Description

Over the 195 years since the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the economic forces supporting traditional family norms have undergone dramatic changes. In the pre-Industrial economy in which Mormonism began, manhood was defined as acquiring a wife/wives (and hence domestic services), sex, children, a home, and the respect of other men. In the contemporary economy, achieving these things—and culturally-defined manhood—has become increasingly difficult. While fifty years ago, when Sunstone began, a recently-returned missionary might have been able to follow his mission president’s advice to marry as soon as possible upon returning home, today few young men are able to support a stay-at-home wife and children.

The conflict between these expectations and economic reality generates a situation that I call “impotent entitlement,” in which men feel both entitled and obligated to have things they cannot have, and shamed when they do not. Further, the growing inequality among men rolls over onto women, as women strive to marry amid a shortage of culturally-defined worthy men. Using examples from Africa and India, this presentation explores the consequences—psychological, social, and religious—of impotent entitlement within the Mormon tradition.

Speaker

• Carrie Miles (she/her)