Jewish Women and Wigs

Have you been living under a rock OP? And why do you care?

This needs to go in the "ask a stupid question" thread.

And what’s with these women walking about the Vatican dressed like penguins?

- Yes, It's A Stupid Question But I Still Want To know The Answer -

It's because they ain't gettin' nun, R3.

Did you JUST move here from fucking Minnesota, OP?

I moved to NYC from Texas, where I never knew any Jewish people that did this.

They are required to cover their hair. And curiously wigs count as a covering.

You do know OP that there are significant difference between Orthodox and "reform" Jews, kinda like Roman Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals, etc.

Sigh- no wonder Trump got elected.

Maybe it's an accepted way to deal with the rule. Like how you can have anal sex but still be a virgin.

R9 didnt say i thought it was all Jews.

They are haredi or Hassidic in Yiddish.

Different than modern Orthodox like the Kushners where the women dress modestly (no miniskrts or belly shirts) but do not cover their hair

The vast majority of American Jews are Reform and Conservative.

As for Haredim, OP: the rule they follow says that only your husband is allowed to see your actual hair. So they wear wigs once they are married which does indeed seem like a cheat from the outside. Sort of the same way they get around the "you can't turn on/off lights on Shabbat because it's like starting a fire, which is forbidden, but if you buy a $10 timer and have it set to turn the lights off at 11PM, and on again at 7AM, that's okay. (I wonder if they're allowed to ask Alexa to turn the lights on.)

Haredim are fascinating in that they were originally a hippie sect back in the 1600s. They were all about singing and dancing as a way to pray and about feels rather than rules.

Things got twisted around over the years and it became all about the rules again.

They dress like that because, true to their hippie roots, that is how the nobility dressed in 1600s Poland and they didn't see why everyone shouldn't wear such fancy clothes, as it made them feel good and special.

I'm sure there are reasons they have for not updating the look, but it went from being a legit way to feel special to looking like complete anachronisms. (Sort of like the Amish)

Final bit: many of them are what are known as ba'al tshuvot -- basically Born Again Jews-- they were raised in secular families and became Haredi as adults. Like born-again Christians, many of the ba'al tshuvot struggled with drug and other addictions and religion is just their latest, albeit less harmful addiction.

[quote] They are required to cover their hair. And curiously wigs count as a covering.

Why "curiously"? I don't see why this is a problem, for you or the OP.

This is a great link that explains it all OP (and others)

I learned a few things from it too

R12 thank you

OP, don't believe that to protect the wife's modesty, hubby pushes his schlong though a hole in the sheet.

R13, actually, to some Hasidic sects the wigs do not count as head coverings; they are thought to be insufficiently modest.

Are those blue pill box hats attached to the wig with pins?

I thought they shaved their heads and then wore the wigs. Arabs shave a lot of body hair and Jews are Arab adjacent, or so my misinformed reasoning goes. Wrong on both counts?

Using a sexy wig to cover the head for modesty purposes? I guess this makes sense if they’re afraid of being mistaken as Muslims if they do the “scarf thing” instead. Lesser of two evils.

Googled it, and yes, the subject of whether it is acceptable to use Alexa to turn on lights on Shabbat--or even to keep the device on during Shabbat as it might inadvertently turn itself on- it the topic of much debate.

IIRC, the general rule is that you cannot outright ask someone to do something for you that is forbidden on Shabbat, but if they do it anyway, then it's okay.

So in the Old Country, Jews would employ a "shobbes goy"-- a gentile neighbor who would come and turn on the lights for them and light the cooking fire, etc. That was okay because it was contracted in advance, before Shabbat, but they were not allowed to ask him anything during Shabbat."

Fast-forward to the 21st-century and I have been in Israel and, while waiting for the elevator, had someone say to me on Shabbat "I live on the 10th floor" -- upon which I am supposed to intuit that they want me to press the elevator button for the 10th floor--they are not allowed to ask me explicitly. This is when I think "who are you fooling? It's the same result!"

But they see a difference, I guess.

Again, the Israeli media had a field day a few years pack when some rabbis were debating whether picking your nose on Shabbat was work.

