1 00:00:01,589 --> 00:00:06,109 In my senior thesis I will be focusing on feminism within the Church of Jesus Christ 2 00:00:06,109 --> 00:00:12,190 of Latter Day Saints, both in the Salem Young Single Adult- or YSA- ward, and in the community 3 00:00:12,190 --> 00:00:17,930 of active Church members on Tumblr.com. Feminism is a popular topic in today’s society, 4 00:00:17,930 --> 00:00:22,720 and it can have many contrasting definitions. For the purposes of my research, I will be 5 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:28,340 defining it not only as advocacy for women's equality to men, but as something that fights 6 00:00:28,340 --> 00:00:34,080 or pushes back against the accepted patriarchal norms, and those can vary between cultures, 7 00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:39,690 but here we are mostly looking at those present in western society, like nuclear families. 8 00:00:39,690 --> 00:00:44,370 For example, while a women who is happily married to her husband as a stay at home mother 9 00:00:44,370 --> 00:00:49,530 may not be oppressed, none of those actions are considered feminist by my definition, 10 00:00:49,530 --> 00:00:54,320 because they are what is commonly expected in western society. But a women who is unmarried 11 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:59,629 and working in a heavily male dominated field rarely entered by women, is taking feminist 12 00:00:59,629 --> 00:01:02,360 action. Because feminism is such a popular topic, 13 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:08,549 there is often an idea that religion and feminism are incompatible. IE, a religious woman can’t 14 00:01:08,549 --> 00:01:14,959 be in any way feminist. But even when living religious lifestyles, women can still take 15 00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:20,139 feminist action. Perhaps the married woman who is a stay at home mother also kept her 16 00:01:20,139 --> 00:01:24,849 own last name and wears pants to church instead of dresses. While the more obvious choices- 17 00:01:24,849 --> 00:01:29,139 her marriage and her motherhood- may not fit the idea of feminist action, her choices to 18 00:01:29,139 --> 00:01:33,869 keep her last name and wear pants push against what is normally expected and are feminist 19 00:01:33,869 --> 00:01:39,599 action. Therefore religion and feminism don’t have to fight each other. By looking at individual 20 00:01:39,599 --> 00:01:42,770 actions, you can see how every woman can still take feminist actions. 21 00:01:42,770 --> 00:01:47,959 As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints myself, I know that many 22 00:01:47,959 --> 00:01:51,899 people think there isn’t room for feminism within the Church. But there are many ways 23 00:01:51,899 --> 00:01:56,340 women who are living in the Church can still take feminist action, it’s simply that many 24 00:01:56,340 --> 00:02:00,759 of these are less noticeable to an outside audience. In my research I want to explore 25 00:02:00,759 --> 00:02:05,670 what feminist action looks like within the culture of the Church. I hope to be able to 26 00:02:05,670 --> 00:02:10,200 give an understanding of what feminism looks like for religious women in america. 27 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:15,019 “What is Feminism,” by Rosalind Delmar, a British author and feminist, suggests that 28 00:02:15,019 --> 00:02:21,099 ‘feminism’ as one solid idea doesn’t exist. There isn’t one set of actions you 29 00:02:21,099 --> 00:02:25,989 can look at say ‘if you do this, this, and this, you’re a feminist.’ The idea of 30 00:02:25,989 --> 00:02:30,590 a unity in feminist action comes from the idea that all women share the same background, 31 00:02:30,590 --> 00:02:37,200 but not all women do. The feminism of black women is different than the feminism of hispanic 32 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:41,730 women, which is different from the feminism of white women. Delmar talks about how there 33 00:02:41,730 --> 00:02:46,620 is a difference between feminist thought and feminist action and the two don’t always 34 00:02:46,620 --> 00:02:52,310 need to coincide. A women doesn’t have to call herself a feminist in order to take feminist 35 00:02:52,310 --> 00:02:56,920 action. This is the basis I am using to look at women and feminism in the Church. There 36 00:02:56,920 --> 00:03:01,079 are many women in the Church who wouldn’t call themselves feminists because they think 37 00:03:01,079 --> 00:03:05,340 it can’t possibly match with their lives, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still 38 00:03:05,340 --> 00:03:10,640 taking feminist actions. Saba Mahmood, an anthropologist of Islam, 39 00:03:10,640 --> 00:03:15,940 takes a slightly different look. Some groups of Muslim women in Egypt, what Mahmood refers 40 00:03:15,940 --> 00:03:21,319 to as members of a ‘piety movement’, have been using their authority in studying Islamic 41 00:03:21,319 --> 00:03:27,060 scripture to separate practices that are purely cultural from those that have basis in religious 42 00:03:27,060 --> 00:03:33,400 doctrine. This not only allows them to create an agency that didn’t exist before, it also 43 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:38,939 allows them to both support and reject ideas that come with their religion, and identify 44 00:03:38,939 --> 00:03:43,569 what comes from the religion and what comes from culture. In the Church of Jesus Christ 45 00:03:43,569 --> 00:03:48,489 of Latter Day Saints, members are able to receive their own personal revelation about 46 00:03:48,489 --> 00:03:53,239 Church teachings. This acts as a way for women to give themselves permission to take actions 47 00:03:53,239 --> 00:03:58,529 that may be controversial in the Church. With this, plus access to online communities, women 48 00:03:58,529 --> 00:04:03,530 are able to navigate a new area in the Church by finding people who agree with them on some 49 00:04:03,530 --> 00:04:09,430 of the most controversial topics in the Church, such as the Ordain Women Movement. 