Make Up Permit in Morrisville PA

[Korner6]

We've probably all heard of obscure laws, but this one might shock you! I'd love to know if they eventually were able to change the law that requires a permit for a woman to wear make up! Why such a law needed? Because that area is primarily Amish and they believe in modesty, of which make up doesn't fit in those beliefs. Other news sources state that this rule is rarely enforced.

https://www.jacksonkelly.com/insights/obscure-laws-on-state-books

1. In Morrisville, PA, women wearing cosmetics must have the appropriate permit: Appendix D of the Borough of Morrisville, PA Code: D-346.

Here is an archaic law that could easily start a massive protest movement were it to be suddenly brought back into the public’s attention! The actual language of the Code states: “Resolving that throughout the Bicentennial Year, those men who shave and those women who wear cosmetics, desiring to participate in the event, may be placed in THE STOCKS for not displaying their shaving and cosmetic buttons. [12-15-2003 by Res. No. 737]”. The Bicentennial Year was 2004.[x] This is in part not enforced because makeup has become a cultural norm, and even the Amish---who have a heavy presence in Morrisville--- may opt to wear makeup during Rumspringa.[xi] Mayor Rita Ledger acknowledges the statute and argues that it is challenging to clean up the antiquated laws as a small borough. As well, she admits that enforcing the makeup restrictions would also require the borough to impose its rules on men’s shaving where the cosmetic buttons are not prominently displayed![xii]

 

[Nomad]

Sounds like Taliban's law to me. Recently, the Taliban have announced the closure of beauty parlors throughout the country, they have passed a decree that would punish women visiting beauty parlors. It is understood that you are Amish, and you want to practice "modesty" but why pass laws that block fundamental rights of other people?

 

[Shortie]

This is not something I thought I would see myself, that a permit would be needed for women to wear make-up. Is this something that is only limited to women I wonder? Men also tend to wear makeup now if they wish to and it did make me wonder if this was only geared towards women.

It's not a good look being that they are preventing women from doing something that they should be able to freely do without having permission so to speak.

 

[Eric]

The language says "those men who shave and those women who wear cosmetics, desiring to participate in the event, may be placed in THE STOCKS for not displaying their shaving and cosmetic buttons." Maybe this is weird but I do find it at least somewhat progressive - for an otherwise fairly patriarchal society - that the law holds men accountable as well as women for non-compliance from traditional grooming standards.

What I'd be most interested to know is whether the Amish are still putting people in stocks as a punishment. It's interesting how governments used to use public shaming methods like that historically. We don't bother with social punishments (that I can think of) in modern times...seems like we just litigate or fine people.

 

[Ravenfreak]

This is not something I thought I would see myself, that a permit would be needed for women to wear make-up. Is this something that is only limited to women I wonder? Men also tend to wear makeup now if they wish to and it did make me wonder if this was only geared towards women.

It's not a good look being that they are preventing women from doing something that they should be able to freely do without having permission so to speak.

Unfortunately men who try to wear makeup would probably end up getting punished, since the Amish tend to view gender on a binary and don't believe men should wear makeup and only view women as the only gender who can wear makeup. Makes me wonder how many people got in trouble for not wearing their buttons though.

 

[Heatman]

Let me laugh first because this one is damn right hilarious and crazy at the same time. I said so because It looks like Morrisville is still living in stone age to have this kind of law or so called permit against ladies. They must have one for their men too I suppose. It's something that the religion denomination of Deep Life Bible Church enforces on their members. They are not allowed to make up, pierce their ears or wear good looking clothes.

 

[Debashis]

The law requiring a permit for women to wear makeup in primarily Amish areas may seem peculiar. It reflects the community's commitment to modesty. While this rule is reportedly rarely enforced, it highlights the unique intersections of culture, tradition, and legal regulations that exist in different parts of the world.

 

[Heatman]

The law requiring a permit for women to wear makeup in primarily Amish areas may seem peculiar. It reflects the community's commitment to modesty. While this rule is reportedly rarely enforced, it highlights the unique intersections of culture, tradition, and legal regulations that exist in different parts of the world.

We are no longer in the stone age where there's no need for make up. I can understand that some make up can be misleading but that doesn't warrant needing a permit for someone to make up. It's like taking away one's freedom of dressing by getting them to pay for it before it done. It doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[linux.poet]

The language says "those men who shave and those women who wear cosmetics, desiring to participate in the event, may be placed in THE STOCKS for not displaying their shaving and cosmetic buttons." Maybe this is weird but I do find it at least somewhat progressive - for an otherwise fairly patriarchal society - that the law holds men accountable as well as women for non-compliance from traditional grooming standards.

What I'd be most interested to know is whether the Amish are still putting people in stocks as a punishment. It's interesting how governments used to use public shaming methods like that historically. We don't bother with social punishments (that I can think of) in modern times...seems like we just litigate or fine people.

It seems that the Amish have moved on from stocks and use shunning and excommunication as forms of punishment. However, they still ban makeup for women and hold both genders to strict grooming standards.

Let me laugh first because this one is damn right hilarious and crazy at the same time. I said so because It looks like Morrisville is still living in stone age to have this kind of law or so called permit against ladies. They must have one for their men too I suppose. It's something that the religion denomination of Deep Life Bible Church enforces on their members. They are not allowed to make up, pierce their ears or wear good looking clothes.

The Amish famously live in the Stone Age, my friend. They believe that technology is a pathway to sin and death, and thus still use horses and buggies and traditional farming and crafting while the rest of us have moved on.

 

[Eric]

It seems that the Amish have moved on from stocks and use shunning and excommunication as forms of punishment. However, they still ban makeup for women and hold both genders to strict grooming standards.

