recent blog posts

Not Enemies, But Friends: Advocates for Equality and the Institutional Church

"It seems that in Latter-day Saint culture we have adopted a belief that change must only come from the highest levels of patriarchal power and never from those laboring in the fields at local levels. Somehow the idea that bottom-up advocacy is wrong has taken deep root in our cultural consciousness, making many Saints feel that voicing any concern is wholly against the rules and must inherently be spoken out of misguidance, anger, or malice. Unfortunately, this has resulted in dismissal, suspicion, and even silencing of many members' faithful inquiry, expressions of concern, and honest sharing of lived experiences. Actions and feelings based on fear of offending hierarchy or fear of ideas that originate from outside positions of power don’t seem to be compatible with Christ’s teachings or informed by his mortal ministry. We have been reminded by modern-'day prophets and leaders of the Church that, 'the scriptures teach that fear and faith cannot coexist in our hearts at the same time,' and 'to remember that fear is not of the Lord, but faith and courage are.'”

Weighing In

As I lost weight after surgery people treated me differently. This validated my suspicion that, in our world, a lot of women's power is in their smallness. While feeling elated about being smaller and more comfortable in my body an awareness was also growing in me at the unfairness, judgment and even exploitation my bigger self had endured.

Guest Post: Was It Ever Really a Choice?

Guest Post
August 20, 2024
15 Comments
Gender, women

"Some women heard that their only job in life was to be a wife and mother and decided that they didn’t care, they would pursue a family and career simultaneously. I am grateful to them because they gave me the courage to send my child to a babysitter and go back to work full time. Some women got lucky and their leaders probably did skip over a lot of this rhetoric (perhaps more common once the church began to release resource guides to help supplement the lessons). I hope that I did when I taught a Young Women class in the early 2000’s. Some women desperately wanted to stay at home with children but could not. Perhaps that desperation could have been slightly lessened if they weren't made to believe that working was bad. I don't know. But the fact remains that many, many women took the teachings of the importance of solely being a wife and mother to heart - it is what the church wanted them to do after all - and perhaps never felt like their future was truly in their hands."

Come Follow Me: Helaman 1-6 “The Rock of Our Redeemer”

So what should you cover in your class? The passage Helaman 1-6 gives you more choices than many lessons...To help you out in your preparations, I’ve created an outline of Helaman 1-6, a list of the spiritual passages, and a summary of suggested discussion topics.

Beauty Standards for LDS Women in Leadership

These women are certainly smart, capable and accomplished to be called into these positions - but it bothers me that they likely had to clear a hurdle of specific beauty standards for male leadership to have considered them at all. If LDS women are at the mercy of men to select them for callings - and their physical appearance (at the very least) is a factor in getting called - is it any surprise that Utah leads the nation in cosmetic surgery and procedures?