A few weeks ago I was sent an article entitled, “Why I can't stop reading Mormon housewife blogs” by Emily Matchar. I think she does a great job describing herself in the articles tagline. “I'm a young, feminist atheist who can't bake a cupcake. Why am I addicted to the shiny, happy lives of these women?” In the article she explores her own feelings about these blogs and, more importantly, how she views these women. She presents this rift in her soul. She is an educated, logical feminist who doesn’t even want to dream about these perfect, idealized “hipster mommy bloggers”. Yet she’s self admittedly attracted to them.
I don’t know why that is exactly, but I know one thing. She is wrong. It’s is “about religion”. You see, in the LDS faith our religion permeates into every aspect of our lives. It is literally who we are. It is why these blogs are, as Matchar states, “weirdly ‘uplifting’”. Most importantly these “Mormon Mommy blogs” help these women see “marriage and motherhood” as something other than “demeaning, restrictive or simple”. They begin to see it as a deep and sacred responsibility. Women and motherhood is at the very heart of the LDS faith. It is central to the plan that God as sent forth. In 1995 the leaders of the church published and signed a document called “Family: A Proclamation to the World”. In it they state,
"[Husbands and wives] have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.
The family is ordained of God."
These blogs celebrate motherhood. They are written by women who love the Lord and who chose to pursue careers in the family. They are solemn proclamations of fundamental truths about the divine nature of the family.
They show the weakness in these families. They're not all "picture-perfect catalog lives", as Matchar states. In a recent post on the NieNie Dialogues the author talked about just a few of the trials in her life. She went to bed with her house in reasonable condition, but she woke up with pee on the floor, blood in her sheets, aches in her body, and kids running rambunctiously around the house. This does not seem like a "picture-perfect" life. However these women have something that many women (and men for that matter) don't have. They have an eternal perspective. They know that even with all of the chaos in their lives that there family loves them and that they "are truly royal spirit daughters of Almighty God. You are princesses, destined to become queens" (Uctdorf, Happily Ever After). This knowledge permeates through every word and is thread through every sentence these women write. So yes, it is about the religion, because these women's lives are their religion.
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