An informant of mine explained to me the following:
I have a close relative who works for Beehive Clothing, and the official policy is that women are allowed to wear men's garments, but men are not allowed to wear women's.
I venture to guess that most Mormon men do not care about this discriminatory church policy because most men have never even thought about this issue. Practically speaking for the group, it is not worth the effort to fight for equality on this issue because even if the policy changes, nobody would change. Too many men (and women) think it is strange for men to wear feminine clothing. In fact, some might even consider my efforts to obtain equality on this issue as a sort of insult to those fighting for more practical issues.
Here are some comments I find hear if I proposed the garment idea to friends/family:
"Eewww gross, that is perverted."
"But Zee, the design is not made for a man."
[shocked look... no comment]
"But men don't wear lace."
"You need a fly in the front and those don't have flies."
"It doesn't make any sense."
"Why are you worried about this when people are starving?"
This leads me to my question for all of you:
Do you think many LDS view the issue of gender inequality via female priesthood as a sort of impractical or even laughable issue? Do they look at this issue the same way a man might look at my issue of being barred from wearing female garments?
Interestingly, you might find a similar flavor of comments if you ask for women to have the priesthood. There might be a sort of "eeww" factor when they think of a woman being businesslike and preachy at church. There might be people who say the priesthood organization is just not designed for females because of issues like having long meetings behind closed doors, etc. There might be people who just throw up their hands and exclaim, "It doesn't make any sense! Why are you worried about such a silly thing?"
Well, the truth of the matter is that female priesthood really would provide a significant, practical benefit to the community and culture of Mormonism. We can see this when considering the services rendered and talents available. I would like to take a second to declare that extending the priesthood to women is not a silly game or experiment. It involves real people and lives on a practical level in very meaningful ways.