“What Exponent Means to Me”
I first encountered Exponent II as a graduate student. I had recently joined the Church and — as a single, 27-year-old Filipinx-American adjusting to Washington D.C. — I struggled with reconciling my burgeoning Mormon identity with my feminist core. Between reading and writing on international economics and political theory, I eagerly tore through all the Mormon feminist classics. It was when I read “Mormon Sisters: Women In Early Utah” that I learned about Exponent.
Finally, I was surrounded by what Anne of Green Gables called “kindred spirits
I immediately subscribed to the magazine and later followed the blog and joined the listserv. Due to graduate school, followed by a move overseas that lasted seven years, I was not able to attend the annual retreat. Regardless, Exponent, in all its incarnations, was a precious thread that tethered me to Mormon feminism when I lived in Africa and then when I moved back to the U.S. and into a conservative ward. When looking now at the ten essays that I have contributed to the magazine and the blog since 1999, I see the trajectory of my journey as a Mormon feminist: starting with musings about replacing lingerie with garments (“From Victoria’s Secret to Beehive Clothing”) to a Sabbath Pastoral that was a love letter to my ward disguised as a sacrament meeting talk (“To Choose Hope Is to Choose Love”).
When we moved back to the U.S. in 2006, one of my goals was to attend a retreat. In 2008, I found myself at the retreat center surrounded by what Anne of Green Gables called “kindred spirits.” Since then, I have not missed a single retreat, despite a couple of occasions where I had to immediately leave for international travel (once to Senegal and another time to Mozambique). I met she-roes like Judy Dushku and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, whom I now consider friends, and many women whom I hope I can meet again in a celestial Relief Society.
Exponent is not a perfect institution, in the same way that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a perfect institution
Of course, Exponent is not a perfect institution, in the same way that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a perfect institution. I have long given up wearing a name tag at the retreat, for example, because I know I’ll be one of the few women of color in attendance. But the spirit of Exponent is perfect, and has sustained me in my own human imperfection.
Sylvia (she/her) is a slacktivist feminist, Filipinx Mormon mom, and wife who works on global women’s issues. She leaves copies of Exponent II in the mothers’ room at church.
Washington, D.C.
Categories: Shout Outs
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