Here’s another interesting article from the Women’s Exponent. Things really haven’t changed at all over the years.
GIRLS, KEEP GOOD COMPANY
Girls, make it a point of your everyday life to choose your companions.
It matters not how poor and uneducated you may be, if you will, you may always be choice of your associates. The Scriptures tell us to “shun the very appearance of evil.” Not that to appear good, or true, or innocent is to make one so, yet where persona are not known they are, certainly, very generally judged by those with whom they are in the habit of associating.
Sometimes innocent persona are shunned, and even condemned, through evil associations. Really innocent persons have frequently been in this way misrepresented and maligned, and having gained through this means a bad reputation, have felt respect was no longer worth struggling for, and perhaps, being of a weak and vacillating nature, have succumbed to the calumny heaped upon them, and taken the downward course until it was too late to retract.
Girls, if you would have an unsullied name; an irreproachable life, beware of chance acquaintances. Better, far better, to be slow in making friends, than to be too free to accept proffers of confidence from those whose characters are to you unknown.
Be sure and confide in your mother; you will never have cause to regret it. Take no heed of your young friends who laugh at your prudish ideas of propriety. Extremes are certainly to be avoided in most instances, but in matters of this nature you can scarcely be too precise. You must be Independent enough to ward off any little sarcasms from those who sneer about mama’s apron-strings, etc. Remember, were any missteps to plunge you into difficulty these false friends would be the last to assist you in retracing your way; and perchance be among the first to reproach you with withering sneers and humiliation.
It is the duty of every young lady, a most sacred duty, to guard her good name, to let her deportment and her conversation be strictly modest and decorous. Never let it be said, as we frequently hear it remarked, “She is good-hearted, generous and kind, but rough and coarse in her manner and conversation.” There is no excuse for such conduct in the young ladies of Utah, for the Associations formed for mutual improvement in all things pertaining to the welfare and development of their hearts, minds and manners, as well as other institutions; Schools, Sabbath Schools and Literary Societies, and also the association with good and true women as well as men, not only teach but guide them if they will heed there things, in the path of duty and principle. And it is almost invariably the case that those who are willing to be obedient to parents and instructors of youth, and especially if they are respectful to the aged, make noble women, patterns in society, exemplary, modest, and if not polished and graceful, are at least courteous in manner, whole-souled, genuine and trustworthy in all the social relations of life. (Woman’s Exponent, Oct. 25, 1877)
Relief Society women are to set the example for our young women, to stay away from the stains of the world. It is hard to stay on our guard at all times, but on our guard we must be.
In the Salt Lake Valley, we had one of the greatest performers on the planet put on a show. Celine Dion put on a one night show on a Sunday night. Face it, who doesn’t love to hear Celine Dion sing, but does the woman have a modest dress to her name? As kind-hearted as she is, she is not a good role-model.
This show, at the Energy Solutions Center, was sold out. I would bet a good percentage of those attending were “good” LDS women, young and old. Sometimes, it’s not just the performer who set’s a poor example, it’s the crowd that flocks to watch. These kinds of mixed messages display themselves often. The color grey continues to exist when our choices should be clear and defined.
What would have happened if the Center were only, say-a third full, because those who have covenanted to honor the Sabbath Day chose to keep that covenant? What if the message came back to Ms. Dion that it just didn’t pay to perform on Sundays? What would happen if Mormon women everywhere kept their standards so high that a message was sent to everyone in the world.