DiscussMormonism.com

Kishkumen wrote:
3. We were friends with the other academic couple in the ward. The men in our two couples were treated with respect and deference for being college professors, while our wives, who were further along in their careers and had better pay and better positions, were treated with fear, suspicion, and contempt.

So much said in this sentence.

mostlygizzards wrote:

Kishkumen wrote:
3. We were friends with the other academic couple in the ward. The men in our two couples were treated with respect and deference for being college professors, while our wives, who were further along in their careers and had better pay and better positions, were treated with fear, suspicion, and contempt.

So much said in this sentence.

I suppose I can get my head round the idea that people of a very old-fashioned habit of mind might automatically pay more attention to the man's job than to the woman's when they meet a couple. It's ridiculous, of course, and also frankly rude.

But I really can't understand the idea of 'fear, suspicion and contempt', especially the last. Can someone please unpack what is going on in the heads of people like that? What do they fear will happen? What are they suspicious about? What exactly do they regard with contempt?

Please note that I am not doubting Kishkumen's account in the slightest. It's just that I normally can manage to put myself in someone else's position imaginatively, even if their way of thinking is stupid and repellent, and in this case I can't seem to manage it.

So much said in this sentence.

Sure Will. It says about as much as two apologists finding each other in a ward and becoming friends.

Chap wrote:But I really can't understand the idea of 'fear, suspicion and contempt', especially the last. Can someone please unpack what is going on in the heads of people like that? What do they fear will happen? What are they suspicious about? What exactly do they regard with contempt?

Please note that I am not doubting Kishkumen's account in the slightest. It's just that I normally can manage to put myself in someone else's position imaginatively, even if their way of thinking is stupid and repellent, and in this case I can't seem to manage it.

I know. It sounds very strong. But there was a palpable fear, it seemed to us, that the daughters of these ladies would follow the bad example of these career academic women and not fulfill their proper role as a mother and wife in Zion. In the eyes of many of the women in the ward, the female professors could not be happy because they were not living in accordance with the teachings of the leaders of the Church. Moreover, they saw these professional women as traitors who found worldly happiness in disobedience. Meanwhile, these "obedient" women suffered to do as God commanded. If they felt envy of the professional women, it was some kind of temptation to disobey. It was dangerous.

Thanks for explaining - I suppose I ought to have worked that out.

It sounds like something one might have encountered outside of Mormondom in the 1950s, when in some countries women might not continue to hold certain jobs after getting married.

This is a disturbing OP. What is the old adage? "Actions speak louder than words."