Why are women allowed to wear hats in church, but men are not?

Men just in general aren’t allowed to wear hats inside if they’re being polite.

To look their Sunday’s best?

It’s traditional for men to not wear hats inside anywhere. But women’s hats (especially in Victorian times) were often quite fancy and sometimes pinned to the hair and more difficult to take off.

I could be wrong, but I thought that women were supposed to cover their heads in church or during any type of worship, according to the Bible. That would explain why hats are acceptable for women.

@TheOnlyNeffie In Catholic Mass, woman had to wear vails up untill a few decades ago.

@Deja_vu right, I knew it was something to that effect. I’m getting rusty. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_headcovering says : “1 Corinthians 11:4–16 contains the only reference in the New Testament referring to a headcovering for women and to an absence of a headcovering for men.”

@TheOnlyNeffie I think you’re right, I forgot about that.

George Carlin, in what I think was his last album, did an insightful and very funny bit about hats in churches and synagogues. He discusses contradicting hat philosophies in different religions, observing that as a Catholic he was told that he had to remove his hat in church “to honor the presence of God.” But he was also told that God was “everywhere.” So he asks, “If God is everywhere, why would you even own a hat?” He then sums it up by saying, “Personally, I would never want to be a member of any group where you either have to wear a hat or you can’t wear a hat.” He ties it all into wondering why you have to take off your hat as a flag passes by. Carlin questions these traditions because he wonders what they really mean.

It probably dates from this Biblical passage.

First Corinthians Chapter 11 Verses 4–5:

“4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. 5 And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is just as though her head were shaved.”

Source

Oh, good, someone took care of the I Corinthians verse for me.

That’s the same segment the Pentecostal church uses as an argument for not allowing women to cut their hair, and for disallowing men from keeping long hair.

Tradition! tradition! (Oops – wrong religion.)

Neither can wear hats in court, if that’s any consulation.

That is the will of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In our synagogue, men wear the hats.

I say everyone should take their hat off. I really have no say. I don’t go to church. So I bow out gracefully out of this DB

I take my hat off to everyone on this thread.

Or yamaka, as the case may be.

Trust me, once women start wearing hats with visors, and turn them at odd angles over their faces, they’ll be asked to remove them, too.

Also hats with the trademarks of farm implements and liquor companies.

@CyanoticWasp

I don’t know… I once went to a church conference, and I swear a woman came wearing a lamp shade she stole from her hotel room. At least, that’s what it looked like.

I’ll take an inside-out-and-sideways baseball cap over a lamp shade any day.

@Seek_Kolinahr I’d be more partial to the lampshade, I think. At least that’s something that I don’t see EVERY DAMN DAY. The baseball cap turned awry look is one that really has to go. I think the guys who adopt that look automatically lower their IQ by a third somehow.