A Proper Wife

A friend of mine sent me a link to this "feminist" blogger who single-handedly demonstrated exactly what feminism is NOT about, but what too many uninformed or misguided people think it is about. Read her horrific post HERE I mean, can you even imagine what the world would look like if we all espoused her views? A picture of Mordor comes to mind, actually, but in reality there would be no world at all if no one valued life, love and nurturing. How sad and messed up. My response is below. " Wooooooooooooowwwwww... I find this so extreme that it's hard for me to even take it seriously. It's almost like a parody of what a feminist would say. Let me ask you a question, if taking care of children and a home is so utterly unimportant, did you feel that way when you were the child being taken care of? Was that totally unimportant to have a loving, supportive caregiver to help you find your way in the world? Or maybe you didn't have that, in which case, I can som...

Recently I've been reading a lot about modesty on the online Mormon Feminist blogosphere and I can honestly say that at first, I was a little baffled by the anger. I had never thought of modesty as a feminist issue. But as I read more, I started learning about "rape culture" and the (totally non-doctrinal) idea that is all too pervasive in our culture that women and the way they dress should be held accountable for the thoughts and even the actions of men. The idea that immodestly dressed women are "asking for it" or "leading their brothers astray." And that bugged, obviously. But it wasn't until I watched this Ted talk that the pieces really started to fall together for me. This made me realize that what we call modesty in the culture of the church can  actually sometimes be the objectification of women because it's saying that a woman's body is inherently sexual and should only be seen in the context of how a heterosexual man vie...

HERE I also really appreciated this honest, fair and well thought-out piece by Neylan McBaine. Reading articles like this give me hope that the culture is changing. 

Fiona Givens, has written a fantastic post about how the LDS priesthood and the ministry of women in the church were originally intended to complement each other and exist as independent, equal branches of the priesthood. She writes in response to the idea that the only way that there can be gender equality within in the church is if women are ordained. " I want to suggest to those who agitate for change that, while I respect their choice, there may be alternatives to the stark deprivation vs. equality rhetoric than sometimes accompanies their world-view.  " My favorite excerpt suggests a return to some of the original duties given to women in the church: "Together with the restoration to parallel but equal standing in the priesthood, we might hope to one day see returned the Temple priesthood powers to offer healing blessings and other blessings in behalf of family members and all those who fall within the purview of the Relief Society Priesthood, which would be a gr...