Of the sessions I attended at Sunstone earlier this month, the most illuminating was on the Latter-day women’s magazine, the Exponent II.* Katie Ludlow Rich and Heather Sundahl, authors of Fifty Years of Exponent II, described how the unofficial, unsanctioned Mormon feminist magazine launched and, more importantly, continued until this…
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Toxic Femininity and Mormonism
When the concept of “toxic masculinity” first started gaining popularity, I saw various articles and social media posts saying essentially “Oh yeah? Well there’s toxic femininity too!!” As if that were a rebuttal or response to the theory of toxic masculinity. I think those folks completely missed the point. The…
Brad Wilcox, Racism, Misogyny, and the Assertion of Authority
In case you haven’t heard, Bradley R. Wilcox, second counselor in the Young Men General Presidency and BYU professor, has been widely castigated for offensive remarks he made at a multi-stake youth fireside in Alpine, Utah, on February 6. The uproar over Wilcox’s talk is so severe that I actually…
Mormon Erotica, Mormon Romance
Mormon Erotica, the new novel from Donna Banta, is a joyous page-turner that, despite the title, is far more concerned with love and romance than sex. While the book contains plenty of reflection on Mormon attitudes toward sex and marriage, the action depicted is strictly PG. As with so many…
Check out “Upper Room Cartoon”
There’s a new Mormon-themed Youtube channel, and it looks very promsing: The Upper Room Cartoon. Two cartoons have been posted so far. They look exactly the same: five white guys who are leaders of the church (have to admit that I don’t pay enough attention to who the leaders are,…
Obligatory Violence and the Book of Mormon
Like so many people, I have spent the past two days convulsed with grief and horror at the events in Charleston. Also shame: America’s latest accused mass murderer claimed he had to kill black people because they “rape our women,” and it’s as repugnant to me that anyone would murder…
Knowing Emma and Joseph’s History: A Response to the Speculative Essay on Early Polygamy– Alison Udall
It was really enjoyable to work my way through this. This is the first response I’ve done with these new church essays since I had read enough to be able to notice things that I recognized were missing, or implications that were being made that felt incomplete or inaccurate. As…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: A little bit of equality edition!
This week’s news in Mormon land was this odd talk by Ballard: Here is a very good illustrated version of it. In essence, it’s important to have women’s input in council meetings — but not too much! Which naturally leads to the question how much is too much? And why…
Deciphering Ballard
M. Russell Ballard begins a talk (given at BYU August 20, 2013) reprinted in the September 2014 Ensign and titled ‘Men and Women in Priesthood Power” with this In what I say, please keep in mind and think straight about the basic doctrines of Christ…. Let me suggest five key…
Sunday in Outer Blogness: Response edition
The big news this week is that Kate Kelly has appealed her excommunication. In her appeal, Kate wrote: I am, and have always been, a faithful Mormon. My only “sin†elucidated by you has been speaking my mind and pushing for gender equality in the Church. Far from being wrong,…