Read our series of blog posts on by Mormon feminists across the spectrum of belief
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Mormon Women Oral History Project
AKA The best thing I did in Vienna, Austria while my husband and I were studying (architecture and philosophy, respectfully).
Have you ever sat down with someone, and asked them to tell you all about themselves? I have done this. In fact, I have spent days and weeks doing this in a foreign country, right before I was about to say goodbye. I wanted to do it the whole time I was in Vienna, because there is a project I believe in that is comprised of such asking and such listening. It is called the Mormon Women Oral History Project,...
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Argument For…
In part two of our "Argument Against/For" day (first installment here), I wanted to share the Argument for women's suffrage, prepared by H. G. Cattell, an assemblyman in the 67th California district in 1911. Like this morning's post, the 1911 argument is on the left and the altered one about women and the priesthood is on the right, with the paragraphs lined up so you can compare them. And again, you can tell it was written a century ago. I found the arguments for/against suffrage to be fascinating. I hope you enjoy it!
Argument For Women's Suffrage
Argument For Women's...
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Argument Against…
In 1911, the state of California was in heated debate about granting suffrage for women. I recently came across one of the arguments against granting women suffrage, written by Sentator J. B. Sanford of the Democratic Caucus. Reading through it, I thought it would be fun to change some of the words. Below, I've included the full text of the 1911 argument on the left and an edited version about the ordination of women in the Church on the right. I've blocked the paragraphs together for easy comparison. The language is a little awkward and archaic, but so is...
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Why Can’t Women Be Witnesses?
Last week my husband participated in Stake Day at the Temple. He took the afternoon off from work and went to help with some sealings. While I myself have a hard time with the temple, I do want to be a good spouse and support him in spiritual practices that he finds meaningful. Really, I do.
And yet, I admit that I probably wasn't the best sport about it. The more I thought about it, the more it troubled me that the stake was asking people to take an afternoon off work to do this. And then when I considered...
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Feminist Grief
First published at The Bee in Your Bonnet, February 2011
I am not a grief counselor or claim any sort of professional understanding of grief. My experience with grief is just that of a human's: grief is a normal part of life. There's no way around it: death happens, misfortune happens.
Supposedly there are 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In my experience, denial and bargaining are the most mentally involved: when cognitive dissonance happens, where you try to work through the grief with your brain. Anger and depression are the most physically involved: when you feel...
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An Awakening
Today's guest is from Heidi, as a continuing part of our Doves & Serpents and Exponent Blog Swap.
Heidi has a reverence for books and music that most people reserve for church. She is an American living in England with her husband and three children. Everyone in her house has big feelings and strong personalities. Sometimes people pay her to write. Most of her days are spent doing yoga, cooking, walking, reading and listening to music.
The children are all mysteriously, gracefully, occupied and my husband and I are watching music videos alone, one of our favorite and oldest shared pastimes. We...
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Liberation
I, like many, dread the weeks we talk about gender roles at church. These conversations are often trite and repetitive and serve to alienate those who fall outside the prescribed ideals for men and women. My Relief Society had one of these lessons several weeks ago and I was pleasantly surprised that the class actively engaged with the topic and sometimes critically pushed against some of the more restrictive ideas. For example, the class had compiled a list female roles, a typical list that included things like women are nurturers. At one point one of the counselors in Relief...
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You’ve Got Some Mansplainin’ To Do
We had a little interchange here at Exponent this week. It's a fairly common one for us and a lot of female-run blogs. Commenters of the male persuasion will swoop in and inform us of our general ignorance/misunderstanding of the gospel or secular issues and then attempt to explain to us "how things really are." In the feminist blogosphere, this phenomenon is called "mansplaining". Here's a definition:
Mansplaining isn't just the act of explaining while male, of course; many men manage to explain things every day without in the least insulting their listeners.
Mansplaining is when a dude tells you, a...
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The Domestic Arts
Several months ago, Salon published an article by an atheist woman obsessed with reading Mormon mommy blogs. This article got a lot of attention but seemed to strike a chord with many Mormon women I know. My facebook page was overrun with links to this particular article with friends commenting that although the author didn't know it, it was really the truthfulness of the gospel that attracted her to these blogs. I personally found the article patronizing and infuriating in its reduction of Mormon women to one particular genre but at the same time, oddly validating. You see, I'm...
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When Mormons Go Public….
...and embarrass the rest of us.
At least that's the overwhelming feeling I had when I came across this Washington Post article about a Mormon Maryland county commissioner, Paul Smith, who goes public with his ideas about mothers' place being in the home. As he does so, he hands out copies of The Proclamation on the Family.
Now if Paul Smith thinks that this choice has been the right one for his family, more power to him.
But please, Mr. Smith, don't assume that that's the right choice for everybody. And please, don't justify voting to cut 2.3 million dollars to fund...
What is Exponent II?
Exponent II provides Mormon feminist forums for women and gender minorities across the Mormon spectrum to share their diverse life experiences in an atmosphere of trust and acceptance. Through these exchanges, we strive to create a community to better understand and support each other.
Exponent II was founded in 1974 by a group of Mormon women in Cambridge, Massachusetts. These women were inspired by the original periodical, “The Woman’s Exponent,” to create a forum “posed on the dual platforms of Mormonism and Feminism.”
For 50+ years, Exponent II has shared women’s voices in its quarterly magazine, and members of the community have convened at an annual retreat. Our reach has expanded as technology has advanced: the blog, founded in January 2006, has reached millions. As we look to the future, we are focused on growth and building a more inclusive community.
