Comments on: Perspective

By: singlemormonchick

singlemormonchick — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:50:07 +0000

“minions”. thats funny. accurate, but funny. i am in one of those rare wards that dont ostracize those that dont follow the cookie cutter mormon ideal. i think that ideal is a facade and drives more people from the church than anyone is willing to admit.

jeff-

By: Jeff Spector

Jeff Spector — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:09:13 +0000

“Breeding Stock” – I especially like that.

By: Ulysseus

Ulysseus — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:52:25 +0000

Oh, a challenge — actually, I took off down the road of gender politics which is one of the things that changes from perspective. Throw multiple females into a guy’s life and they effect how you look at things, but I’ll focus on one perspective changer that is related most to the original post.

Being single in the Mormon religion as an adult, whether male or female, ranges from the difficult to the nearly impossible and is undoubtedly a perspective changer — I agree with Stephen M that the post was a human/humorous way of looking at something that is extremely painful for lots of people. Underneath all the joking and the humor, the original post tweaked Mormon culture that hurts single adults. The contrast between cleaning out the purse, which she alters to name “messenger bag”, opposed to her contemporaries with their children and diaper bags or the realization that the mythical Mormon journey of mission, marriage and then family is never going to work out for you the way it was outlined in your youth are both painful cultural barbs that single adult Mormons are constantly snagged on. Bottom line, if you are a single, adult Mormon and paying attention to the religion at all, attending and participating is pretty damn painful and all the “under 30, sealed in the temple and constantly reproducing” minions putter around without a clue.

By: Stephen M (Ethesis)

Stephen M (Ethesis) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 03:26:33 +0000

What seemingly unchanging things within the church changed for you, depending on your perspective?

I really thought Ulysses would have jumped to answer that question, which is a good one. The post has a very human way of exploring it, but the underlying question is a good one, and one it is important to think about.

By: singlemormonchick

singlemormonchick — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:15:14 +0000

ulysseus- pretty funny for an accidental misuse of punctuation. i am vacillating between being completely irritated with my grammatical error and laughing at the funny and clever thing you turned it into.

By: Ulysseus

Ulysseus — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:19:12 +0000

Stay away from evaluating our rm asses —
Oh, excuse me, rms (plural) assess the Friebergian qualities of the females — the apostrophe in the original threw me.

By: mormoninvestigator

mormoninvestigator — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:49:08 +0000

Having grown up around a different group of “righteous” people – I wholeheartedly agree!

By: singlemormonchick

singlemormonchick — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 04:07:20 +0000

i know that stephen simply ooozes sincerity-especially when he likes my post!

ulysseus- dont they already? i suspected it, but jake and calvin at confessions of a mormon bachelor pad totally confirmed how rm’s assess the different attributes of any girl they come in contact with. it can be quite harsh.

mormoninvestigator-the shallowness of the truly righteous can be astounding.

By: mormoninvestigator

mormoninvestigator — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:34:09 +0000

wow who would’ve known what a superficial bunch Mormons could be – I hope that there is more value seen in the missionaries than simply contestants for the Mormon girls Ward “dating game”

By: Ulysseus

Ulysseus — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:20:41 +0000

Oh, Stephen M just panders –

So, any up and coming Elder is perfectly OK with assessing not only the wheat grinding and medallion adornment, but also the hip size and attractiveness of the prospective mother of his strippling warrior to facilitate everyone looking like an Arnold Frieberg painting?

By: singlemormonchick

singlemormonchick — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:13:54 +0000

byu agnostic-seems like you had some major shifts in perspective in a really short period of time-totally self motivated as well, which is impressive.

ulysseus- how else can women raise the next generation of stripling warriors if we dont strictly assess such things? surely you can see that any woman worth her wheat grinder and young woman’s medallion has to take such things into consideration.

stephen m- thanks-i always like your comments.

By: Stephen M (Ethesis)

Stephen M (Ethesis) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:34:33 +0000

Perspectives are an important part of life. I liked this post.

By: Ulysseus

Ulysseus — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:43:56 +0000

I think the perspective you gave me from your post is something I had never realized when donning the white shirt and tie and short hair cut — I was being objectified by women. From a male perspective it is very disturbing to only be treated objectively as “breeding stock.” I think I’m deeply damaged by this objectification and I hadn’t even realized it. I don’t know if I’ll ever recover.

By: BYU Agnostic

BYU Agnostic — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:02:44 +0000

Given my own personal experience with the missionaries and then being one myself, as a young man who could drive them around, I experienced the awe that is the missionaries. Then I went on a mission, and thought that I should act like the demigod that I knew I was. Amazing what a little perspective gave me when I decided to make friends with everyone I came on contact with. That perspective allowed me to be much less judgemental and friendly, which helped people realize Mormons weren’t that weird. (I even convinced myself I wasn’t that weird) Now that I’ve been home a while, I see the missionaries as a bunch of kids who are trying to find themselves, too bad they haven’t learned what I did…..yet.