Feminism
I was asked today at church what I think a feminist is and it made me so happy to know that people are reading my blog and thinking about it. That's really why I wanted to start it, in order to prompt people to consider questions they hadn't considered before or in a new / different light. The question got me thinking as well. There are so many different definitions of feminism.
Google's aggregated definition of feminism as, "The advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men."
So that would beg the question, what is equality? Does equality mean indistinguishability? To me, a big step towards equality within the realm of the church would be to cut out the gender roles besides those that are outlined in the Family Proclamation and allow all members to pursue fulfillment according to the dictates of their own conscience, without the strict cultural gender pressures that we experience.
I believe that The Family: A Proclamation to the World is scripture, and like all scripture, is open to personal interpretation according to personal revelation and the workings of the Spirit in your life. It is so important for the world to understand the centrality of the family in society and the importance of personal sacrifice for the people you love. But should a mother who feels overwhelmed after having 3 children feel unrighteous if she doesn't feel able to handle 3 more? Or if a mother feels that she is able to make nurturing her children her #1 priority while also working outside the home? Or what about the strict gender roles that are forced on children from a young age?
To me, a big part of feminism is allowing people the freedom to be whoever they are, regardless of their gender and allowing them to leave the decisions about how to apply the counsel that is given in the Proclamation up to their own personal revelation.
Gender based stereotypes makes us feel like there is order in the world. I understand the desire to put people into boxes. It is an impulse which we all struggle with, even when we consciously fight against it. The problem with trying to generalize about half of the population of the world is that there is a huge spectrum among the 3 billion men on earth, or the 3 billion women. In some ways it might be nice if we were all predictably this or that, but as Morgan Freeman says in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, "Allah loves wondrous variety." And I don't think He wants us to discourage or shame that variety. That being said, He has assigned us jobs in His kingdom, but I believe He wants us to be able to fully express our individual natures within those jobs.
My overall point is, there isn't just one right way to live righteously. This is just another way that if we as a church (MYSELF INCLUDED!!!) would apply more Christian charity and less judgment, we would take a step toward becoming a more Zion society. There would probably be a lot of people who felt more welcome in the kingdom, too, which is what we all want, isn't it?
Google's aggregated definition of feminism as, "The advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men."
So that would beg the question, what is equality? Does equality mean indistinguishability? To me, a big step towards equality within the realm of the church would be to cut out the gender roles besides those that are outlined in the Family Proclamation and allow all members to pursue fulfillment according to the dictates of their own conscience, without the strict cultural gender pressures that we experience.
I believe that The Family: A Proclamation to the World is scripture, and like all scripture, is open to personal interpretation according to personal revelation and the workings of the Spirit in your life. It is so important for the world to understand the centrality of the family in society and the importance of personal sacrifice for the people you love. But should a mother who feels overwhelmed after having 3 children feel unrighteous if she doesn't feel able to handle 3 more? Or if a mother feels that she is able to make nurturing her children her #1 priority while also working outside the home? Or what about the strict gender roles that are forced on children from a young age?
To me, a big part of feminism is allowing people the freedom to be whoever they are, regardless of their gender and allowing them to leave the decisions about how to apply the counsel that is given in the Proclamation up to their own personal revelation.
Gender based stereotypes makes us feel like there is order in the world. I understand the desire to put people into boxes. It is an impulse which we all struggle with, even when we consciously fight against it. The problem with trying to generalize about half of the population of the world is that there is a huge spectrum among the 3 billion men on earth, or the 3 billion women. In some ways it might be nice if we were all predictably this or that, but as Morgan Freeman says in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, "Allah loves wondrous variety." And I don't think He wants us to discourage or shame that variety. That being said, He has assigned us jobs in His kingdom, but I believe He wants us to be able to fully express our individual natures within those jobs.
My overall point is, there isn't just one right way to live righteously. This is just another way that if we as a church (MYSELF INCLUDED!!!) would apply more Christian charity and less judgment, we would take a step toward becoming a more Zion society. There would probably be a lot of people who felt more welcome in the kingdom, too, which is what we all want, isn't it?
I agree! Now I want to know what you think the "strict cultural gender pressures that we experience" are. This has always been the most nebulous thing about most mo-fem points of view. Because cultural standards vary from place to place (or even stake to stake?), it is difficult to get a satisfying answer. And I am curious.
ReplyDeleteFor example, the whole "women and pants" thing totally caught me off guard when that came around because I had honestly never heard that that was against any sort of cultural rule. And I know that I am not the only one who felt that way. Luckily I was able to temper my knee-jerk reaction to it a little. Other people didn't and ended up calling it ridiculous and ridiculing the whole thing even if the undercurrent of having that day was valid.
DJ, pants is one example. Basically I think all of the archaic societal gender stereotypes persist to a greater degree within the microcosm of the church than they do in the world at large. They're not doctrinal at all, entirely cultural, but ideas like women aren't good at math and science, women aren't aggressive, women don't like wearing pants, women aren't analytically minded or intellectual, all women love babies, all men love hunting and football or they're gay. Basically all the of the silly gender stereotypes that society has dismissed as having no basis whatsoever. For instance, nurses and teachers in the state of Utah make less that almost any other state because most Mormon women feel like those are the only two acceptable career paths for a woman. Also, income disparity in Utah is way worse than the national average.
ReplyDeleteBasically, in the church, I sometimes feel like there isn't a lot of freedom for a person to be whomever they really are. Obviously, there is a lot of variance between wards and areas, and I felt this much more in Utah than in Chicago, but it is there to some degree everywhere. Why do the young men get to play sports at mutual and the girls have to learn to bake, quilt, etc? I never had a young woman's activity where all we would do is have a lesson and then play a sport but the boys did that all the time. Why? - That type of thing.
We played sports all the time for yw activities because Stephanie and I told our leaders that it was what we wanted to do. The Yw are the ones who plan many of the activities so it just depends on the particular group of yw and their interests.
ReplyDeleteWell I got in trouble for playing skipping the quilting lessons and playing volleyball with the boys. I'm joking a little though. Not all the lessons were cooking, quilting etc. Actually, I wish I had learned to knit and can. Both useful skills I would like to have now!
ReplyDeleteBut there was definitely a LOT less sports than the boys.