so missed the meeting. Fast Forward over 40 years. I was shopping with an older sister and looking at some dresses. She pointed out the V necklines. ( they were not low cut V) I told her I liked V neck lines because I didn't have a long neck so thought that style looked better than something cut up close. She then told me there was a sister at the hall who said because of the way I dressed, I should have a capital A ( think the Scarlet Letter) painted on my forehead.) Well some of the older sisters were obviously trashing out other sisters. In the one Hall I was in, there were several older sisters who picked on how the sisters dressed. I think they were jealous. God knows there was no need to be jealous of me...I wouldn't have wanted their men on any account. So God help men if a bit of Skin is so tempting to them and God help the jealous women.

The memories this video unlocked... I personally went through about 75% of all of those instances myself- and at thr age of 43 it really just smacked me in the face as to why I do a lot of what I do. Those SOBs sure did a number on us... Thanks for the video! ✌🏾

Holy crap! I remember all this! Even the ankle bracelets. Too crazy...amazing how they sexualize children...even the women.

I can identify with everything you read. It was constant from my earliest memories. Like 3 yrs old. So sick. My entire 42 yrs in, I was counseled & harrassed. I was a late bloomer & had no interest in boys til late high school & didnt feel the need to marry til mid 20's. I was also a tom boy, more interested in horses. At 12, about '71, my parents & I were dragged into the back room in front of the whole congregation & I was accused of tempting the Congregation Servants' ( the man who called me his daughter) 7 boys! That scarred me for life. I was painfully shy. My parents were furious on the way home, but they didnt speak up. My mom had to make me 3 dresses. They were too big & didnt fit til I was in my 20's. By the time I was in my 30's I wore ankle length skirts, black nylons & dressy combat like boots in the winter. I was getting a bit rebellious & just dared them to complain, as I was covered! I finally left after trying for 11 yrs to get them to make a stalker/pedo who was after me & my daughter to leave us alone. I was blamed, counseled, threatened & told that I couldnt refuse to talk to him even as he told the elders that he "was pursueing me". I was married! (Btw, he is still stalking me 30 yrs later, tho now he doesnt have the access that the congo provided him)They wanted to disfellowship me, but had nothing on me. So, they gave a special needs talk about my sandles, calling them "shower clogs"!!! Lol! Ha ha! I left with my daughter & I got rid of all my dresses, heels, & literature. I will never wear a dress again. If Im required to wear a dress somewhere, then I have no need of going there. Dresses are intended to keep women vulnerable to rape with easy access & unable to run away in heels. A woman can dress nicely without them. I was always an outdoors person & will never again be forced to sit on my ass, indoors, or in a car, for hours on end. And I won't allow a man to speak to me in such a disrepectful way as JW men spoke to me for my 1st 42 yrs. I told my family that if god had a problem with anything I had done, SHAME ON HIM!!!

Yes, I remember that we had to wear a slip. Hated those meetings and going out in service. Didn’t like the sisters or brothers either. And not to mention the elders and their wives… the worst.

Damn, and I thought the stiff suits and bowties were bad

My wife and other sisters used to buy a piece of cloth to sew in to fully cover the cleavage area if they really loved a dress that was just a little bit too revealing.

OMG! I'd forgotten all about that!!! Lol I would NEVER have gone out without a slip!

I remember that in the congregations in Poland (at least in those with whom I had contact) there was no need to wear pantyhose or stockings if it was warm. And denim dresses and skirts were no problem either. This shows how much organizational standards vary from country to country.

Haha there is always a sister with scent allergy’s and couldn’t come to the hall, but could go to the pub for a get together even I couldn’t take the perfumes, so sad so many sisters were/ are sick with fibromyalgia, crohns disease ect 😢

I remember for my Jr. High graduation we wore dresses to school, and it was so strange to be wearing a dress for something non-JW related. I wasn't sure what was normal for non-JW's and I remember asking a school-mate if she was wearing a slip because I wasn't sure if other people did that or if it was just my old fashioned JW mom insisting on it, or what. The school mate had no idea what I was talking about, and a teacher overheard and gave me a strange look and laughed at me. Ugh, I don't miss them. Or the bizarre misunderstandings that came with being a JW that I'll never be able to explain, haha.

