5/1/13

Are You Smarter than a Book Cover?

“I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world,” said anthropologist, writer, and speaker Margaret Mead. Her quote resounds in my soul; guess that's why I blog about Amish - and those who leave - giving accurate information.

One screaming inaccuracy I see on fiction book covers is the well-groomed, attractive, side-glancing or provocative looking Amish gal with a wispy tuft of hair dangling from her white kapp.

Why wrong you ask?

Well, the kapp does make it easier to see the air-brushed youthful image. However, in reality Amish females are prohibited from the vain and worldly practice of plucking their eyebrows and using make-up to cover acne, and every hair must be in place. Their culture teaches females to be subservient and passive.

I’ve met strong, out-spoken, opinionated ex-Amish gals. They have their own ideas and often tell it like it is without using a mouth-filter. I've been emotionally bruised by those ex-Amish females. Mosie (our ex-Amish "son") and Harvey (our ex-Amish son-in-love) have told me stories of women who run the family. But to always paint covers with angelic, blemish-free and subtly suggestive faces is misleading to readers.

The kapp is symbolic of submissiveness. The kapp is what a female wears to cover her tidy hair every day. There are rules to how the hair is pulled back and secured.

These rules vary among the different Amish orders. But - for the most part - this is typical . . .

Whenever she leaves the house, she wears the bonnet to cover her kapp, just like the man must wear a hat when he’s outside his home. It'd be rare to find an Amish gal at the barn-raising without her bonnet.

When we were visiting our son-in-law’s Amish parents I witnessed the strict adherence to this practice. We were sitting in the living – or front – room of their dawdy house (I’ll explain that in a future post). My husband Paul asked if he could see the barn. Harvey’s father, the stout Amish bishop with long white beard, rose from his chair to accommodate my husband’s request, pulled his black hat from the peg on the wall and placed it over his long hair. Just to go out to the barn – his own property – he wore his hat.

Now, Mosie told me there’s a color tradition among his Swartzentruber Order. Unmarried gals wore a black kapp while married women wore white. In some settlements the young girls wear black to church, and for everyday at-home use it’s the white kapp. And that’s only while they’re young. Once they reach adolescence they wear a white kapp (under the bonnet) to attend a funeral or the singings in the evening. In other Orders the black kapp symbolized unmarried girls or those who weren’t yet Church members.

Scratching your head in confusion yet?

Well, here’s more. Among stricter Orders, there's a third head covering called the ivva-kopp or ivverbonnet. Those are similar to the bonnets but, are heavier & warmer, quilted over layers of thick paper from flour bags, and fit more snugly to the head. Some ex-Amish tell me they grew up in settlements where they never saw an ivva-kopp.

Women wear their black – or dark colored – bonnet as tradition, to protect the kapp, and also to protect themselves from wind and winter’s cold.

In some settlements the bonnet rules are more lenient; in the hot summer, inside a black buggy, the bonnet may stay on the back shelf of the buggy. I can only image how hot it’d be wearing those things. Some settlements mandate bonnet use year round while others hardly wear the bonnet in the summer, except on Sundays to attend church. In an Iowa settlement they wear colored bonnets.

Hey, if you’re confused then welcome to the complexities of the Amish system.

I’d like to see those publishers’ cover designers be more creative and accurate; stop with the redundant, misleading picture. Make a realistic cover where the young gal has a uni-brow, teen ache, every hair is in place, her downcast eyes show compliance, or the heavy black bonnet hides her face. Oh wait, that wouldn’t sell books. Well, at least you can be smarter than a book cover.  ~Brenda
(c)Copyright 2013, Brenda Nixon.

    15 comments:

    1. I didn't know the ivverkap was made from paper. I was from the Andy Weaver people and ours were made from layers of denim inside the black material.

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      1. Katie, as always, thanks for sharing. I heard layers of paper but, you prove that different orders have different rules. Personally, I've not seen an ivver kapp but would like to.
        We have some childhood clothes from our son-in-law Harvey, that his mother gave him after he married our daughter. It's special to be up close & personal to those handmade Amish clothes.

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    2. Another informative post, Brenda! I don't think most people reading those Amish books (or glancing at the covers) have any idea how restrictive Amish life is for women.

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      1. Glad you like it Brenda K. Yea, most people have no clue how restrictive the Amish life is. It cracks me up when people call themselves "Amish wannabes" because it is NOT the "simple" life.

