Comments on: Sunday Morning General Conference Open Thread

By: Russell Arben Fox

Russell Arben Fox — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:50:04 +0000

Thanks for the commentary, everyone. This thread is now closed.

By: MCQ

MCQ — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:15:52 +0000

Tatiana: I think you should read it again, because it doesn’t say that.

Also, fwiw, if you don’t like relief society, you don’t have to attend. It’s not required. You and your thigh-highs are welcome to come to my EQ meetings. We’ll even have treats.

By: Tatiana

Tatiana — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:04:42 +0000

Okay I read her talk again as transcribed on the thread at fMh. You’re right that there’s no specific mention of pantyhose. There’s just a nearly complete identification of the worth of women with bearing children and doing housework including washing dishes, washing windows, etc. (all spelled out with cheesy-video reinforcement), and keeping their children always looking good with missionary haircuts and white shirts on the boys, and clean pressed dresses on the girls. It does seem to me that she puts undue emphasis on the superficial, and relegates all housework as a woman’s responsibility. Both of those things bother me a lot. The talk totally alienates me.

It’s funny that during the Saturday morning session I had such a powerful spiritual witness that this is the true church and the most important work that’s going on today. That it’s where I should be. Then when Sister Beck spoke, though she’s the leader of my auxiliary of the church, my special leader among the leaders, I totally felt that I don’t belong here at all. I love the restored gospel. I love this church. But the church tells me over and over again that I don’t belong, that I’m not valued or wanted. I’m an interloper. God sends me these powerful invitations, and then the Relief Society pushes me back out the door. Which one is mistaken?

I think what God’s asking me to do is to be a member anyway, and fight for am earthly church that won’t exclude women or stifle them or stuff them into a box that’s too small or doesn’t fit. In the early church, as we now know from reading and researching our history, women were encouraged to be doctors and mathematicians, accountants, lawyers, to use all their talents to the utmost in the service of Zion. Women had great power from on high, and exercised spiritual gifts in many ways that we are no longer allowed to do. This lessening of women, this circumscribing of women’s roles that’s going on in the church today began in the early to mid 20th century, and is not from God.

By: Julie M. Smith

Julie M. Smith — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 15:18:55 +0000

MCQ-

No argument there, even tho I always wear knee-highs because I wear long skirts. Because I don’t shave my legs. TMI, I know.

By: MCQ

MCQ — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 15:11:19 +0000

On the upside though, Julie, Tatiana’s endorsement of thigh highs is something we can all get behind.

By: Julie M. Smith

Julie M. Smith — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:55:01 +0000

Yes, that was me screaming. I am beyond annoyed that President Beck is being repeatedly criticized for things that she didn’t say.

By: Julie M. Smith

Julie M. Smith — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:52:49 +0000

SHE DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT PANTYHOSE! STOP READING THE BLOGGERNACLE AND GO LISTEN TO HER TALK!

By: Adam Greenwood

Adam Greenwood — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:49:00 +0000

Do you have any idea how patronizing and arrogant that is?

Yes.

By: Tatiana

Tatiana — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 06:22:35 +0000

Sister Beck’s talk rubbed me the wrong way too! Pantyhose. Clean white shirts. It’s superficial. There so much substance she could talk about and she talks about clothes and housework. =(

By the way, I’ve discovered the secret to never having to wear pantyhose ever again. Wear thigh-highs. If you get the true thigh-highs that come all the way up and have the rubber-cement-like band on the inside at the top, they stay up all day, you don’t have to remove or adjust them to go to the potty, and best of all, if you run one you’ve only lost half your investment. They give you such a feeling of freedom and ease compared to their evil cousins, the pantyhose. I buy them six pair at a time, and they last for a long long time.

By: Markie

Markie — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 04:43:04 +0000

I neglected to add that after reading the transcript of Pres. Beck’s talk on FMH, the uplifting and positive and challenging really did outweigh the things that made me want to storm out of the room. And therein lies the problem. Whether the fault is all in my perception or whether there is actually something at odds with gospel priorities in her talk, the fact that so many of us (women and men) had a hard time even hearing the main points of the talk because of the few paragraphs of less-than-ideal-phrasing-of–a-worthwhile-goal (I really struggled with the right word there), it made the whole talk less effective. And there I go again, stuck on the criticism when my point was to say that there was much good.