Thanks for posting this, Phil. It was fun and completely different!

I hated dresses because they showed my legs. I was born with a physical handicap, so I hide my legs whenever possible. JW women were (are?) expected to wear dresses. No more. No more.

Slips and nylons are not fun being 9 months pregnant. I was so frustrated I cried once getting ready for the meeting, then felt guilty when I stayed home!

Oh boy this was a trip down memory lane. When I visited my cousins congregation there was a married elder who would ALWAYS line the young teenage girls, well in fact all non married teenage girls, up at the front of the hall in front of the stage before the meetings & we would have to knee down on our knees & he would walk along with a long wooden tape measure & make sure the hem of our dress was no higher than 3 inches off the carpet. And our parents allowed this B/S. When your a young teenager your growing taller all the time, so there for a few years ALL my dresses & skirts, mum sewed some sort of fancy braid a couple of inches wide to the hem line, to make sure they were the required length for a longer period of time. And geez don't talk to me about having to wear a girdle as a 13 year old & nylon slips & stockings & then tights out in the rural door to door in the heat of out back Queensland Australia.

I was never a JW. But this episode made me think: WHY are women's bodies something to be hidden? And WHERE does the barbaric thinking that all men are hunkered down in a dark corner, unable to control their urges, waiting to pounce on the first unsuspecting woman that walks by?

Phil, did you have any idea how uncomfortable sisters worldwide were wearing slips at meetings before you read this reddit post? 😆 I have decades of slip and pantyhose trauma: • Most of the slips and panty hose I wore were my mom's hand-me-downs and therefore always too loose and the slips would slide down past the hem of my skirts or the hose would get all bunched, twisted around my ankles and get runs (tears) up my legs... There was a sister, Lorraine Kavanaugh, who would always have something to say about my slip.. 'she could see it' 'it was rising up and she could see my underwear' 'it was black and it should be white'... after awhile I questioned her motives for being so alert to my undergarments..

I haven’t worn pantyhose since those days and never will again 😢

Ugh 🙄 My sisters and I (total us 4), only had one each and we wore each others dresses and skirts, as my poor parents struggled financially. We were always looked down upon by everyone in the congregation. One of my sisters had a very curvy body and the audacity of her having curves was so real. They scolded us every single meeting. We never felt we belonged there as we were seen as the outcast poor family. I never understood how they could judge knowing how my parents struggled. The fakest of congregation that I grew up in. I found out years ago, that the specific hall was disbanded.

Too funny! Unless the skirt has a liner, I am still in favor of a slip. Unpopular opinion I know 😂

Thanks Phil, I find it so creepy that these men used there positions in the congregation to ogle young women. Creepy but not surprising 🤮

Fantastic video as usual, I love my slips, still wear them as I feel that they make my dresses hang better but understand the frustration for many sisters. I remember a talk from the platform suggesting that women should bend over in front of the mirror because young mothers were being counseled that if they bent down over a pram to pick up their baby, brothers directly opposite could be stumbled by glimpsing any skin! Nothing about the dirty old men looking down a woman's top from a safe distance. We did have one rogue Elder's wife who wore an ankle bracelet all her life, don't know how she got away with it, what a whore😉

This painful story is not just about her but all women who are in and those who are out. I was always warned about my clothes but I never paid them any mind

Oh, the horrid memories... I suddenly noticed the other week that those monstrosities are no longer sold. The relief at knowing that girls will never have to wear nylon full-length slips, half slips and three-quarter slips. I avoid camisoles and pantyhose with a passion. So many nasty things said: don't wear red (or any bright colour), don't have pierced ears, no make-up, no jewellery, no fashionable hair cuts, no nail polish, skirt too short or sitting immodestly (knees together, don't turn your ankles out!), shoes too high, shoes too noticeable, ankles in shoes too shapely.... I have a deep dislike for dresses and feel terrible wearing a skirt and yeah, even though it has been many decades since I left, I still have a deep dislike for the Apostle Paul 🤢

Wow, I haven't worned a slip since the start of the pandemic or panty hose. Gotten to comfortable in my casual jeans and tops.

