Why Are Mormons So Hot?
Once upon a time, I was a Mormon and "why are Mormons so hot" was a top Google search term and I wanted to direct more traffic to my website, so I made this page. I'm no longer a Mormon but I still want to direct traffic to my website, so I've left this page up even though I can't look at it without cringing.
The thing I wanted to know was, why "Why are Mormons so hot"? Did a secret combination of unscrupulous Saints band together to bump it up there? Did the Church's PR department do it? Or do those not of our faith genuinely want to know why Mormons are so hot? I think the last explanation makes the most sense. A ploy by either the Church or some of its members just seems like way too much effort for not much result, since it's unlikely this has led to many conversions.
The thing I wanted to know was, why "Why are Mormons so hot"? Did a secret combination of unscrupulous Saints band together to bump it up there? Did the Church's PR department do it? Or do those not of our faith genuinely want to know why Mormons are so hot? I think the last explanation makes the most sense. A ploy by either the Church or some of its members just seems like way too much effort for not much result, since it's unlikely this has led to many conversions.
Maybe they were looking at a website called Hot Mormons which is somewhat relevant to the topic at hand, albeit slightly creepy. This is all in fun, of course - I won't insult your intelligence by pretending this is a reason to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If we all did what certain hot people get away with just because they're hot, the world would be an even worse place than it already is.
Still, there's an aura about righteous Latter-day Saints. Before starting college, on the plane to Salt Lake City, I sat by two residents thereof who were non-LDS (not that unlikely, since it's less than 50% LDS). I asked them if Mormons were really weird and the guy said yes but they're all right except for when they try to convert you. I'd been hoping to convert them, so that was kind of awkward and I didn't tell them I myself was one. That was at the beginning of the flight - not even, since we were delayed for three hours. At the end, I was feeling guilty about my semi-deception and I confessed that my religious affiliation. The guy looked annoyed, but the girl gave me a cryptic smile and said, "I thought so. You have that feeling around you." To this day I don't know what that was supposed to mean. It seemed distinctly flirtatious, but she'd paid zero attention to me the entire flight.
So I'd heard about this aura but this was my first personal experience with it. I wouldn't equate this aura with "hotness" - certainly I wouldn't consider myself "hot". Still, maybe that's the closest correlation some non-members see. And it made me think about a couple of women I had seen around the Internet, one a faithful Mormon and the other a bitter apostate. Both had been liberally gifted with the quality of "hotness". Yet when I saw the former I thought "Wow, what an angel, I wanna marry her" and when I saw the latter I thought "Meh". Their respective auras translated into attractiveness or lack thereof, which augmented or negated their existing hotness. And that's my theory of why Mormons are so hot. (The latter's theory would probably be "Because they're practicing to burn in hell.") If you want to be attractive, don't act like this. But props to Abercrombie & Fitch for dealing with the situation. She never bothered me or my friend again.
Still, there's an aura about righteous Latter-day Saints. Before starting college, on the plane to Salt Lake City, I sat by two residents thereof who were non-LDS (not that unlikely, since it's less than 50% LDS). I asked them if Mormons were really weird and the guy said yes but they're all right except for when they try to convert you. I'd been hoping to convert them, so that was kind of awkward and I didn't tell them I myself was one. That was at the beginning of the flight - not even, since we were delayed for three hours. At the end, I was feeling guilty about my semi-deception and I confessed that my religious affiliation. The guy looked annoyed, but the girl gave me a cryptic smile and said, "I thought so. You have that feeling around you." To this day I don't know what that was supposed to mean. It seemed distinctly flirtatious, but she'd paid zero attention to me the entire flight.
So I'd heard about this aura but this was my first personal experience with it. I wouldn't equate this aura with "hotness" - certainly I wouldn't consider myself "hot". Still, maybe that's the closest correlation some non-members see. And it made me think about a couple of women I had seen around the Internet, one a faithful Mormon and the other a bitter apostate. Both had been liberally gifted with the quality of "hotness". Yet when I saw the former I thought "Wow, what an angel, I wanna marry her" and when I saw the latter I thought "Meh". Their respective auras translated into attractiveness or lack thereof, which augmented or negated their existing hotness. And that's my theory of why Mormons are so hot. (The latter's theory would probably be "Because they're practicing to burn in hell.") If you want to be attractive, don't act like this. But props to Abercrombie & Fitch for dealing with the situation. She never bothered me or my friend again.
There are more secular factors at work in the aura too, of course. Psychology Today explained in one study, "Mormons don't drink or smoke. They enjoy community support, which relieves stress. They live 10 years longer than the average American. Holy Spirit aside, their skin may glow because it's healthier. While the judges likely knew that Mormons are clean-living, they weren't consciously aware when categorizing faces that they were associating religious purity with good skin. It was a gut feeling." That's not to say that all Mormon girls are perfect angels. If they are virtuous and kind and all that stuff like they're supposed to be, that's what makes them hot. Some Mormon girls have treated me with dismissal and contempt and done more damage to my self-esteem than anything else post-high school. Sometimes it adds insult to injury that we toss around the phrase "beautiful daughters of God" all the time and assume they're all so wonderful by virtue of their gender, while in the meantime they're treating me like that. But I just bring that up as an aside and don't mean to blow the problem out of proportion.