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    3. While I appreciate (as always) your posts, I do have to say that according to my friends, there is a reason why they wear their kapps. And before people start to argue with me about it, let me just say that we are not called to judge, but to love. From what my friends, who are Amish, have told me, they believe a woman's head should be covered. At its root, it's biblical. In the hands of man, it becomes religious.

      I hate to think that I'd take exception to, and judge, my Amish friend's and their kapps if I don't take my Mennonite friend's coverings the same way.

      I think that man's rules and regulations are where the issues lay. Man messes things up :)

      Yes, I agree that a more accurate portrayal of the characters in the books would be nice, but if I were honest, I would also say that it's fiction and that no one ever read a fictitious book (say, Nora Roberts or Karen Kingsbury) and thought they were 'learning' something from the author.

      I guess I'm in the 'live and let live', 'love because I am loved' category :)

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      1. Blue, I agree with many of the things you posted. Unfortunately, many people read Amish fiction and believe what's written is an accurate, simple portrait of a complicated culture :-( I add resoundingly to your comment, "it's fiction people!"
        I think the public want more reality. To date, nearly 9,000 people have come here to read since the blog's December launch. To me, that's evidence for more reality, which in the long run is more respect for the Amish.

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      2. I shake my head in disbelief that the concept of a fictional book/character should be in any way a method from which people learn. I wonder (hope) that what it is doing is opening their eyes to the culture of the Amish and making them search for answers to questions they never knew they had! In which case, I am super, duper happy that they are finding correct answers from your blog!

        I've said to my kids that one child might have one story about a situation and the other child might have a different story...and the truth is somewhere is in the middle....

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      3. I have many friends who offer to lend me their novels because they are "so good and informative" about the Amish. They really do not know the inside of the hundreds of oppressive restrictions. Malinda Borntreger Meeks

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    4. I enjoy reading your blogs. Interestingly enough, the area where I come from, some of the young girls do pluck their eyebrows, have their hair cut, and wear makeup. But yes, they still have their kapp on!

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      1. Thanks Anonymous - now that amazes me. Perhaps it's from your area that these designers get their ideas for book covers.

        I'm working now with a 19-y/o gal who just left the Amish. She's naturally pretty but does have a bit of acne and no bottom teeth. Her Amish dentist pulled out all her lower teeth. That "education" will be a future post.

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    5. Here's my hope... that the ex-Amish who have chosen a life of more freedom will embrace their past. We are all a product of our experiences. Each one of us was given the gift of life, and "life" is not easy. Reading this post draws me back to how my dad described his life as a little boy and all the restrictions he had to observe. I remember his telling me about having to wear knickers until he was old enough to wear long pants. I personally remember that my mom wouldn't let me wear what they used to call "straight skirts" (nowhere near as tight as some of the loosest skirts worn today) until she thought I was old enough. She was adamant about my dressing nice to go to a party, firmly explaining that people acted better when they were dressed nicely. While much of the Amish strict dress code that you have explained appears severe to us who live in a culture of "ultimate" freedom, I can't help but feel some of the "respect" for life that some of the ex-Amish must feel from having had to dress in specific ways at different times. While some of the requirements were hurtful as they have acknowledged and explained, I am guessing that deep down, there are probably others that are directly responsible for allowing them to be able to "forge on" now in new and different directions.
      Dr. Sally (www.earlychildhoodnews.net/parenting-tips)

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    6. Hi Brenda, this was a very interesting article, thanks for taking the time to share it with us. During disasters we often have many Amish volunteer from many different Amish sects or groups. Many are Amish youth, during work almost without fail the unmarried girls remove the cap & replace it with a white scarf which can be seen by using the following link: http://ow.ly/kQDOa

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      1. As always Andy, I appreciate what YOU are doing in your Plain New Life services. Glad you like this truthful observation although it might not make me a fave among some publishers. *wink*

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    7. Brenda, your blogs are eye-opening! Very well done. I believe God knows one's heart. That applies to those who live under many religious community restrictions. I have always thought much of Amish fiction was far from realistic, but people yearn to read about a simpler life.

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      1. Thanks for reading Charlotte and for leaving your comment.

        Lisa described her former Amish life, "Merely being dutiful and willing does not clothe and feed the family nor keep the house spotless, the pantry filled, garden tended, cellar shelves filled, laundry, ironing, sewing, cappa g'fixed, etc," plus following the rules of de ordnung pregnant or not and in a timely manner. If people think THAT is a simpler life, then those who misunderstand the Amish life can have it!

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