I was actually disfellowshipped for my attire, believe it or not. I am pretty sure that the elder sought any reason to get me. He was a lawyer.

Maybe I just got lucky, but I live in the south where is it is super hot and humid most of the year. My dad and the other men would jokingly say that it’s not fair we got away with wearing dresses while they had to wear so many layers and heavy suits. There was a brief time where the brothers were getting into heated debates as to whether or not they were allowed to wear a short sleeve button down underneath their suit jackets 🤣 The few times I witnessed anyone complaining about slips and skirts not being worn was the old ladies. But we all just laughed it off. My grandma was an old lady, but she was bad 😂 she once told me that if she was young again, she would “give the elders a run for their money and stay in that back room getting in trouble for wearing mini skirts.” I miss so much!

GREAT CHANNEL!

Wow, this is such a great topic! I remember my mom & sisters being all frantic about their slips & panty hose. 😂. Thank goodness panty hose isn’t a thing anymore. Must have been torture. Several years ago while out in Field Service the COBE politely informed me that my 10 year old daughter’s skirt was slightly above her knees. OMG ! What I thought was really ridiculous was some of the old school Mexican sisters who wore skirts practically down to their ankles and who were adverse to shaving their legs (and armpits). 😳

I was just watching your biography on Ted Jacarz, from 2021. The part that Mark S. Lett talks about how one knows they are anointed. A former Bethelite was at headquarters in the front office in New York when Stephen Lett was stopped calling his wife. The Bethelite overhead the conversation where Lett told his wife he was on the way home to discuss that the then GB told him he was of the annointed, and to go home and pray about it. Later that year this Bethelite Witnessed Lett partaking at Memorial. Soon after Lett was announced as a Governing Body Member. The Sister at the desk also overheard the conversation. I'm surprised Lett a GB member would tell such a lie! If he new why would other GB members send him home to pray about it? Just thought you should know. His RU-vid is Watching The World 🌎

The sit test when buying appropriate length meeting dress or skirt

Million thumbs up Phil. My memory: Creepy old man giving me the up down and telling me my sweater was too tight. He wasn't even an MS. It was, but I loved the bunnies and hearts. Man... fuck purity culture!

I just threw all my slips away! Lol

Ha! My mom made us alwats wear slips. We dressed 1950 at Kingdom Hall. 😂

I liked straight skirts- tried to find thicker ones. I did not have to worry about slips or hose- perhaps knee highs. Did not have to worry about steps at conventions or wind. Still prefer longer skirts so I do not have to wear hose. Even thew more expensive hose run too easily- use to be better made. Slip is a good thing on case one falls down. Still had to worry about the slit or have short steps- long steps made the slits split wider.

I wasn't ever officially part of jw, because I never got baptised, but I grew up with a jw mom and have attended a lot of meetings and done a lot of individual/group studying. I stopped doing all that my last year of highschool, mainly because I didn't agree with jw's views on LGBTQ+ folks. So that's what I remember mostly, but I have forgotten the amount of shame and misogyny that was present and tied to how women dressed. I also remember women in meetings commenting on other women's "lack of modesty", while some questionable choices in men's clothing at meetings (pineapple socks, for example) were seen as "haha this brother is so fun and interesting". I didn't realise how much jw's beliefs perpetuated misogyny, wow

The memories! Slips and pantyhose in Texas in the summer. No wonder I was ready to bail from this organization by the time I was in third grade.

Its true. The men weren't the deviants the girls and women were the temptress's...Yup, totally gods spirit led organization.🙄

"Fuck slips!" 🤣

A elderly lovely sis not happy when they go on platform in tight dresses because its distracting for the brothers i told her if we have to exercise self control so do they.

Cults love control. Can you hear any lifelong control in her story?

