Thank you Morley!
Okay, so I'm finally able to piece together the quotes that make up the source of the material used in the
talk that Just Me mentioned earlier.
Here is the whole of it:
Joseph F. Smith, Conference Report, October 1912, p.133
...I want to say to our Relief Societies, our Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations and our Primary Associations that I desire and sincerely hope they will set their faces like flint against every immoral thing, including the prevailing habit of card-playing, of unbecoming fashions in dressing, of indecent exposure of the human form divine to the lecherous gaze of men; that they clothe themselves
in decency, both in public and in private, and that they keep sacred those things which have been conferred upon them in holy places.
...I expect that my sisters will listen to this counsel, for it is not mine; it is the counsel of the spirit and letter of the word of God as we have it in the divine records; it is God's will, and those who are entrusted with these important duties in the Church should be vigilant in guarding the welfare, the happiness, and good name and character of the daughters of Zion.
and
Joseph F. Smith, Conference Report, October 1913, p.8.
I do not want to be burdensome to this vast congregation by talking too long but I have another thought that weighs upon my mind, and this is not in relation to the men, but it is with respect to the women, and more particularly with regard to the manner in which they dress.
Never, perhaps, at least within the period of my life--and I have lived in the world nearly seventy-five years--never, I say, within the period of my life and experience have I seen such obscene, uncleanly, impure, and suggestive fashions of women's dress as I see today. Some of them are abominable. I lift my voice against these audacious practices and these infamous fashions, and I pray that you who have daughters in Zion will save them, if you can, from following these obscene fashions, that if followed, will destroy the last vestige of true womanly modesty, and reduce them to the level of the courtesans on the streets of Paris, from whence these debasing fashions come.
They are the lowest and most degraded specimens of womankind, who have yielded their bodies to crime and their souls to death, if not to perdition, and are devoid of modesty and the sense of shame. We cannot afford to let our women follow such as these or to adopt the cursed fashions they set.
I need not dwell on this matter, but will say that while crossing the street the other day, I saw a woman dressed to the height of this ridiculous fashion, and she was trotting along with little, short steps, she couldn't go any other way, hurrying across the street to catch the car. She got hold of the rail of the car and tried to lift herself up, but her foot would not go up to the step. By this time there was a crowd of men looking on. All of a sudden she stooped down, caught the bottom of her dress and raised it high enough to climb up. What an exhibition that was to the public eye! Would you like your daughters to expose themselves in such a manner ? To do so they must of necessity part with their sense of womanly modesty, if not with all other womanly virtues. God have mercy on our girls, and help them to dress decently!
I suppose I shall incur the censure and displeasure of many in saying these things, but I do not care what the world has to say, what men say, nor what women say, in relation to these things. In my sight the present day fashions are abominable, suggestive of evil, calculated to arouse base passion and lust, and to engender lasciviousness, in the hearts of those who follow the fashions, and of those who tolerate them. Why? Because women are imitating the very customs of a class of
women who have resorted to that means to aid them to sell their souls. It is infamous, and I hope the daughters of Zion will not descend to these pernicious ways, customs and fashions, for they are demoralizing and damnable in their effect.
and
Joseph F. Smith, Conference Report, October 1914, p.130
One word more. I wish to say to my sisters, and especially to those who are called to be teachers among their sex: Please set the example before your sisters that God would have them follow. When we teach people to observe the laws of God and to honor the gifts that are bestowed upon them in the covenants of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we don't want you teachers to go out and set an example before your sisters that will destroy their faith in our teachings. I hope you will take that to heart, for it has a meaning to it. I am talking to the teachers among the sisters.
...We see some of our good sisters coming here to the Temple occasionally decorated in the latest and most ridiculous fashions that ever disgraced the human form divine. They do not seem to realize that they are coming to the house of God, and we have to forbid them entrance, or find fault with them, and they go away grieved and say sometimes, we don't want to go there any more." Why? Because they come unprepared, like the man who was found at the feast without the wedding garment, who also had to be turned out (Matthew 22:1-14). We have to turn them out occasionally, because they will not hearken to the counsel that has been given to them.
