Summary: Susan Bednar really chastises women in this talk, but with the spirit of course, while telling them how their inappropriate attire, leads men to have impure thoughts and actions. She quotes a letter from Emily Eyring Robertson(probably the daughter of Henry B. Eyring) that states: "Rather than being disappointed or confused by girls who dress immodestly in spite of the Honor Code, I find myself getting angry at them. They subject my husband, other women's husbands, and men in general who are trying to stay clean, to seeing more than they want to of something that is naturally hard for them to avoid...they contribute to the breakup of marriages and families. It seems like a drastic conclusion, but that's what it comes down to.." Wow, I agree with everything Emily said. Men always try to be on their best behavior, but it's so hard, when women dress so immodestly. Susan Bednar then says: "You can't believe all the female students I've walked past who were sitting in a chair, and when I looked down I could see their underwear or even worse. I think you know what I mean. I'm sorry to be so blunt. I'm just telling you what I saw." and: "These past few weeks I've been shocked by all the low-rise jeans, short tops, and navels I have seen on campus. Ladies, your pants just barely cover the private areas of your bodies. They are so revealing....for more than a year now, I've been so disappointed by all the tight-fitting, low-cut tops I've seen.....Some of the tops you wear show every bump and every curve on your breast. They fit you like a wet swimming suit with no padding..." Then, the best part of this talk is when she tells girls how to sit properly when wearing a dress and how to cross their legs so that you can't see everything under the dress. She said: "A few months ago I was sitting on the stand in this building when I counted the girls on the front row who were wearing dresses for devotional, and then I noted how many of them were sitting modestly. There were just a few. Now you might say, "Sister Bednar, come on, lighten up. They wore dresses. Give them a break." But girls, when you wear a dress, you need to sit with your legs together, close together. When you are sitting up in the bleachers, put your feet down in front of you, not up on the next bleacher; you'd be amazed at what you can see. You need to make sure that when you cross your legs your dress isn't so short that you can see to high heaven! I felt sorry for the priesthood leaders on the stand with me that day....You would have been embarrassed, too." I just thought it was interesting when she said that she could see to "high heaven", when looking up the girl's dresses. I'm not sure why she is looking up girl's dresses and walking around campus noticing "how revealing their clothes are", how she could see their "navel" and "underwear or even worse", and how they show "every bump and every curve on their breast", as it feels a little strange and odd to me, but I understand the point she's making. At least as the wife of an Apostle, she is no longer subjected to such awful things and sites, on a daily basis and having to look at the panties and "high heaven", of the girls sitting on the front row, up in the balcony. Then again, if they ever go to BYU to speak again, she may have to look up more dresses, which I hope she doesn't. Hopefully the girls learned from this talk not to show their "high heaven" anymore. I'm sure that this talk helped a lot of young women in attendance that day, to know how to keep their legs together when wearing a dress and to not put impure thoughts into the heads of good men. Despite the seriousness of this talk, Susan Bednar did get quite a few big laughs from the girls. This talk was originally given a 6 Stake Fireside, on September 16, 2001, 5 days after the 911 attacks in New York. I'm so glad that Susan Bednar was able to stick to the most important things, during those very difficult days.
