Please, Let’s Give Feminists a Break. I remember so vividly entering graduate school in my early forties and being told I was an “eco – feminist” by my professors. What does that phrase mean I asked having no relationship that… Read More ›
gender roles
Householders’ Superstitions and the Higher Truth by Oxana Poberejnaia
I watched this short video on facebook about Sisa, an Egyptian woman who spent forty years a man in order provide for her family. There is a longer version on YouTube. Sisa, a widow, decided to work to feed her… Read More ›
Moving Away from Normative Maternal Roles in the Catholic Church by Michele Stopera Freyhauf
Earlier this week, social media was all abuzz about the Pope’s investigation into restoring women to the diaconate. In the complete transcript of the Pope’s comments, the traditional notion of women’s maternal role in the church is mentioned in relation… Read More ›
What If a Woman Played That Role? “The Martian” and Gendered Space Heroes by Sara Frykenberg
Sci-fi fan that I am, I recently went to go see the film The Martian, after hearing overall good reviews from friends and family alike. A ‘stranded in space’ film, The Martian considers the plight of fictional astronaut Mark Watney… Read More ›
Is it harmful to assign positive qualities to women? by Oxana Poberejnaia
I have recently learnt about features assigned to women and men by a Tibetan Lama. Women are seen as having better access to qualities of space and therefore holding special kinds of wisdom that lead to Enlightenment. Men, on the… Read More ›
Assimilation into American Evangelical Theology: They Had Me at We’re Equal! by Andreea Nica
Cultural and social disparities exist within religious immigrant assimilation processes. Growing up in a tricultural home, I learned how to disentangle and integrate differing cultural norms and expectations. My biological parents are first-generation Romanian-Americans who identified with the Pentecostal faith…. Read More ›
What It’s Like to Be a Woman in the Academy by Linn Marie Tonstad
Last fall, I was asked to sit in on the women’s pre-doctoral colloquium at the divinity school where I teach. In the course of a wide-ranging lunchtime conversation, the central question to which the students wanted an answer was: “what… Read More ›
Don’t Worry, I Won’t Marry Your Girlfriend: Sexuality, Identity, and the Easy Laugh
No longer having to deconstruct the larger cultural and sexual narratives, heterosexuals who do not support marriage equality or feel threatened by homosexuals return to their one source of power that reinforces the ideology that they are on the right path: the Bible. “Marriage is between a man a woman,” or “A man shall not lie with another man as he would a woman,” becomes the newly reinforced heterosexual rallying cry and the progressive progress that occurred in the past becomes nothing more than a joke.
8 Simple Rules for Being a Queer Godfather by John Erickson
Becoming a Godfather was more than just a reentry into the Catholic traditions I had long given up but rather a journey back in time that would grant me the ability to rewrite the wrongs I felt as a kid growing up in a tradition I not only didn’t understand but also didn’t feel like I belonged in.
Why Men (and Women) Can’t Have It All by John Erickson
Can women have it all? Possibly. Can men ever have it all? Maybe. Regardless of however we put it, the are ills to every good deed in the world and we need to get back to understanding how and why we use each other in order to fully understand that behind every good man might be a good woman but also behind every good women there might also be a good man.
Modesty Codes in Pentecostalism and Mormonism by Amanda Pumphrey
“You look like a lesbian.” “Why do you want to look like a man?” “Hey, boy head!” These were just some of the responses I got from friends and family when I decided to cut off my hair. The gendered… Read More ›
Chicken Patriarchy by Caroline Kline
One of the most powerful and frequently cited Mormon feminist blog posts, Kiskilili’s “The Trouble With Chicken Patriarchy” on Zelophehad’s Daughters discusses the strange brand of patriarchy Mormons contend with in the modern LDS Church. On the one hand, Mormons… Read More ›
Gilligan’s Framework and its Implications: The Benefits and Dangers in my Mormon Context by Caroline Kline
This post is written in conjunction with the Feminist Ethics Course Dialogue project sponsored by Claremont School of Theology in the Claremont Lincoln University Consortium, Claremont Graduate University, and directed by Grace Yia-Hei Kao. Gilligan’s In a Different Voice was a revelation when I discovered… Read More ›
Eroticized Wives and Mormonism By Caroline Kline
(cross posted at the Mormon feminist blog, The Exponent) “As the clock approaches the hour of her husband’s return, a nervous housewife readies herself for his arrival. She checks herself one last time in the mirror, smoothes her hair, and… Read More ›
Woman as Partner or Possession:The Irreconcilable Voices of Mormonism’s D&C 132
(cross posted at the Mormon feminist blog, The Exponent) Doctrine & Covenants 132 stands as one of Mormonism’s greatest conundrums. In this one section of Mormon scripture, we have the empowering notions of eternal marriage and eternal progression, coupled later… Read More ›
