You never see nuns anymore

You may find this thread of interest.

Weren’t the nuns all killed by Covid????

They're all hidden away. They can't show their pregnant bellies.

They are their own best friends and don't need to go out.

Most ditched the habits and veils long ago.

They’re all dead.

Most of them haven't worn those old school habits and wimples in years, so they aren't easy to spot. There are still plenty of them.

They burned their bras in the 70’s and took on the repressive patriarchy

This book came out a very long time ago. I bought it at a gay bookstore, that's how long ago it was. [Just looked it up -- original printing, 1985.]

Make of it what you will.

I suspect the ones I had in 1960s grade school all went to hell.

Or wherever vicious, violent cunts who are extra brutal to kids from divorced parents (Me!) go in the afterlife.

^ In all my many years here on DL, this is the first time I've used the word cunt and it is well deserved.

MARY!!!

Penguin, how would you know?

Some of them live in my building. I see them in the elevator.

They are totally dying out in Australia. The average age of nuns is 74, and hardly anyone is joining up. The Church has sold off most of the old convents and has the old nuns in flats or Church-run aged care.

The got themselves to a nunnery, and quickly too.

There's a steady decline of people professing vows to religious orders. I work for a Catholic organization and it's to the point where we have to appoint sponsors to keep on the work of the founding Sisters because there will not be enough of them in the future to take over or sustain the current model.

I don't blame anyone - it's not a life for many. You literally own nothing, regardless of your education or abilities, and your entire life is enslaved to the order. I have known at least 4 nuns closely in my working life and 2 priests and they have all had rather unhappy lives. As far as the nuns, their orders want them to keep on working until they absolutely physically cannot any longer, to support the older, more infirmed nuns in the order who still need care.

They're the no-nonsense elder lesbians, usually dressed like crosses between Mr. Rogers and the founding members of the Daughters of Bilitis (no pun intended), who keep many Catholic hospital systems and nursing homes running smoothly.

I was startled a few years ago to learn a former classmate became a nun, a choice made by very few women who attended high school in the aughts.

There is a relatively small proportion of the population who are spiritual, can divest themselves of their worldly connections and are sufficiently disinterested in sex and romance. By not allowing priests to marry, people who join religious orders have been bred out of existence.

NunTok is a thing. And not just Sister Mary Blaze, last seen dancing to BBL Drizzy.

The NunTok phenomenon is so odd to me.

There's a home for retired nuns in my neighbourhood. Not many of them around anymore, but I used to see them strolling in pairs, with their beige suits and white Peter Pan-collar blouses and wimples.

Katy Perry killed all of them.

Nuns mostly stopped wearing the traditional habit at the end of the 60s, so it would have been anachronistic to have a nun in a black habit in the background of shows thereafter.

Gay people can have a life and no longer have to hide under the auspices of the convent/monastery/priesthood. Economic realities are still hard, but there are fewer women who have to choose between starvation and the monastery.

That said, there are a few. I was in a train station where a con man worked the room—“this is a picture of my deceased mother, I just need some money to buy her an urn”—and he hit up two nuns in habits, while steering clear of the two young women in army uniforms. The shame!

Nuns were supposed to be a part of the contemporary populace but somehow they got stuck in the Medieval era with their clothing for hundreds and hundreds of years. In the 60s, they started slowly wearing contemporary clothing, some maybe retaining a veil. It seems like the stories of the evil schoolteacher nuns started to end around that time as well Sure, I had a few nuns in high school in the 80s who were annoying (Sister Janice) but most by then were rather nice (Sister Denise).

The Stephanie Beacham show “Sister Kate” almost got it right with her wardrobe but they would have her retreat to a full habit on the days people would come to potentially adopt one of the orphans.

My mother, who is devout, said, “Nuns don’t do that!”

I've always wondered if it was hard work being a nun...

Several generations ago it was very poor Irish families sending daughters off to be nuns. Then it was Filipinas and women from Africa coming to England or the US. Now they have more options to be nurses vs nursing sisters.

[quote]I've always wondered if it was hard work being a nun...

Taking vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience, and then working with challenging populations after obtaining advanced degrees (as many do), sounds like a lot of work.

Terrible. I imagine a young nun's time is mostly spent caring for the old ones.

My mom was friendly with two nuns who lived in a nearby apartment building. One nun was in her 60s like Mom, the other much older. You'd never know they were nuns except for the crucifixes around their necks. They both wore a bit of makeup and could easily pass for one of Mom's a academic contemporaries in a skirt suit.

The makeup surprised me .

I saw one in full habit just the other day in my hood. My city has a huge Catholic demographic, however. I'm Presbyterian and find nuns a little creepy.

The most realistic depiction of nuns I ever saw in media was in that forgotten Melissa Hilbert TV movie about the Catholic lay worker (Gilbert) and the nuns who were raped and killed in El Salvador around 1981.

Nun sighting at 00:41.

The nuns at our school wore civilian clothes and some kind of bullshit veil, not a serious veil like in the movies. A small one.

They all flew away!

[quote] Where did they all go?

Where there used to be nuns, now there are none.

Probably the ones that still dress like nuns are cloistered.

My (Jewish) parents would tell the story of the time my then-very young sister coming upon a group of nuns. When told they were sisters, my sister asked, “Where’s their mommy?”

My aunt was a nun. Wore a habit, had her hair done. Went on vacation with the other sisters. Taught grade school. When she retired, she tended a chapel at a Catholic hospital. After that she lived with older nuns in a retirement convent. She never struck me as sad or stuck in her life. She enjoyed herself and lived a long life.

Part of this comment is in response to the know-it-alls (who have obviously never met a nun in a non-professional capacity,) in the older linked thread at R1.

My grandmother’s sister was Aunt Peg. Even as a young’n I had to suppress laughter

It seemed like you didn’t have to tell them twice in the 60s that habits were no longer required. Suddenly, they all looked like Ann B. Davis. (Who was not Catholic but she herself lived in an Episcopalian religious community.)

I always wondered if Marsha visited her and flashed her some much dreamed about boobies?

R42, my aunt continued to wear a habit. Maybe the rules are different for specific orders.

once you get in the habit

Just today I saw a nun with my own eyes, sitting in a car outside the UN Plaza hotel. Do I win some sort of small award or prize?

I'm not surprised they're in decline. The RC church can't even get priests. It all feels kinda tired.

Nuns have their own mode of transportation.

They are an endangered species.

Loved that r47. But even when they still wore habits, our local nuns never had that flying seagull headgear.

as for transportation, about 5 or 6 would show up at school in a big Chevy Impala sedan. Somehow one year they ended up with the optional bigger engine and nasty Sr Dorothy became human as she bragged about her lead foot.

They're a never-ending source of comedy in theater and film.

Not enough flibbertigibbets anymore.

I passed one on the street the other day. I thought they always travel in pairs. Long white dress and short black vale. I said hello and she said hello back. That's all.

[quote]I'm Presbyterian and find nuns a little creepy.

I'll pray for you.

[quote]MARY!!!

That's Sister Mary to you!

They're all yanking babies out of twats in Poplar.

As long as these sisters are going strong, I'm good.