All of this is so excellent. I'm doing a Yesteryear book club with a friend this summer. We both taught English in higher ed, and we both we were in evangelical culture. I'm very, very eager to have a conversation with her about the flat portrayal of deeply religious women.
I'm so grateful for your voice in this discourse -- it's so necessary!
Intellectual religious women? Why yes, a real thing. I’m grateful for your voice and presence illuminating the wide and varied scope of what it can look like to live with religious commitments. And thanks for reading and sharing <3
This is so good! And this part - “I think, in spite of myself, about my mother: a conservative Christian woman who flourished as a stay-at-home mom, who has never felt effective in an office, who shamelessly idealizes the homesteaders and pioneers who settled this land (and participated in displacing and genociding the indigenous people who lived here before them). She is a twenty-first-century woman who doesn’t really get feminism. It’s not that she hates feminists, or views them as working toward something evil. It’s just that . . . she doesn’t really see what all the fuss is about. So what if all the pastors of her church are men and she spent years working as the assistant children’s programming director reporting to a six-and-a-half-foot tall man with a bad temper named John? She wouldn’t have wanted to be a pastor anyway. She’d rather make crafts with the kindergarteners.”
WOW. That is my mom - and honestly, most of the women I knew growing up.
It’s meant to be an affectionate portrait; I hope that comes through 😬 you know how it is. And they are not bad women! They are just illegible to some contemporary left-leaning secular women! And that illegibility is what mainstream culture fails to grapple with.
Really excellent. Ppl who study religion are constantly disappointed at how badly religion is portrayed. Im getting a copy of YY this week. I don’t have grand expectations, but I’m grateful it has opened and elevated the conversation.
Oh my gosh THANK you for this. I finished the book last night and I have to say that I was totally engrossed despite walking away with so many of the concerns that you’ve articulated so well here.
For a better treatment on a similar theme, watch Mrs. America if you can!
Yes!! Another show that I think actually has interesting insights into women’s religious and spiritual lives (while also being a total over-the-top soap opera) is Big Love.
I’m working on writing my memoir of how my religious upbringing—in a variety of theologically rivalrous Christian schools, with parents who explicitly followed Dobson and rejected Gothard—capitulated me into the orbit of the future Project 2025 authors, until I was repelled by close proximity to their sexist vision of “common good,” and eventually found equilibrium not in total rejection of religion but in mainline church community. I’d love to read other narratives of people, especially AFABs, who have grappled with the crazy-making psychological control techniques that constitute “mainstream” conservative religion, and how they have established footing in reality after enduring that.
oooh, we definitely have some things in common 😏 I’m so glad you’re here! Also, you’ve gotta check out the work of @jacky grey — not quite as active on substack but excellent work along similar themes to yours!
Your thoughts here are so good, and I have felt a similar disconnect between the literary world and religious experience. And your description of a mild evangelical childhood sounds like mine! Appreciate all your thoughts.
You are one if my flies on the wall of this movement. I have no idea what Yesteryear is and I’m glad you watch this kind of thing so I can read/listen to your articles about it.
All of this is so excellent. I'm doing a Yesteryear book club with a friend this summer. We both taught English in higher ed, and we both we were in evangelical culture. I'm very, very eager to have a conversation with her about the flat portrayal of deeply religious women.
I'm so grateful for your voice in this discourse -- it's so necessary!
Intellectual religious women? Why yes, a real thing. I’m grateful for your voice and presence illuminating the wide and varied scope of what it can look like to live with religious commitments. And thanks for reading and sharing <3
This is so good! And this part - “I think, in spite of myself, about my mother: a conservative Christian woman who flourished as a stay-at-home mom, who has never felt effective in an office, who shamelessly idealizes the homesteaders and pioneers who settled this land (and participated in displacing and genociding the indigenous people who lived here before them). She is a twenty-first-century woman who doesn’t really get feminism. It’s not that she hates feminists, or views them as working toward something evil. It’s just that . . . she doesn’t really see what all the fuss is about. So what if all the pastors of her church are men and she spent years working as the assistant children’s programming director reporting to a six-and-a-half-foot tall man with a bad temper named John? She wouldn’t have wanted to be a pastor anyway. She’d rather make crafts with the kindergarteners.”
WOW. That is my mom - and honestly, most of the women I knew growing up.
It’s meant to be an affectionate portrait; I hope that comes through 😬 you know how it is. And they are not bad women! They are just illegible to some contemporary left-leaning secular women! And that illegibility is what mainstream culture fails to grapple with.
I saw it as VERY affectionate! And failing to understand it is a massive flaw of contemporary feminism!
YESSS.
Really excellent. Ppl who study religion are constantly disappointed at how badly religion is portrayed. Im getting a copy of YY this week. I don’t have grand expectations, but I’m grateful it has opened and elevated the conversation.
Yes. That is one aspect I’m actually kind of jazzed about.
Oh my gosh THANK you for this. I finished the book last night and I have to say that I was totally engrossed despite walking away with so many of the concerns that you’ve articulated so well here.
For a better treatment on a similar theme, watch Mrs. America if you can!
The Phyllis schafly show? Oh yes I loved that! And such a great depiction of a real woman working both for and against her own interests
Yes!! Another show that I think actually has interesting insights into women’s religious and spiritual lives (while also being a total over-the-top soap opera) is Big Love.
A friend told me about Big Love a few months ago— I’d never heard of it but it’s totally on my list.
I’m doing a rewatch right now if you or anyone else wants to join!
I’m working on writing my memoir of how my religious upbringing—in a variety of theologically rivalrous Christian schools, with parents who explicitly followed Dobson and rejected Gothard—capitulated me into the orbit of the future Project 2025 authors, until I was repelled by close proximity to their sexist vision of “common good,” and eventually found equilibrium not in total rejection of religion but in mainline church community. I’d love to read other narratives of people, especially AFABs, who have grappled with the crazy-making psychological control techniques that constitute “mainstream” conservative religion, and how they have established footing in reality after enduring that.
oooh, we definitely have some things in common 😏 I’m so glad you’re here! Also, you’ve gotta check out the work of @jacky grey — not quite as active on substack but excellent work along similar themes to yours!
Your thoughts here are so good, and I have felt a similar disconnect between the literary world and religious experience. And your description of a mild evangelical childhood sounds like mine! Appreciate all your thoughts.
Thank you for reading! Always glad to find people who can relate. We are more than we might seem 😏
Thank you for this. You summarized so many of my feelings.
Thank you for reading 🧡
Hiee. Attempted something very nuanced. Lmk what you think?
https://lostbard.substack.com/p/letter-to-the-young-tradwives-of?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=19ba1x
You are one if my flies on the wall of this movement. I have no idea what Yesteryear is and I’m glad you watch this kind of thing so I can read/listen to your articles about it.
People with religious commitments and affiliations may be closer than you think! lol. Thank you, as always, for reading.