Feminist Mormon Housewives

Feminist Mormon Housewives (fMh) is a group blog, podcast, and Facebook group featuring commentary and discussion on contemporary Mormon culture and women's issues. According to The New York Times, "Unlike the more mainstream Mormon blogs – known collectively as the Bloggernacle – that by and large promote the faith, this online diary focuses on the universal challenges of mothering young children and on frustration with the limited roles women have in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."[1]

Feminist Mormon Housewives
Type of site
Group blog about contemporary Mormon culture and women's issues
Available inEnglish
Created byLisa Butterworth (fMhLisa)
URLfeministmormonhousewives.org
LaunchedAugust 2004
Current statusActive

History

Feminist Mormon Housewives was founded by Lisa Butterworth, a wife, mother of three, active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), Sunday School teacher, and Democrat living in Boise, Idaho, along with four of Butterworth's friends.[1][2][3] During the 2004 American presidential election, Butterworth felt she couldn't discuss her liberal, feminist politics in her local LDS social circle. She found online discussions by critics of the LDS Church, but disliked their angry tone. When she stumbled up on an article on liberal Mormons at the Times & Seasons blog, she found that civility and openness could be maintained. This inspired Butterworth to contribute to the growing Mormon blogging community, called the Bloggernacle, by creating Feminist Mormon Housewives, with the tagline "Angry Activists with diapers to change" (this was later changed to "A safe place to be feminist and faithful").[4] fMh provided a place to focus on women's issues, such as abortion, education, polygamy, parenting, and Mother in Heaven.[5]

The blog's atypical premise drew attention from others in the Bloggernacle, then throughout the mainstream media.[4] The role it served in the online Mormon community was the subject of a 2006 session at a Sunstone Symposium.[6]

The site was originally operated at Blogspot by Butterworth and her liberal niece-in-law Beth.[3][7] The number of regular contributors eventually grew to a widespread group of women from England,[8] New York City,[9] Australia,[10] Massachusetts,[11] Missouri,[12] Idaho,[13] and Utah.[14] Some notable figures in Mormon studies have participated with fMh, including Laurel Thatcher Ulrich,[15] Todd Compton, Margaret Toscano, and influential players in the Bloggernacle.[16]

Prominence

fMh is recognized as one of the top Mormon blogs and often featured at Mormon Archipelago[17] and Mormon Blogs,[18] both LDS blog aggregators, and in Bloggernacle coverage at the Mormon Times.[19][20] Discussion of the blog has been featured in The New York Times,[7] Newsweek magazine, National Public Radio, Bust[21] (the feminist magazine), and the Salt Lake Tribune.[3]

See also

References
  1. "Faithful Track Questions, Answers and Minutiae on Blogs". The New York Times. 2005-03-05. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
  2. Riley, Duncan (March 28, 2005). "Feminist Mormon uses blog to spread message". The Blog Herald. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  3. Stack, Peggy Fletcher (October 6, 2007). "LDS Web site offers 'a safe place to be feminist and faithful'". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2009-04-27.
  4. fMhLisa (August 18, 2005). "Happy Nacleversary FMH". Feminist Mormon Housewives. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  5. "Appendix 5: Samples of Women in Popular Media" (PDF). Healers of Our Time: Women, Faith, and Justice: A Mapping Report. The Sister Fund, The Institute for Women's Policy Research. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-16. Retrieved 2009-04-29.
  6. "Mormon Feminist Bloggers: Can Blogging Help Mormon Feminism?". Sunstone. Retrieved 2009-04-29.
  7. Cohen, Debra Nussbaum (March 5, 2005). "Faithful Track Questions, Answers and Minutiae on Blogs". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  8. "Rebecca". Feminist Mormon Housewives. December 18, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  9. "EmilyS". Feminist Mormon Housewives. December 18, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  10. "Quimby". Feminist Mormon Housewives. December 12, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  11. "ECS". Feminist Mormon Housewives. December 18, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  12. "Shelah". Feminist Mormon Housewives. December 12, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  13. "Idahospud". Feminist Mormon Housewives. December 13, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  14. "mfranti". Feminist Mormon Housewives. December 18, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  15. Haglund, Kristine (May 16, 2005). "In Search of Mormon Feminism: A Conversation With Laurel Thatcher Ulrich". Feminist Mormon Housewives. Retrieved 2009-04-29.
  16. Wenger, Kaimi (March 12, 2007). "Around the blogs: WHM at Feminist Mormon Housewives". Times & Seasons. Retrieved 2009-04-29.
  17. Four "Big Islands" are recognized as Bloggernacle Times, By Common Consent, Feminist Mormon Housewives, and Times & Seasons. See "Mormon Archipelago". Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  18. "Mormon Blogs". Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  19. Jensen, Emily W. (March 6, 2008). "In honor of Women's History Month". Mormon Times. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  20. Jensen, Emily W. (December 16, 2008). "Bloggernacle Christmas cheer". Mormon Times. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  21. Remy, John (May 19, 2007). "Feminist Mormon Housewives is Bust-ed!". Mind on Fire. Archived from the original on December 3, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
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