http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/us/19mormon.htmlNew York Times
Mormon Women Set Out to Take a Stand, in Pants
By TIMOTHY PRATT
December 20, 2012
LAS VEGAS — A call for Mormon women to wear pants to church, begun
this month by a small group of women, has stretched across the globe,
but not before creating a backlash and even generating death threats.
“Wear Pants to Church,” an event on Sunday, was meant to draw
attention to the role of women in the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, using attire as a symbolic first salvo in a larger
struggle over gender inequalities.
Though the Mormon Church has no official policy against women wearing
pants to church, many say they feel peer pressure to wear a dress,
particularly in the western United States, organizers said. So on
Sunday, thousands of Mormon women arrived at church in pants in places
like Cambridge, England; Heidelberg, Germany; Austin, Tex.; the
Marshall Islands; and Kotzebue, Alaska. A number of the women posted
their photos on Facebook and other Web sites. Others said they could
not participate because they were fearful of ridicule or reprimand.
A Google map, begun so women could show they participated, included
posts like this one, from Kari White, in Sheboygan, Wis.: “felt free
to be an authentic me for the first time in my nearly 5 years of
membership in the church.”
Joanna Brooks, a professor at San Diego State University and the
author of “The Book of Mormon Girl: A Memoir of an American Faith,”
called it “the largest concerted Mormon feminist effort in history.”
A church spokesman, Eric Hawkins, declined to comment on the event.
Organizers hope the dialogue will now expand to include issues like
the ordination of women, or women taking on more responsibilities at
church events.
They also cited the pronounced role of the Boy Scouts in the church —
boys routinely become troop leaders in the organization, but girls
have no similar outlet with the Girl Scouts — and the fact that young
men are expected to go on two-year missions to spread the faith, but
young women are not. The result: the vast majority of Mormon
missionaries are men.
“Wear Pants to Church” was the idea of Stephanie Lauritzen of Salt
Lake City. She and some fellow Mormon women who belonged to a group
called All Enlisted posted an events page on Facebook on Dec. 9.
Within days, thousands had pledged their support, but one person
threatened to shoot women who showed up in pants. Ms. Lauritzen, 26,
also received threats on her own Facebook page that are being
investigated by Facebook and the local authorities, she said.
On Dec. 11, the Salt Lake City-based church leadership issued a
statement: “Generally church members are encouraged to wear their best
clothing as a sign of respect for the Savior, but we don’t counsel
people beyond that.”
The All Enlisted “friends” page has drawn hundreds of posts, both for
and against the idea. JoEllen Swarts of Las Vegas wrote: “What is
wrong with all you women??? If you’re not happy with the LDS church,
move on, find another place of worship. You will not change Mormon
doctrine.”
At a suburban church in Green Valley, Nev., less than 10 miles from
the Las Vegas Strip, women filed into church on Sunday morning, most
wearing dresses (most men wore coats and ties). Bishop Michael Durham
was somewhat dismissive of the pants idea. “I think wearing pants is
not liberating,” he said. “Liberation comes from inside. I’m not sure
they have a clear understanding of the church’s position on gender.”
Soraya Cordeiro said she wore pants because she had to take a long bus
ride to her job at the Venetian hotel after church and found wearing a
dress to be “a hassle.” She said she had never faced rebuke for her
choice of attire.
On Monday, a private All Enlisted Facebook page had collected about
the same number of “negative experiences” as “positive experiences”
from women across the country. Julie Tuovi Baker Hansen, a lawyer in
Burbank, Calif., who participated while visiting a Salt Lake City
suburb, said she was surprised to see a man raise his hand and say,
“Women who want to wear pants, they just don’t know how to follow the
Lord.”
Ms. Hansen, the only woman wearing pants in a room of about 50 people,
said she felt “pretty irritated.”
Aimee Hickman, the editor of a Mormon feminist magazine called
Exponent II, said she originally had reservations about the event. But
then she saw the negative reaction by church members online. “This
made me rethink my original position,” Ms. Hickman said. The attention
drawn to the effort, she added, “has people talking about Mormon
gender roles more than anything I’ve seen.”