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| Pettipants or Mennonite lingerie |
Sondaboa oon fe’dreit
With the recent change in sentencing of Canadian Mennonite
James Duerksen of Rosenort, Manitoba, (25 April) to four years in prison, rural Mennonite
teens and women can again visit church in peace, knowing that their bedrooms
and their undies will remain safe in the interim.
In a Mennonite story straight out of fable,
Duerkson, married and father of two, has been convicted of 92 counts of
breaking, entering and theft over 21 years and across two Canadian provinces –
the object of this criminal activity – Mennonite women’s lingerie.
In researching this essay, I actually
learned that Mennonite women actually have access to a peculiar, old-fashioned form
of undergarment called pettipants or Mennonite lingerie (see photo) – a sort
of cross between bloomers and a slip. Though, according to the Winnipeg Free Press, the lingerie in this story tended to be of a more conventional Victoria's Secret style and type.
Duerkson, however, was not motivated by
mere curiosity – according to court documents, Duerksen has been diagnosed with
transvestic festishism, which
according to the Winnipeg Sun, is a form of transvestitism whereby the sexual
interest in cross-dressing, (possible repressed?), results in a significant psychological distress or social impairment (Winnipeg Sun, see below).
according to Wikipedia.com...
Transvestic fetishism refers specifically to cross-dressing; sexual arousal in response to individual garments is fetishism.[1] Occurrence of transvestic fetishism is uncorrelated to occurrence of gender identity disorder.[1] Most men who have transvestic fetishism do not have a problem with their assigned sex.Some male transvestic fetishists collect women's clothing, e.g. nightgowns, babydolls, bridal gowns, slips, brassieres, and other types of nightwear, lingerie, stockings, pantyhose, shoes, and boots, items of a distinct feminine look and feel. They may dress in these feminine garments and take photographs of themselves while living out their secret fantasies. According to the DSM-IV, this fetishism has been described only in heterosexual men.There are two key criteria before a psychiatric diagnosis of "transvestic fetishism" is made:[1]
- Recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, urges, or behaviour, involving cross-dressing.
- This causes clinically significant distress or impairment, whether socially, at work, or elsewhere.
Thus, transvestic fetishism is not diagnosed unless it causes significant problems for the person concerned.
Originally sentenced to two-years “minus a day”, the Manitoba appellate court apparently found the facts of Duerksen’s case to be “strange and disconcerting,” or “sondaboa oon fe-dreit (?), and his sentence to be a bit light.
Court documents indicate that “[Duerksen] would identify a home inhabited
by a woman, wait until the residents were at church and then enter the [normally unlocked] home to
steal the woman’s lingerie. In some
cases he masturbated with the undergarments while still in the home… moreover,
the psychological report done on the accused postulated that his acts arose
from a desire for power over the women whose undergarments he stole,” (Winnipeg
Free Press, see below).
News reports do not indicate how suspicions
arose regarding Duerksen’s behavior, but the Free Press reports that teen-age girls attending the same church as
Duerksen had become suspicious – to the point that his garbage was secretly
searched by neighbors who found “garbage bags” stuffed with the missing bras
and panties.
CBC Radio indicated that the affected
communities, well-aware of the situation, had subjected Duerksen to the ban and that his punishment was the
shunning.
Provincial courts were however, at more of
a loss as to handle this bizarre crime.
He was apparently sentenced to a two-year period of probation and
counseling. Reports from the appellate hearing
indicate that the court was convinced of Duerksen’s good behavior since he was
first sentenced and concerned that if he was sentenced to attend sex-therapy
counseling behind bars, it would simply “expose
him to a broader range and more severe forms of inappropriate sexual
behaviours, which could result in more harm than benefit,” (Sun, ibid).
Carefully balancing a need for Duerksen to
receive appropriate counseling away from potential harmful moral and sexual deviancies,
the court was also concerned that some sort of deterrent be realized for the
break-ins. Again, Duerksen confessed to
92 break-ins in three communities and two provinces over two decades. Normally, a breaking and entering sentence
would be two years.
Duerksen was resentenced to four years in
prison after which he will be released and required to attend specialized
therapy to cope with his condition.
Humor aside, this is an interesting
inter-section or meeting of traditional ethnic justice norms and provincial law
whereby both have seemingly informed and influenced the other. It will be instructive and useful to better understand
how Duerksen handles his sentence upon release, whether he is able to retain
and restore relations to his family and his home congregation, and how this
whole affair will be handled by the greater Mennonite community.
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