Oh you just brought a horrible memory.. we went out in service with three teenage girls one who could not shave their armpits yuk. And two who weren't allowed to use deodorant... Two of them it didn't use deodorant or no longer Jehovah's witnesses... But it was stink ass

This sounds more like The Bible Belt, rather than the congregation I was in.... That was the south coast of England from 1979 - 2001. I remember the constant talk about 'pelmet skirts' and the paranoia about 'modesty', but I never remenber slips/pettycoats being an issue.... I do remember my sister telling me that in her congregation (in Derbyshire) all the sisters were told to sow panels into their skkirts to lengthen them!! What's really allarmng the fact that 'dirty old men' would use their position and authority as an excuse to talk really quite inappropriately to girls. Yes, it's grooming of a sort! Oh, and 'victim blaming'.... Oh dear, if only they'd known what my wife didn't wear under her skirt suit at meetings!!!!!!! 😋😋 Great work, as always!

Faded after 65 years believe it or not, I was once cancelled that I shouldn’t be wearing skirts owing to my legs, being to long the skirts, only abbreviated them making them to sexy. I was speechless. My father asked what was I supposed to do cut off a few inches. They told him I had stumbled a brother. He suggested they take the matter up with the brother, asking him why he was looking at my daughters, legs? 😅😅😅😅😅

I rembember a lot of this story. Notes with a text because of my dress. Taken out of the pool because I was too feminine. I was 13.

When he said "TITTY MEAT" 🤣 THAT WAS A BLACK FAMILY!! 🤣 OMG!! 😂

Tell those perverts to mind their own business!!!

Jehovah was taking notes the entire time and the bullies will get their just deserts. The congregations allowed ones true inner self to be exposed. The ego-driven could be elders or career pioneers and flaunt their superiority over others BUT that's all coming to an end with the arrival of Jehovah's destroyer. The "chosen ones" will be collected to Tema over the coming years and no such abuse will be allowed. I remember my grandma telling me how some of the other old sisters would make nasty remarks about her hand-made dresses - they'd turn on each other when there's no young sister to abuse.

WoW! I'm so thankful our church never had any of those problems! My heart goes out to the young jw's being judged. That's so cruel and mean. The men seem to be pretty perverted and easily tempted. Uggg... what a disaster for all the jw's. Just stay home so you don't have to be judged?🤔 This is just so sad... anxiety galore.

This was funny and sad at the same time. I remember traveling to a convention and I had forgotten to pack my slip. The entire time I made sure I didn't stand near any open doorways where the light might shine through my dresses. Now I usually wear a denim skirt sans slip. Still PIMO so I have to play a small part....even though deep inside I want to wear leggings and a t-shirt and tell them all to F-off! LOL

I don't even remember wearing slips.

Never a JW but slips were very common growing up during the early 70 in the south. I hate those blasted garments.

I remember as a teenager I longed to dress like the younger sisters in the congregation and instead I was told to borrow my mothers clothes who was several sizes too big and on my small frame it looked baggy and boxy but as long as nothing showed my parents felt I was okay. The circuit overseer’s wife thought my family had fallen on hard times because I didn’t have my own meeting clothes and looked “homeless”.

Yes I did.

The clean up women who could afford stocking all the time . especially when they rip easily . one lady ask me where is your stocking . this same sister I turned it back on her when she didn't have on stocking . she said you gone buy me some . excellent video . Thanks for sharing .

Yess!!

Theywould only stink if you don't wash it regularly.

I have to say, it’s difficult for me to believe an elder would tell the girl’s father that the brothers will stop being so sexually aggressive to her if she got baptized when she was only 12 years old. That’s crazy to me. I could kind of see guys treating unbaptized women who do not go to the kingdom hall a little differently, but if they go to the kingdom hall at all I don’t see there being much of a difference. And at 12 years old that just unfathomable. Obviously there’s always pervs for some extent, but in that situation it just seems so crazy. P.S. But as far as wearing pants as a girl, are you telling me that it a woman is painting a room in our house and she wears her husband's T-shirt which is a men's T-shirt that that is a sin? What's funny about my Jehovah's Witness grandmother is that's exactly what she would've said to any elder who said something dumb to her. And are you gonna say that when I had to dress up in middle school for a short skit that it was wrong that I wore a blue pants suit that technically was a woman's jacket that I got from the Goodwill? Only way you can tell is because the buttons were on the opposite side. Is that immoral since it's clothing of the opposite genders? (Of course I did end up being gay so maybe I shouldn't be the poster child for that question. Lol.) And what about men who wear kilts if it's not the custom in that country, isn't that just a skirt? Lol

This is so funny, i can see all these scenarios playing out in the more conservative, old fashioned halls. I grew up in a pretty “liberal” area. No tights for me, only in winter. Lots of high heels. Shit, i even got away with an actual nose ring for about a year!

