I'm seriously shocked by this one. Beards was kinda telegraphed for years in the WT, and there were a growing number of rebels like me growing them.
Not counting time was also a shock, but it made total sense because counting time was always unscriptural.
Reform on DF is very welcome, and very needed. But as with all the rest of the reforms, it's the right thing, being done for the wrong reason. It's so nakedly a knee jerk reaction to the Norway lawsuit.
The ladies wearing pants thing is actually weirdly the only thing I'm opossed to. Don't get me wrong my wife wears pants all the time, but there's something that seems important to me about distinguishing the sexes for worship. First there were always biblical distinctions for the sexes and worship, but my second gut level resistance to this is because of something I know about Ba'al worship. One of the unique features of Ba'al worship was a complete ceremonial reversal of sex specific garments and even behavior. The women would carry weapons and wear men's closed, the would act like men. The men would dress like women and even pretend to nurse children. This was basically an indulgence in completely reversing everything, a celebration of dark for light and up for down. I know it's not the same thing, but my gut level reaction is to avoid anything remotely related to Ba'al worship, Jehovah was very opposed to it.
The real reason the Org is doing this is probably just as nefarious though. I suspect that the Org is trying to get ahead of LGBT issues, esp the trans issue. In many western countries so called trans rights are starting to gain traction, and it could pose a weak point for the org. They just lost on DF in court, they don't want to get caught again. It's troubling because it further reveals just how unscrupulous they are, and it could very well be just the beginning of a trend to softening on LGBT issues.
My 4 cents,