UVU Mormon Studies - Women of Mormondom

[CA Steve]

21 minutes ago, bluebell said:

My last stake women's conference (about a month ago), the keynote speaker was a man from some other stake (so he had no ecclesiastical authority for the people in the room) who talked on why women feel less than men in the church and how they need to stop feeling that way.  He talked for an hour.  He said nothing new or of consequence.  His talk was nothing out of the ordinary, as having men talk to women on the female perspective at church is a normal thing that happens multiple times throughout the year.

This makes me wonder how that stake's leadership would react to the suggestion that in the next stake priesthood meeting a woman should give a talk about why men feel superior to women in the church and how they need to stop feeling that way. 

[Robert F. Smith]

7 minutes ago, bluebell said:

That makes sense that you would feel that way.  Men (in mormondom) rarely get to hear a female point of view on male issues.  

Women, on the other hand, are inundated with the male point of view.  My last stake women's conference (about a month ago), the keynote speaker was a man from some other stake (so he had no ecclesiastical authority for the people in the room) who talked on why women feel less than men in the church and how they need to stop feeling that way.  He talked for an hour.  He said nothing new or of consequence.  His talk was nothing out of the ordinary, as having men talk to women on the female perspective at church is a normal thing that happens multiple times throughout the year.

Women in Mormondom already know how men see us.  We don't need to hear that anymore.  At this point in history there is much more value to be gained for women by focusing on something other than the male perspective.  

The only men I would want to hear from during a Women in Mormondom conference would be professional academics who have important research to summarize and report on.   I am not really interested in hearing the opinions of male yokels.  As you point out, we get enough of that in ordinary, humdrum settings.

The female academics whom I have met and heard from at academic symposia are so frequently a breath of fresh air that I am often bowled over by it.  I want to hear incisive and scintillating views from both genders.  Not the same old boring same old.  I have been to a number of LDS symposia in which the featured speaker was a  non-Mormon female academic (Jan Shipps, Margaret Barker, et al.), and happily recall those occasions -- as well as the opportunity to have dinner and conversation with same.  I also vividly recall the wondrous experience of having girlfriends who were brilliant grad students at foreign universities -- they were much smarter than me!!

[the narrator]

28 minutes ago, bluebell said:

Women in Mormondom already know how men see us.  We don't need to hear that anymore.  At this point in history there is much more value to be gained for women by focusing on something other than the male perspective.  

 

Amen!

Edited March 5, 2019 by the narrator

[the narrator]

34 minutes ago, Robert F. Smith said:

Something none of you young folk

I turn 40 in less than 3 months, so I truly appreciate this.

[Robert F. Smith]

4 hours ago, Calm said:

I would prefer something more parallel to how boys progress through Priesthood levels rather than a one time thing.  Even baptism isn't a one time thing in our faith as it repeats in a similar rite of Sacrament.  Our culture views life as a process rather than series of events, imo...one eternal progression.  More like marking the steps up the ladder or passing of grades.

In my old age, the bishop for some strange reason thought I should go into cub scouting, and it has been interesting watching the 10-year-old Webelos kids move forward one adventure at a time.  Were it up to me, the LDS Church would have long ago sponsored something on the order of the Young Pioneers, in which both boys and girls are in the same organization.  There is probably a very good reason I am not the Prophet.

4 hours ago, Calm said:

With the outside culture having such a huge impact on members, we need to provide more of our own role models that are easier to connect to, takes less struggle and rewriting and likening to get it to apply to our own situations,  We need more reasons to feel at home in the Church, that we belong.

Having others we emotionally and mentally identify with up there in front of us showing it can be done, hopefully providing ideas we can adapt to our own lives, being leaders in meaningful ways for us will help strengthen bonds, imo.  In the past where girls were tied much closer to home, they had plenty of examples of roles they could lead right in front of them in their mother's and grandmothers and women in the neghbourhood, leaders at church.  Youth just don't spend that kind of life with parents any more, they are not expected to walk in the footsteps of parents, but choose their own path.  Women (and others) need to see lots of devout women in a variety of roles or they may begin to believe that being devout means having very limited choices and assume that the path they feel drawn to therefore means they can't be truly devout, they will have to sacrifice their faith in some way...which isn't true for most paths from my POV.

Yes, and that is why I have such a hankering to restore the importance of the extended family -- perhaps unworkable in modern times.

[pogi]

14 minutes ago, the narrator said:

I turn 40 in less than 3 months, so I truly appreciate this.

What a coincidence...me too! 

2 months and 1 day to be precise. 

[bluebell]

19 minutes ago, Robert F. Smith said:

The only men I would want to hear from during a Women in Mormondom conference would be professional academics who have important research to summarize and report on.   I am not really interested in hearing the opinions of male yokels.  As you point out, we get enough of that in ordinary, humdrum settings.

The female academics whom I have met and heard from at academic symposia are so frequently a breath of fresh air that I am often bowled over by it.  I want to hear incisive and scintillating views from both genders.  Not the same old boring same old.  I have been to a number of LDS symposia in which the featured speaker was a  non-Mormon female academic (Jan Shipps, Margaret Barker, et al.), and happily recall those occasions -- as well as the opportunity to have dinner and conversation with same.  I also vividly recall the wondrous experience of having girlfriends who were brilliant grad students at foreign universities -- they were much smarter than me!!

I think, for a lot of people, that hearing male academics is so frequent that it's not a breath of fresh air.  It's 'same old, same old' (and I don't say that to take ANYWAY away from male academics in the least!).   The organizers of this conference seem to agree that hearing from women in such settings is such a breath of fresh air (compared to the air they usually get) that that's why they are choosing to focus only on that specific kind of air right now.

 

[bluebell]

22 minutes ago, CA Steve said:

This makes me wonder how that stake's leadership would react to the suggestion that in the next stake priesthood meeting a woman should give a talk about why men feel superior to women in the church and how they need to stop feeling that way. 

To be fair, it was the Stake Relief Society President and her counselors who organized this conference.  The male stake leadership had nothing to do with it or who was asked to speak.  Sometimes we are our own worst enemies.

[Robert F. Smith]

9 hours ago, bluebell said:

I think, for a lot of people, that hearing male academics is so frequent that it's not a breath of fresh air.  It's 'same old, same old' (and I don't say that to take ANYWAY away from male academics in the least!).   The organizers of this conference seem to agree that hearing from women in such settings is such a breath of fresh air (compared to the air they usually get) that that's why they are choosing to focus only on that specific kind of air right now.

Que sera, sera.  I am usually the odd man out anyhow.  Nothing new in my views going over like a lead balloon.  It seems that way with my male colleagues as well.  Something to reflect on when we all get to the other side . . . 😎

EtA:  Still, if we  must have only women, I would much rather hear from Rosalynde Welch, Lavina Fielding Anderson, or Camille Paglia, since each seems to have the needed depth.  One a member of the Church, the others not.

Edited March 6, 2019 by Robert F. Smith