Very few Latter-day Saint apologists and/or scholars have commented publicly on William's misogyny. Below are the exceptions I have noted.
Quite recently on our forums, David Bokovoy (a.k.a. "Enuma Elish") started a thread in which he defended William from some of the other attacks that were aimed at William by other posters. Beastie cited some of the same misogynist posts by William that I've presented here, then asked David how he could justify his defense of William in light of that. To this David replied (4/13/11):
Enuma Elish wrote:I cannot. I was not aware of these comments. I had seen others, but these make me all the more angry and I've been trying to get over my anger. I hate feeling this way. That anyone would post these comments to women is unacceptable, to say the least. That he would do so in the context of defending Mormonism sickens me.
As an active member of the Church, I offer my sincere apology for this behavior.
Then later added (to William) (4/13/11 --- emphases his):
Enuma Elish wrote:These people, as you refer to them, are still God's children, Will, every single one of them. No matter what criticisms they raise, these people deserve to be treated with kindness by one attempting to defend the Gospel of Christ. If you cannot do this, I would beg you, to simply disengage.
I recall that there were several posts where Simon Belmont acknowledged that William's remarks towards women were over the line. However, I don't recall specifics of what was said, and the terrible search engine at MDB won't allow me to search Simon's posts for general words like "women," so I cannot locate these posts right now. The Nehor also piped up once to indicate that William's post calling KimberlyAnn a whore and laughing over her breast reduction surgery lacked class, and Ttribe told William to "shut up" in response to the issue.
Wade Englund (wenglund) recently posted the following reply on Pokatator's "Vulgar Scatologist" thread. He was responding to the latest additions to the thread from Doctor CamNC4Me, which included some of the misogynist material that I've cited here (4/11/11):
wenglund wrote:Much appreciation to Cam for culling some of Will's more infamous parodies of this place. What makes them so interesting is how lost the parodies are on so many here. I mean, every day we all swim in this cesspool, and yet some of the good folks here seem oblivious to their own copious potty results floating all about them, and yet get all exercised when others infrequently parody them. I am pleased, though, to learn that I am not the only one who hangs on Will's every word. [Thumbs Up]
I'm personally at a loss as to what it is that Wade thinks William is parodying with his rank misogyny.
If anyone is aware of other comments on William's misogyny from LDS scholars and apologists that I may have missed, I'll gladly update this section of the thread.
For my own part, I have no expectation that any participant of any message board community ought to engage in "board nannying" over the participation of others. It does not matter to me that some participants may be religious and/or ideological allies with those engaging in bad behavior. I hold each man or woman responsible for his or her own behavior and do not assume that others approve of said behavior simply because they do not comment.
However, as noted above, William has specifically claimed that his LDS colleagues who are familiar with this forum approve of his behavior. In light of this claim by William, it is difficult to interpret the silence from other LDS apologists and scholars as well as the tacit approval of William as he has risen to prominence in the LDS community. I can only think of a few possibilities:
(1) Other LDS scholars and apologists are aware of this behavior and approve of it, but are attempting to save face by not admitting this in public. I sincerely hope that this is not the case as it would mean that the field of Mormon Studies is a very unfriendly place for women.
(2) Other LDS scholars and apologists are aware of this behavior and disapprove of it, but feel that William's forthcoming contributions to the Book of Abraham and Kirtland Egyptian Papers debates are valuable enough to warrant toleration of his misogyny. It is a necessary evil and they secretly hope that knowledge of this behavior will stay relegated to our "obscure message board."
(3) Other LDS scholars and apologists are not fully aware of his misogyny and would be appropriately appalled if it were documented for them.
I personally hope that more LDS apologists and scholars will use this thread as an opportunity to publicly comment on this issue.