Interesting info about shunning. What's our modern legal equivalent, the restraining order? Socially, we do have shunning just like the Amish I suppose. I think the Amish's shunning is also purely social/cultural (i.e., it's not in their laws or anything), but is just much more formalized in their society. The difference seems to be that when the Amish shuns a person, that person actually abides by the shunning and doesn't show their face around the community anymore. When we shun people, it's still kind of a punishment but you still have to deal with occasionally bumping into that person and figuring out how you're going to react (lol). I've had recent experience with this with a member of our local community unfortunately...

 

[linux.poet]

Interesting info about shunning. What's our modern legal equivalent, the restraining order? Socially, we do have shunning just like the Amish I suppose. I think the Amish's shunning is also purely social/cultural (i.e., it's not in their laws or anything), but is just much more formalized in their society. The difference seems to be that when the Amish shuns a person, that person actually abides by the shunning and doesn't show their face around the community anymore. When we shun people, it's still kind of a punishment but you still have to deal with occasionally bumping into that person and figuring out how you're going to react (lol). I've had recent experience with this with a member of our local community unfortunately...

Probably pretty close, heh. It’s common for people these days to need distance from people who wreck their mental health. It can also go by the name “family cut-off” for childhood trauma survivors.

Another variation is the No-contact order that colleges and universities hand out. I had to get one of those for a professor who terrified me. Basically I “shunned” him until I was able to graduate and leave that college.

 

[Eric]

Probably pretty close, heh. It’s common for people these days to need distance from people who wreck their mental health.

I had a supervisor at one point in my career who fit this description. If the person wrecking your mental health is also someone who has power over you and who you have to work with day to day...well, it's not a good situation. Fortunately they moved jobs after a couple years and my current supervisor is awesome.

Another variation is the No-contact order that colleges and universities hand out. I had to get one of those for a professor who terrified me. Basically I “shunned” him until I was able to graduate and leave that college.

I'm very sorry to hear you had that experience. I suppose it's good the school at least helped out by imposing the no contact order until you could get out of dodge.

The guy currently being shunned in our neighborhood is (was?) a professor too oddly enough...in our case at Cal State San Marcos. He started doing what got him in trouble at the university with someone in our kids' school PTO, which is completely insane. There's definitely a shunning now in effect but it's difficult when you were previously friends with that person, and your kids are still friends.

 

[linux.poet]

The guy currently being shunned in our neighborhood is (was?) a professor too oddly enough...in our case at Cal State San Marcos. He started doing what got him in trouble at the university with someone in our kids' school PTO, which is completely insane. There's definitely a shunning now in effect but it's difficult when you were previously friends with that person, and your kids are still friends.

There’s two ways I’ve found to cope with this sort of trauma. First, to distance the action from the person. You hate what that person did, but you don’t hate the person. The shunning process is just so the community has time to figure out whether an action has led to (or will lead to) an identity change. We all do things that aren’t part of who we are, because of pressure or a temptation, etc.

The second is to defend yourself (and your children) from the action if necessary. You don’t want to be a victim of whatever actions this person has done, should they decide to repeat them.

If the person thinks what they have done is okay and repeat their actions, then they have chosen to identify themselves with it. In that case, you were friends with a certain identity that was similar to your own, your children were friends with the identity that the person previously had, but now this person is not that anymore. They aren’t your friend anymore, because they chose to change what made the two of you friends. (Friendship is based on a common identity.) Hopefully this helps.

To get more back on topic, if I take the action of wearing makeup on a regular basis, I identify with the idea that my face is a canvas I can modify as I see fit. An Amish identity is inconsistent with that, therefore I have to be permitted to identify as something that is inconsistent with them in their homeland.

 

[Eric]

I really appreciate you sharing some of these tools for putting trauma like this in perspective. This is who I'm talking about, by the way, in case you're all at interested (this is one of several articles out there). I'm pretty sure this is his identity at this point. I won't go into all the details, but several actions were taken, aside from the shunning that got us onto this conversation, related to his participation at the school. I can appreciate the role that understanding and potentially forgiveness play in the framework you shared because, you're right, you never know exactly what's happening in another person's life and you want as full a picture as possible of their identity (including potential mitigating factors) before taking any actions against them. Part of what I think you're also getting at is contrition. If someone's truly sorry for what they've done and they can make a clear case that they weren't being themselves, then normal empathetic people will generally respond to that. They may not ever forgive the person but they may back off in terms of the level of shunning or other actions. Part of the issue in the case I'm talking about is lack of contrition, which contributes to a sense that this is that person's real identity.

Agreed with your points on makeup. I guess Amish women see it as their identity to have their face regulated, I don't know. There's definitely a much bigger conversation there about culture and social freedoms that extends through history and beyond the Amish's makeup law. For the purposes of this forum it is interesting to have a permit system ("cosmetic buttons") for the purpose of being exempted from a purely social/personal care-type law.

 

[High Voltage]

It seems that the Amish have moved on from stocks and use shunning and excommunication as forms of punishment. However, they still ban makeup for women and hold both genders to strict grooming standards.

The Amish famously live in the Stone Age, my friend. They believe that technology is a pathway to sin and death, and thus still use horses and buggies and traditional farming and crafting while the rest of us have moved on.

We can call it the Stone Age, or we can call it simplicity. I doubt it was an Amish community that required permits for this. That's not something they would do. They would just shun a woman who put on make-up because it would be obvious that she wasn't interested in the way of life anymore.

 

[Honey]

What? Do women need makeup permits now? That's hilarious! I've never heard of such laws. Okay, I agree that a woman cannot wear a lot of makeup at every place. That doesn't even look good or enhance her beauty. That just looks over, especially at the workplace. The reason, I think, behind the law could be to promote simplicity, modesty, or avoid distractions at the workplace or in society in general.