Women, LDS Church, and "Chivalrous Contempt"
Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2012 4:21 pm
Hi Everyone -
Previously and in another topic,
( See http://www.mormondiscussions.com/phpBB3 ... =1&t=27013) Jo said:
" It is sad that our world resists Jesus' revolutionary teachings He revealed while in the flesh. In fact, many of those teachings have been purposely hidden from the world by the jealous men who were not able to accept what Jesus was teaching...."
IN response to Jo's comments, and as as a second 'installment' of the "Women and Priestesshood" double-feature
, I'd like to offer the following excerpt from an article entitled, "Mormonism's Odd Couple: The Motherhood-Priesthood Connection" by Sonja Farnsworth, in "Women and Authority", edited by Maxine Hanks.]
LDS 'Chivalrous Contempt' of Women
And the LDS "Odd Couple"
(NOTE:
In the post-WWII era, when the trend of "ultra domesticity" refocused intensely upon the domestic scene, the reputation of this ideal woman was celebrated at a fever pitch, creating what author Sylvia Ann Hewlett called "the most powerful Cult of Motherhood ever seen."
Descriptions of this new exaggerated mother bordered on the mythical and deific. Since the centuries-old concept of the domestic priestess had been a perfect launching place for post-war obsession with "ultra domesticity", the two ideals had merged easily, forming a fashionable, new super-matriarch.
Though her pedigree was secular, she seemed ethereal enough for [conservative Christians] and LDS (Mormons), bathed in the glow of both trend and tradition. Certainly she was a flourishing influence in the early 1950's when LDS leaders settled on a definition of motherhood as a gift "equal in magnitude" to Priesthood –- [and when, coincidentally, many current LDS leaders were growing up and forming their ideas about women and women’s roles].
One can easily see how the LDS Church, needing something to replace the fading vision of Joseph Smith of woman as QUEEN And PRIESTESS, mistook this conveniently submissive impostor for its own.
Thus, Mormonism found a way of excluding the priestess while *seeming* to include her.
This gave birth to Mormonism's oppressively domestic and popularly conceived model of woman-hood -- the "domestic goddess" known as "Molly Mormon" and "Patti Perfect."
Today few LDS challenge the partnership of motherhood and priesthood, although the Standard Works say virtually NOTHING about it. OTOH, the temple ceremony refers to women NOT as "wives and mothers", but as QUEENS and PRIESTESSES.
In creating the Relief Society, Joseph Smith organized it to be self-directed, saying it should "move according to the ancient priesthood" and adding that he would "make of this society a kingdom of priests."
The effect of his words expanded women's views of their spiritual and ecclesiastical power. Their documented participation in prophesying, healing and blessing the sick emphasized their priestly duties ....
However (and sadly!), after Joseph died, his generous descriptions of what women *had* -- as "Queens and Priestesses" in the Kingdom of God -- were replaced by limiting pedestals labelled "wife and mother" -- or "Molly Mormon" and "Patti Perfect".
The result appears to have been a complete reversal of God's intentions.
"So what does it mean that the modern LDS church has forsaken Joseph Smith's view of women as 'QUEENS and PRIESTESSES" for the secular view of women as "domestic goddesses"?
-- It means that the "plain and precious truth" of motherhood as a simple but authentic partnership with * fathers*, has been buried in the perennial rhetoric about a "partnership with God", which is revived whenever traditional views of women are challenged.
While this rhetoric seems to protect female needs, in reality it has protected male authority and denied women what is properly theirs.
This rhetoric points to church leaders seemingly unaware that they have been influenced by "the philosophies of men mingled with scripture" -- the notion of women as domestic goddesses is SECULAR, NOT SACRED.
It is sadly ironic that even as feminism has alerted us to women's equality with men, the expanded vision of womanhood revealed by Joseph Smith has been resisted and diminished by his own followers.
Mormon women, despite their rich tradition of the Priestess, have lost much through the teaching that motherhood and priesthood are a “sacred marriage” of complementary spiritual roles.
There will be much to gain if Mormons realize that this union is really a SECULAR "marriage of convenience", and that motherhood and priesthood are "an odd couple, nurturing a passel of illegitimate theological ideas.”