50 00:04:09,430 --> 00:04:14,029 In the Church, the highest power someone can have is the Melchizedek Priesthood. This is 51 00:04:14,029 --> 00:04:19,650 what allows those in the Church to give blessings, perform ordinances, such as weddings and baptism, 52 00:04:19,650 --> 00:04:23,550 and gives them authority to be leaders in the Church, but only men are able to hold 53 00:04:23,550 --> 00:04:28,860 this power. Scripture says that this is the equalizing force to women’s ability to give 54 00:04:28,860 --> 00:04:33,949 birth, but many women feel that this is not a fair trade. In recent years, the Ordain 55 00:04:33,949 --> 00:04:38,130 Women Movement has started to gain traction, pushing the idea that women should be allowed 56 00:04:38,130 --> 00:04:43,120 to hold the priesthood. In the article “Whom I have called,” Amorette 57 00:04:43,120 --> 00:04:47,760 Hinderaker, a communications professor at Texas Christian University, explains some 58 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:52,540 of the controversy surrounding this movement. One of the leaders of the movement, Kathleen 59 00:04:52,540 --> 00:04:58,180 Kelly, was even excommunicated for it in 2014. There is an official site in which women can 60 00:04:58,180 --> 00:05:02,900 send in their stories about how they feel about priesthood and the church, but the site 61 00:05:02,900 --> 00:05:07,590 warns that they are at risk of facing backlash in their home communities when the stories 62 00:05:07,590 --> 00:05:12,080 go public. Hinderaker brings up that although many of these women love the Church, they 63 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:16,780 feel as though they aren’t truly equal because they can’t have the priesthood. And there’s 64 00:05:16,780 --> 00:05:21,620 no indication that official Church doctrine on this is likely to change anytime soon. 65 00:05:21,620 --> 00:05:26,310 So, the Ordain Women Movement is a very heavy topic in the Church, and doesn’t get brought 66 00:05:26,310 --> 00:05:31,600 up much in official meetings. It won’t necessarily be my focus, but it will definitely be something 67 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:35,389 I plan to look at, especially since there are going to be very distinct differences 68 00:05:35,389 --> 00:05:43,150 in how a topic like this is viewed in the Salem YSA ward vs. the members of Tumblr.com. 69 00:05:43,150 --> 00:05:47,320 In the Salem YSA ward, ideally, I’ll be using first hand participant observation. 70 00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:52,290 Essentially, I’ll be going to Church services and activities, and taking notes on what sort 71 00:05:52,290 --> 00:05:56,690 of feminist actions are happening. I plan to interview members of the ward, and since 72 00:05:56,690 --> 00:06:01,169 the interviews will be confidential and anonymous, I hope they’ll be willing to share thoughts 73 00:06:01,169 --> 00:06:04,990 they might not feel comfortable sharing to a public group, such as personal thoughts 74 00:06:04,990 --> 00:06:11,211 on the Ordain Women Movement. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Church is 75 00:06:11,211 --> 00:06:16,580 not currently meeting. At this point, it looks as though meetings will resume soon, but if 76 00:06:16,580 --> 00:06:20,330 we can't then I will study the ward through video meetings on facebook and zoom, and shift 77 00:06:20,330 --> 00:06:25,361 my focus to the tumblr.com community. On tumblr.com there is a community of Church 78 00:06:25,361 --> 00:06:30,490 members, and a lot of the members on tumblr are part of the lgbt community. So for them, 79 00:06:30,490 --> 00:06:35,289 it’s going to be really important that the participants are kept anonymous. I plan to 80 00:06:35,289 --> 00:06:40,530 interview them as well, and I plan to avoid using names, usernames, or locations, as there 81 00:06:40,530 --> 00:06:43,930 may be participants who are not out in their home communities. 82 00:06:43,930 --> 00:06:49,349 The use of tumblr for my research goes back to the discussion of how religious women function 83 00:06:49,349 --> 00:06:54,939 in online spaces. It is inherently different than in a physical ward. In the Church, wards 84 00:06:54,939 --> 00:07:00,040 are based on location. This ward is for this city, this ward has these neighborhoods. You 85 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:05,069 don’t get to decide which group of people you go to Church with, so you don’t necessarily 86 00:07:05,069 --> 00:07:10,889 get to join groups that share your opinions. But once you enter an online space, that location 87 00:07:10,889 --> 00:07:14,470 doesn’t matter. People are able to curate who they interact with and what they talk 88 00:07:14,470 --> 00:07:17,610 about. For one, all of the tumblr research is going 89 00:07:17,610 --> 00:07:21,860 to be online, which is a little different than regular first hand observation, but it 90 00:07:21,860 --> 00:07:26,800 also means that the status of Covid-19 precautions won’t matter so much because it’s already 91 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:31,921 a socially distanced space. And because it’s so individual, it's easy for someone to find 92 00:07:31,921 --> 00:07:37,169 like minded communities, and communities who, like the women Saba Mahmood studied, are doing 93 00:07:37,169 --> 00:07:41,780 their own research into scriptural doctrine to find how they can fit into the Church, 94 00:07:41,780 --> 00:07:47,669 especially since so many of these members are lgbt. Tumblr contains women from all over 95 00:07:47,669 --> 00:07:52,490 the country, and women intentionally looking to find this justification. I hope to identify 96 00:07:52,490 --> 00:07:58,030 the differences in how they perform feminism vs how it’s performed in the Salem YSA ward. 97 00:07:58,030 --> 00:08:04,159 As I stated earlier, feminism is a very popular topic in today’s society, and religious 98 00:08:04,159 --> 00:08:08,580 women are often left out if it because there’s this idea that if you’re religious then 99 00:08:08,580 --> 00:08:12,800 you can't also be feminist, but that isn’t true. I’ve never liked the idea that in 100 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:17,189 order to be a feminist you have to let go of something, like religion, that’s important 101 00:08:17,189 --> 00:08:21,520 to you. I hope that my research will be able to add to the discussion of how religions 102 00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:23,139 women can take feminist action.