Exponent II
A feminist forum for Mormon women and gender minority voices
BY RAMONA MORRIS · PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 22, 2021 · UPDATED NOVEMBER 21, 2021 Unlike many across the world, I chose not to watch too much of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. As a black woman, seeing the gross disrespect to the American court system was triggering. I learned during the va…
BY APRIL YOUNG BENNETT The Vision of the Redemption of the Dead In 1918, Joseph F. Smith had a vision. He witnessed an event that was previously unreported and unexplained in scripture: Jesus Christ organizing missionary work in the Spirit World, during the time after his death a…
I haven’t heard from her in years— and even then only to decline invitations to my daughters’ weddings but I’m willing to listen. She begins with her heart, her email brimming with testimony— God, Christ, forgiveness, the Book of Mormon but as she continues paragraph after paragr…
Our Fall open-themed issue. These essays and art take us past the tiny glimpses and sound bites of headlines and social media and instead let us go a little deeper into another’s journey.
Thank you to the creators out there… helping the rest of us navigate and deal with the challenges of our time.
I don’t remember who told me first — my mom? My dad? My Young Women’s President, the one with the indestructible, gravity-defying, blonde hair? Whoever it was, here is what they told me: say yes to boys. If a boy asks you to slow dance, you say yes. It doesn’t matter if his list …
You carry yourself like a leftover meal, your back an arched rib bone. You think yourself alone in doubts, alone in the way your arteries stretch your yearnings towards home. Eyes searching during whispered prayers, in this you are too alone. Bread caught in a burning throat, wat…
CHAPTER ONE 1 In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. The Father was God, and so was the Mother. And they saw that it was good. 2 And the Father said, Let us make a man in my image, in my likeness. 3 So the Father created a man in his own image, in the image of th…
The eight-year-old, newly baptized takes the blessed bit of bread from the silver tray in her brother’s hand glances at her father who is always on the stand And whispers to her mother “When I’m twelve I’ll get to pass the sacrament, won’t I?” “Shhhhh!” The voice of her ten-year-…
Table of ContentsOvercome spiritual risk aversion. Refer to Her. Connect with Her. Redefine “God.” Find Her in scripture. Amplify female voices. Acknowledge the shoulders we stand on. Facilitate and advocate for ongoing work. Explore Her roles. Celebrate womanhood outside of moth…
His eyelashes. They were the only part of his bashed-up face that I recognized. Careful to avoid the IVs, I reached for his hand. It was still as warm as it had been two nights before, at a friend’s wedding at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. We’d sneaked out of the reception into…
What parts of your childhood/young adult life led you to illustration? I was drawing people as early as three years old. I’d create stories with the people I drew and my Tatay (dad) was always eager to hear what new adventures I had imagined. Tatay was always supportive of my art…