This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Perceptions of indecency in schools pertaining to homecoming-dance dresses or the attire worn by girls for yearbook pictures have pitted students, teachers, parents and administrators against one another and made front-page headlines.
Now, there is a new target from mostly Mormon women upset about the explosion of indecent images of the female body and the exploitation of women for sexual gratification.
That target? LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University.
Cougar fans have protested on social media about the Carl's Jr. promotion on the back of their football tickets this year. If you take your BYU ticket to a Carl's Jr. restaurant, you get two Six Dollar Thickburgers for the price of one.
It's not unlike promotions you see all the time on game tickets.
But Carl's Jr. has spawned an outcry from women nationwide about its television spots featuring scantily clad women in provocative poses eating hamburgers and dripping ketchup on strategic parts of their bodies.
Many fans have been posting on Twitter and Facebook their displeasure toward BYU for promoting a company with the types of ads that they say objectify women.
One fan, Alison Moore Smith, wrote an open letter to BYU brass on the "Mormon Momma" blog, complaining that she never would have patronized Carl's Jr. had she known about the ads. But she had never seen those spots, she says, because the restaurant chain apparently doesn't advertise on the programs her family watches.
She said she has patronized the eatery "precisely because Carl's Jr. was promoted to us by BYU."
BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins, who in my experience has been one of Utah's best public relations representatives because of her prompt responses and fair and comprehensive answers to my questions, didn't return my calls on this one.
I finally received this terse email from the communications office:
"BYU Athletics works with local [Carl's Jr.] franchise owners, who have supported athletics for many years. These owners do not control or provide input on corporate advertising campaigns. Any promotion with BYU Athletics pertains to the local franchises."
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North vs. South • BYU may have irritated some of its faithful with the Carl's Jr. coupons on its football tickets, but at least the students can wear shorts on campus and, believe it or not, bare their ankles.
That apparently is not the case at BYU-Idaho.
School President Kim Clark was so appalled by what he saw on the Rexburg campus recently that he posted on his Facebook page an admonition to the sinning students he had noticed.
"The three things that caught my eye yesterday were pants that did not make it down to the ankle (some hemmed off 4-8 inches above the ankle, some pants rolled up that far); faces of young men not clean-shaven; and shorts on campus (mostly BYU-I shorts — just remember to wear warm-ups)."
Funny. Students at BYU's Provo campus can wear shorts and they can show bare ankles and the men can actually apply for and receive cards that allow them to grow beards.
What a liberal institution.
Next up fashion-wise for BYU-Idaho: perhaps burqas.
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Barred at the door • A neighbor told me he got a pass from church Sunday, not that he really wanted one.
Turns out that instead of regular church services, Utah's Mormon wards members were treated to closed-circuit television coverage of the rededication of the revamped Ogden LDS Temple.
But, alas, only those with current temple recommends or specially obtained tickets could attend. The unworthy were not allowed to view the ceremonies taking place inside a temple they were not qualified to enter.
For some, it might have been seen as a vacation from church, which probably is why they aren't qualified to have temple recommends.