~Gaia
Previously and in another topic,
( See http://www.mormondiscussions.com/phpBB3 ... =1&t=27013) Jo said:
" It is sad that our world resists Jesus' revolutionary teachings He revealed while in the flesh. In fact, many of those teachings have been purposely hidden from the world by the jealous men who were not able to accept what Jesus was teaching...."
IN response to Jo's comments, and as as a second 'installment' of the "Women and Priestesshood" double-feature
, I'd like to offer the following excerpt from an article entitled, "Mormonism's Odd Couple: The Motherhood-Priesthood Connection" by Sonja Farnsworth, in "Women and Authority", edited by Maxine Hanks.]LDS 'Chivalrous Contempt' of Women
And the LDS "Odd Couple"
(NOTE:
In the post-WWII era, when the trend of "ultra domesticity" refocused intensely upon the domestic scene, the reputation of this ideal woman was celebrated at a fever pitch, creating what author Sylvia Ann Hewlett called "the most powerful Cult of Motherhood ever seen."
Descriptions of this new exaggerated mother bordered on the mythical and deific. Since the centuries-old concept of the domestic priestess had been a perfect launching place for post-war obsession with "ultra domesticity", the two ideals had merged easily, forming a fashionable, new super-matriarch.
Though her pedigree was secular, she seemed ethereal enough for [conservative Christians] and LDS (Mormons), bathed in the glow of both trend and tradition. Certainly she was a flourishing influence in the early 1950's when LDS leaders settled on a definition of motherhood as a gift "equal in magnitude" to Priesthood –- [and when, coincidentally, many current LDS leaders were growing up and forming their ideas about women and women’s roles].
One can easily see how the LDS Church, needing something to replace the fading vision of Joseph Smith of woman as QUEEN And PRIESTESS, mistook this conveniently submissive impostor for its own.
Thus, Mormonism found a way of excluding the priestess while *seeming* to include her.
This gave birth to Mormonism's oppressively domestic and popularly conceived model of woman-hood -- the "domestic goddess" known as "Molly Mormon" and "Patti Perfect."
Today few LDS challenge the partnership of motherhood and priesthood, although the Standard Works say virtually NOTHING about it. OTOH, the temple ceremony refers to women NOT as "wives and mothers", but as QUEENS and PRIESTESSES.
In creating the Relief Society, Joseph Smith organized it to be self-directed, saying it should "move according to the ancient priesthood" and adding that he would "make of this society a kingdom of priests."
The effect of his words expanded women's views of their spiritual and ecclesiastical power. Their documented participation in prophesying, healing and blessing the sick emphasized their priestly duties ....
However (and sadly!), after Joseph died, his generous descriptions of what women *had* -- as "Queens and Priestesses" in the Kingdom of God -- were replaced by limiting pedestals labelled "wife and mother" -- or "Molly Mormon" and "Patti Perfect".
The result appears to have been a complete reversal of God's intentions.
"So what does it mean that the modern LDS church has forsaken Joseph Smith's view of women as 'QUEENS and PRIESTESSES" for the secular view of women as "domestic goddesses"?
-- It means that the "plain and precious truth" of motherhood as a simple but authentic partnership with * fathers*, has been buried in the perennial rhetoric about a "partnership with God", which is revived whenever traditional views of women are challenged.
While this rhetoric seems to protect female needs, in reality it has protected male authority and denied women what is properly theirs.
This rhetoric points to church leaders seemingly unaware that they have been influenced by "the philosophies of men mingled with scripture" -- the notion of women as domestic goddesses is SECULAR, NOT SACRED.
It is sadly ironic that even as feminism has alerted us to women's equality with men, the expanded vision of womanhood revealed by Joseph Smith has been resisted and diminished by his own followers.
Mormon women, despite their rich tradition of the Priestess, have lost much through the teaching that motherhood and priesthood are a “sacred marriage” of complementary spiritual roles.
There will be much to gain if Mormons realize that this union is really a SECULAR "marriage of convenience", and that motherhood and priesthood are "an odd couple, nurturing a passel of illegitimate theological ideas.”
~Gaia
