Motherhood and homemaking receive a lot of lip service within Mormon culture, but when women use the internet (and other venues) to descant on their lived experience with this noble calling, people do not hesitate to ridicule domestic minutiae, sneer at discussions of poop, and condescend to crafters. This reaction to the nuts-and-bolts of child-rearing and homemaking reveals the true misogyny behind the pretty flattery. Our panelists will discuss traditional female material culture, including cooking, housecleaning, nurturing, gardening, and crafting, and the ways in which women are “othered” both for embracing these womanly roles or for rejecting them.

Lisa Butterworth, Joanna Brooks, Nikki Matthews Hunter, Shelah Mastny Miner, Lindsay Hansen Park, Derek Staffanson