All of the horrors you felt that you alone were experiencing 😢 This was really, really difficult to listen to. I was thin but curvy and felt guilty enough. The nonstop counsel, no matter WHAT I did to be modest, made me feel inherently evil. It didn't matter that I wore dresses 2 sizes to big, in an effort to disguise the fact that I, a woman, had the body of a woman. For my "1st" birthday, I decided to where a dress that showed a peak of cleavage. I felt like it was super risqué, my friend said I looked like I was dressed "conservatively business casual" 😂 #LearningToOwnMyBody

I didn’t mind pantyhose or slips . I rarely wore slips as my dresses weren’t see through. The things I hated were not being allowed to wear pants during the winter . Being bare legged with just thin Nylon knee socks in -20F( -29C)weather is no joke. I wasn’t a JW but girls weren’t allowed to wear pants to school 60 years ago. Thankfully that changed during the 1970s

😲 😱 😲

I had to wear slips.

Oh yes the slips to keep us modest but bo problem when all us children and women can be abused by the entire group

Brilliant story

oh my god...the moment, as you’re walking back to ur seat from the bathroom, u realize things feel a bit too breezy on ur backside...bc ur dress was totally tucked into ur pantyhose and slip. one especially memorable/traumatic time i also had a long dirty piece of tp stuck to bottom off my dress sh

Wait, sleeveless shirts would expose hairy armpits. What are some sisters getting up to? They are allowed to shave right? That sleeveless bit is food for thought.

It's a problem for the Watchtower now. You see so many photos of JW women looking drab in their clothes. What was a big problem was JW men looking at my breasts when talking to them. You never see it written in the Watchtower that the men should avoid looking at breasts .

I might be old-fashioned (I'm only 45!), but I think it's appropriate to wear a slip under skirts that are see-through. I still wear them with certain skirts. They can be pretty and are silky too! It's pantyhose that are the devil! 👿😂

Awesome stories of horror. ❤

All religious cults have rules on what you can and can not wear. And then as the years go by they change the rules. In the jw religion it depended on the congrgation.Some were stricter than others.I wore ties with my dresses and skirts one inch above the knees and noone said anything. In these situations they didnt rat on you because they thought that you would rat on them for breaking the rules.

I don't have a problem with slips. I prefer that people can't see through my skirts and dresses and see my underwear and legs. I guess that makes me strange? But pantihose? I hate them with a passion. Not to mention their cost and how easy they were to ladder. It was bad enough buying women's sanitary products every month. Sorry, TMI!

I have not watched the whole video. A couple of months ago Jehovah sent a couple of women to speak to me when I was in the park. We talked for maybe an hour it could have been longer. I told them I was a pagan & I used to be a Christian, it's like they knew this already,. As I looked at the natural beauty of these two young women & how well they spoke of their religion i could tell they were definitely angels of some kind or messengers. What they talked about was very interesting & made loads of sense compared to some religious teachings. Unlike my new religion paganism I don't have to follow any sets of rules or books or teachings. I build my own path & just respect others. So when the subject of Noah & animals came into the conversation, my veganism was a bit too strong for Jehovah's Messengers, & they had little answers for my questions. I guess the same questions would stop most religions. Veganism does not stop my paganism . It helps some times with my connection to nature. But when we parted I felt real good that I had spoken to them & maybe one day I will speak to them again. What really throws me a little is how the God Jehovah believes that I am going to pray to just 1 God , maybe him..after he sends 2 beautiful Goddesses to speak to me. I don't normally do much praying & worshipping , but if the Gods & Goddesses of all religions start sending females like them 2. I will be worshipping them all 👍🙂.

slips & tights, then panty hose.

Can I ask you? Are you JW or apostate?