I, Jenna Kei Lee, am a Mormon and also a feminist in many ways and this is why:
Let me start off by saying I am not the worldly kind of feminist. Many worldly, immoral women have the idea that they have to be vulgar, immodest, and crude to prove that they are "free". Those women think it empowers them when it really doesn't. In today's society, many of those women are too afraid of marrige and commitment to be faithful to one man. They think that qualifies them as "independent". But that is not so. They have the wrong idea of what a relationship should be. More and more women are bearing children out of wedlock and feel that a family setting is "sexist". Those women only care for themselves. All the while, righteous women are being scrutinized by the media for spending time with their family and performing their roll in the home and that is not fair to those different strong, hard working women who have made good choices in their life. Is it really more empowering to get worldly attention, or is it more empowering to be a modest, dignified, well-manered daughter of our Father in Heaven?
Let me tell you how I AM a feminist: I celebrate those women in history who have fought for equality in society and in the home like Suzan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Coco Chanel. We women have better lives and are respected more because of them. Many feminists of the past were DIGNIFIED and fought for what was right like equal pay, sufferage, civil rights, and pride in the female gender. In Proverbs, it talks about the sanctity of women and celebrates the charitable, virtuous, hard working, tender-hearted women. In Timothy chapter 1, it talks about how humility in women is good and that women should not be ashamed of their ability to bear children. It is the gift that women have. Yes, I know it also says that "women should be in similitude to their husbands" and that they shouldn't "preach or teach". But I think it means women shouldn't preach or teach FALSELY that women are "better" than men. And when the Bible says that women should be in subject to their husbands, it means respect and love. And the Bible says many times in other versus that men should respect and love women back. Many other religious people have the wrong idea that feminism is a bad thing. But it isn't in the sense that women should be strong, empowered, and fight for what is right. That is everyone's job. God has a special place for virtuous, independent, modest, righteous women. Sometimes we women DO need to show to the men that we are EQUAL because women are still looked down upon by pigs who think women are only good for sex. Women can and do stand up for themselves and others too because we all have RIGHTS and fight for our freedom, our families, and our homes. I do not think women are given enough credit for that. It is through a woman's strengh that we are all born into the world and women are proven to be the best survivors in nature. That is what feminism is really about. I am a Latter Day Saint woman who knows she is a daughter of God.
:)