There's some inconsistency from the young women of the Church as to whether being "hot" is desirable or not. First you have them quoted in the Ensign saying things like "Here the boys say 'You look beautiful' instead of 'You look hot'" with the distinct implication that the former is preferable. But then there's the whole "modest is hottest" mantra. So which is it? I believe what we have here is a miscommunication of definitions. The closest definition for this slang usage of the word "hot" that I could find is "sexually attractive". That's very broad and open to interpretation, and it isn't necessarily a bad thing just because it has the word "sexually" in it. Let's be adults here. Speaking of modesty, I'm all for it, but I think it's just a little creepy how obsessed we seem to be with it sometimes. I'll let this hilarious blog post explain what I mean.
You want to see a hot Mormon? Look no further than Al Fox Carraway. She is physically appealing but would still be hot even with a face like a horse. That's because her aura is the strongest I've ever "seen". It has the power to uplift hearts and make people smile. With such a force of what is the closest to pure goodness that a human being can aspire to in the world, what chance does Satan have of carrying out his nefarious design? For certainly he will be and is victorious in many areas, but they are means to the end of destroying civilization and making all mankind miserable like unto himself, and at that he will never succeed as long as people like Al Fox continue to draw breath. She would, of course, be the first to tell you that Jesus Christ deserves all the credit for inspiring her to become what she is.
There's some inconsistency from the young women of the Church as to whether being "hot" is desirable or not. First you have them quoted in the Ensign saying things like "Here the boys say 'You look beautiful' instead of 'You look hot'" with the distinct implication that the former is preferable. But then there's the whole "modest is hottest" mantra. So which is it? I believe what we have here is a miscommunication of definitions. The closest definition for this slang usage of the word "hot" that I could find is "sexually attractive". That's very broad and open to interpretation, and it isn't necessarily a bad thing just because it has the word "sexually" in it. Let's be adults here. Speaking of modesty, I'm all for it, but I think it's just a little creepy how obsessed we seem to be with it sometimes. I'll let this hilarious blog post explain what I mean.
You want to see a hot Mormon? Look no further than Al Fox Carraway. She is physically appealing but would still be hot even with a face like a horse. That's because her aura is the strongest I've ever "seen". It has the power to uplift hearts and make people smile. With such a force of what is the closest to pure goodness that a human being can aspire to in the world, what chance does Satan have of carrying out his nefarious design? For certainly he will be and is victorious in many areas, but they are means to the end of destroying civilization and making all mankind miserable like unto himself, and at that he will never succeed as long as people like Al Fox continue to draw breath. She would, of course, be the first to tell you that Jesus Christ deserves all the credit for inspiring her to become what she is.
Some time after I'd written the above, she got bored and decided to Google her own name, and stumbled across it. Imagine my surprise and stunned disbelief to get on Facebook that day and find a friend request from Al Fox, the Al Fox. That was a highlight of my life. And, even though she had over two thousand friends on there, she still had time to chat with me sometimes and I am happy to report that the fame hadn't gone to her head and she is just as amazing as ever. Then, the day before my nineteenth birthday I snuck into an EFY at my university and had the privilege of meeting her in person. True, we only got to talk for a couple minutes, and I managed to make it awkward and less than ideal, but still. At least I'd asked for advice on the selection of flowers instead of just going with a dozen roses like I'd originally considered. Now if I just get to meet Harrison Ford I can die happy.
Eventually, someone decided to go to BYU and ask some Mormons themselves why they're so hot. They said basically the same things I did. They all must have read this page.
Eventually, someone decided to go to BYU and ask some Mormons themselves why they're so hot. They said basically the same things I did. They all must have read this page.
(Obviously, not everybody thinks Mormons are hot. Mark Twain famously wrote about polygamous Mormon women in Roughing It: "My heart was wiser than my head. It warmed toward these poor, ungainly and pathetically 'homely' creatures, and as I turned to hide the generous moisture in my eyes, I said, 'No - the man that marries one of them has done an act of Christian charity which entitles him to the kindly applause of mankind, not their harsh censure - and the man that marries sixty of them has done a deed of open-handed generosity so sublime that the nations should stand uncovered in his presence and worship in silence.'" Infamous General Authority Elder J. Golden Kimball apparently got the last word, though, as recorded in J. Golden Kimball Stories: "Mormon missionaries were accused by the Klan of seducing the wives and daughters of the White South to be taken back to live in polygamous slavery in Utah. Golden said one only had to look at their wives and daughters to know that such a thing couldn’t possibly be true. Even polygamists have standards.")
