Followers of Mormon Women Studies Everywhere,
As some of you may be aware, Sunstone magazine published this month an essay written by Margaret Toscano entitled: ARE BOYS MORE IMPORTANT THAN GIRLS? The Continuing Conflict of Gender Difference and Equality in Mormonism. Please check it out if you have not yet had the chance.
After brainstorming with Dan Wotherspoon, Sunstone’s editor, we thought it might be valuable to invite LDS women more broadly to submit some articles or personal essays to Sunstone magazine, with the intent of dedicating the entire next issue of Sunstone magazine to the topic of “Women in the LDS Church — a 21st Century Update.” (not an official title, of course)
What we’re looking for is the following:
- Personal essays (up to 6,000 words in length) about your experience today as an LDS woman — good, bad or indifferent.
- Responses to Margaret’s essay (between 6,000 and 10,000 words in length). Specifically, we’d very much welcome fresh (and even opposing) perspectives on the essay.
- Articles on Women in the LDS Church in the 21st century (up to 10,000 words in length, w/ citations, etc.)
- We also are looking for a few women to share their stories via audio and potentially video formats for Sunstone podcast.
Please consider contributing to this potentially important contribution to Mormon Women studies. For further discussion, please email: dan@sunstoneonline.com and mormonstories@gmail.com
(Contributions not accepted for the this edition of the magazine could be used in future editions)
What’s the deadline for submissions?
I’ve read the article and from a feminist perspective it makes perfect sense. However the premise of it is that the Church should be some some sort of liberal democracy that gets in step with emerging thinking, where we ‘vote’ on principles and everyone has a voice. This is not nor ever could be the position of the Church since it is founded on a specific and very defined theocracy. It seems evident to me that the criticsm should be towards individuals and not the Church.
This was an interesting and relevant exchange.
https://www.aliveonline.com/ldspapers/Feminism.htm
Interesting, I was just talking to my new major professor on friday about this very topic. now that i’m starting to come to my senses about the church, the idea of gender equality is one that flies in my face. and i appreciate that the author addresses all of them.
being here at school i often wonder about things like – how do the lds men on campus work with women in equal partnerships, or in many cases, positions of subjection. personally, the disconnect between my role at work and the role in church is a big one for me. my role here at school versus my role whenever i go to church. here at school, as a student, i am a leader. yet every sunday none of those characteristics matter – what matters is my gender.
and then for me there’s the single bit. as a 34 year old single woman, really, i have no place in the church. because i don’t have a family, according to the church i really have no place to express that equality. essientally, as it stands, i feel quite faceless, quite without a comfortable place to express all that i am within the lds church.
there’s a lot more to say, but my writing is feeling a bit disconnect, so i’ll just leave it at that.
thanks john for posting this. i think i’ll print it and keep a copy here at my desk. i may, at some point, give it to some of the men i interact with around here on a regular base to read.
We’re looking to go to press with that Sunstone issue about the third week of September. Therefore, I’d love to get responses, essays, articles no later than about 20 August.
In his announcement post, John gives outside limit word count numbers. Please don’t hesitate to write even just a few paragraphs to share an experience or add your thoughts. Sunstone is a magazine with lots of format flexibility, so we can generally find a fun way to include good stuff of whatever length.
Hope you’ll submit your reflections!
Dan Wotherspoon
Editor, Sunstone
Could we get a link to your submission guidelines?
Angie,
Thanks for your query about submission guidelines.
We’d love you to submit your reflections electronically. Please email them to me, Dan Wotherspoon, at editor@sunstoneonline.com. Please mail also to Kristine Haglund, who is helping us put together this special section. Kristine’s email is: kristine.haglund@gmail.com.
Format wise, please attach as a MSWord, WordPerfect, or other text file. We’ll write immediately to acknowledge receipt of the piece and to note if we’ve had any difficulties opening the file.
Thanks, much! We hope to hear from you and many, many others!