"In the World but not of the World"

 I want to begin by stating that the world has come a long way in regards to male and female equality. In a bourgeois modern society academia was not a women's place, women were not permitted to study at university and in particular regard to art (my area of study) women's art was consider lesser than men's. Such an idea is due to the fact that creativity, genius and the art academy's were strictly male territory.
Today this case is not so prevalent.  I am a women studying at university and in many cases I am part of a female majority of my classes. We have female politicians, female academics, female ceos, women are definitely becoming more involved in society and the work place, etc.

However in this case I want to highlight a theory I have spent the last month studied. Such a theory begins by illustrating feminism. Many think of such a word as women being angry and aggressive and wanting to have power over men. This is not the case. Griselda Pollock a scholar and advocate for feminism states that feminism is about women telling their story. Rather then stepping into what, in the past has permitted as the "other," women need to step out and forward, with a voice to their own experience. Pollock states that the ideas and treatment of women in any context goes much deeper than simply art, or economics, politics, business, religion etc. Such exclusion and differencing is a deeper hegemonic issue and if we are to change things we have to dig beneath the surface and change the fundamentals of social ideology.

My point is that as a church organization our treatment of women is not simply gospel religion based. Women are treated as inferior all throughout the world. In the church I hear it said that women are nurturers, mothers, carers and their purpose is to bear children, among other things. Although I do not wish to make this role an inferior one,  I wish to point out that for me such a role is not the only one. It is a risky business stating such things, in particular regard to the fact that some women don't have that ability, some can't have children. If our primary purpose is to bear children then what about the women that can't?

Being in the world but not of the world, a statement I've heard repeatedly over time, in this case is contradicted. We are in a world were women are not equal to men. A talk by Sheryl Sandberg, the CEO of Facebook, clearly states that women are treated differently in the work place, in some cases they are paid less and in fact women "systematically underestimate their own abilities." Yes, by all means, lets be in the world but not of the world. However if this is the case then we need a fundamental shift from the world ideologies of women. We have to step back from the simple worldly hegemonic ideologies of women.

I wish to conclude with a comment on a talk given by David A. Bednar last year in a conference directed at the south pacific, which was a question and answer forum, mainly pointed at married couples. He began by talking about (not obviously) the ordained women's movement and stated: do women need the priesthood to enter the temple or to go to the celestial kingdom. No!  Thus his point was that women don't need the priesthood but men do. Ok, great it kind of makes sense, but if we don't need the priesthood then why can't we fulfill the roles that are male dominated? Why within the church do women only hold two significant callings, Primary and Relief Society? Some might answer, its because we don't have the priesthood, if thats the case then Bednar is contradicted, because women don't need the priesthood. People also state that women have access to the priesthood through marriage, I'm not married and there is no proof I ever will be.

I want to advocate for women to "lean in" as Sandberg states, we need to be allowed to "sit at the table" and to be working with men rather than beside or beneath them.

Where to begin...

I want to start with a disclaimer. I'm not usually the blogging type in this particular subject, I feel its a bit cliche and cheesy, but here I am. Why you may ask, I want to be a voice for change and an active voice in that. My purpose is not to offend, but to simply state my feelings and thoughts in an open forum in the hopes that I will find I am not alone in my feelings. I do not wish to offend so I'll state it now, if i do I apologize.

I am a mormon (which is not something I openly admit in public). I have been my whole life, I was born into the church in New Zealand and I am the youngest of four siblings a perhaps average but maybe not super large mormon family. Both my parents a converts to the church and are still very active. I have been through primary, young women's and even attended Brigham Young University in Hawaii. I am still a student at university in New Zealand and (what mormons term) a Young Single Adult (YSA). I am almost 24 and I have come to a time in my life where I have questions and doubts.

I keep trying to pin down where all of this began and I would like to say things began with the excommunication of Kate Kelly. I began to wonder how can I be a part of a community a religion per say that treats people like that. I will admit I probably don't know the whole story and maybe I got it wrong maybe I mis-interpreted something, but nevertheless it was a pinging point. It was at this time that the ordained women's movement became much more prominent in my life and I found myself in agreement with them. I strongly believe that there is an inequality in the Latter day saint/Mormon church and it makes me angry and deeply upset that the system, the community I grew up finds it normal perhaps even right to treat women as (i see it) the other to the man. We don't have the priesthood, but in addition to that we have less callings. I mean where does it say anywhere in the world that you have to be a man to handle finances, to handle the organization of meetings and appointments with your bishops, branch presidents or  stake presidents. I'm pretty certain that any women could be highly capable of such jobs, perhaps even better, lol.

I am a single women in the church of jesus christ of latter day saints I feel  I am discriminated against. Not only because I am a women I am set apart from others but also because I am not married. Within the YSA group we have advisers. These advisers however are usually a married couple who are also chaperones that come to our activities and events, who can in some cases be of help and assistances. But for me I find it undermining that just because someone is married, no matter there age, even if they are younger than me can suddenly have a position, that is above me, that they can suddenly tell me what to do. A couple of years ago in our Dunedin, New Zealand district we had a YSA conference. It was in this event that I was told that in order to be a chaperone you had to be married. My flatmate who isn't married but is over the age of YSA couldn't be a chaperone because she wasn't married. Its like there is this idea that if your married your perhaps better than your single counterparts and its safer for YSA to be around you, your less of a threat. I just want to state now that just because your married doesn't mean anything. I know people who are married I wouldn't trust to be with at all.

I want to end this post by stating more specifically why I am doing this. I am in a community, in all honesty I don't want to be in. It may seem that some of the things I have mentioned are cultural but I also thing it goes deeper than that. I strongly feel that there needs to be a paradigm shift from inequality to equality, we need to stretch our callings beyond the men (might take some weight off their shoulders). As a church we need to take a step outside of our cultural, religious belief systems and see that somethings aren't right. We are meant to be a church of love and acceptance and I certainly don't see that. When christ was on the earth I don't recall him excommunicating anyone or punishing anyone he loved and gave willingly of himself. Some may say i am wrong but if we look to our past, there was a time where blacks weren't allowed the priesthood or to enter the temple. This was changed and amended, the practice of polygamy was stopped. I think its clear that change has happened and thus it can happen again.

I hope this blog will fulfill its goal without controversy and I will be heard, understood and find a common ground with people out there in the mormon world and beyond. I do a lot of yoga, which has become part of and perhaps a new belief system for me. One of my teachers states that in order to resolve or get past something you have to go right through it, you can't go around it because then it will still be there. So here I am going straight through it, straight through my doubts, my questions, my anger and also my hurt.