Wrong on both counts R19. If they do shave their heads under the wigs, it's comfort thing.

LOL R20. I posted the real reason above.

They come from countries (Ukraine, Poland, Romania) where there were no Muslims. Was not even a thought.

When I spent some time in Israel a long time ago, the wigs I saw on orthodox women were not even remotely sexy and were really ugly, ill-fitting wigs. Maybe orthodox women in Beverly Hills wear nice, authentic hair looking wigs. But otherwise, they are not a fashion statement IMO.

I noticed at the hospital near me in East Village -- they have a "Shabbat Elevator" which stops on every floor on Jewish holidays, so the riders don't have to press a button = fire. Again, sounds like cheating.

It's just another instance of the ultra religious figuring a way to get around one of their more idiotic traditions. The stupid men think it's fine because it meets the head covering requirements and lets them lust after the females as they always wanted to anyway, with nothing on their heads but hair.

It used to be that women had to shave their heads. My great great grandmother refused to shave her head (she was born in 1890) which caused a massive rift in the family and she married my grandfather who was a conservative jew. She was basically disowned although her grandkids thought her defiance was pretty cool. Her sister shaved their heads, their daughters used head coverings and wigs started being worn in the family in the late 60s.

Things changing. Now if only the men would take the hint and ditch the ridiculous hats.

R28 Haha - thanks. The wigs in the link range from Kardasian to dominatrix. Not exactly frumpy.

How can a wig be “slutty”? Jesus, some of these women should be slapped silly with their own wigs. Why can’t they just mind their own business instead of policing everybody else?

Maybe the thinking of a "slutty" wig still being considered "modest" is that the male will be turned off once he realizes its just a wig?

I really am tired of everything feminine being called slutty. From shoes to wigs to makeup to underwear. It doesn’t even mean anything anymore but it must be exhausting to be a woman getting ready to leave the house when what you wear, how you fix your hair, how you do your makeup can be “slutty”. And of course a woman has let herself go or she’s a frump if she couldn’t be bothered and throws on some sweats.

Ladues, if you are worried about whipping men into a sexual frenzy with your hair, go for the Art Garfunkel look instead of of the “wanton wench.” Just sayin’

R33 Reminds me of the episode of Flight of the Concords that involved "Garfunkeling"!!!

I will go to my grave not understanding why a person would choose to live a life according to an archaic set of rules and spend enormous amounts of time and money to make end-runs around them.

Head coverings for women whether they be niqabs, burqas, or hideous wigs have always been and remain a tool of oppression even when, or maybe especially when, the woman has been indoctrinated to believe it's a choice she's made herself.

My mistake r33. I guess even the “Garfunkel” is a sex magnet.

I’m old enough to remember mantillas and veiling in the Catholic Church as well as pants on women being banned at mass. Almost overnight it changed and fell so out of favor that most people don’t even know that it was ever a thing. The nuns I knew as a kid had shaved heads too. I suspect it’s much harder to change the customs of sects like these though because membership is the persons central identify and it’s way more that just a religion to them.

FWIW, women in much of the world covered their heads until the least few hundred years. Look at paintings of medieval Europe--most women, rich or poor, had their heads covered. It was considered immodest to do otherwise.

The French shocked everyone with their adoption of wigs, but most women--Christian, Jewish and Muslim-- kept their heads covered until fairly recently.

I mean, nuns don't wear those habits because they're stylish. They wear them so as to cover their hair and their heads.

Medieval Christian women

The Abrahamic religions are three heads of the same hydra; throughout history they've tried distinguish themselves by subdividing into branches with progressively weirder customs. It’s even more bizarre that each claims to be protecting women (by sheltering and infantalizing them.) All are oppressive patriarchies, of course.

The wig thing didn’t bother me when I moved to NYC, but refusing to shake hands because I was male seemed ridiculous to me. It’s a social convention of where you live in the 21st century, adapt already!

So basically, this was a Matthew Anscher thread.

[quote]I really am tired of everything feminine being called slutty.

Has a hijab ever been called slutty?

Is it cheating when black women do it?