13. Viral Voices: Mormon Women on the World Wide Web

Though women in the LDS church still look to speakers at the biannual worldwide General Conference for inspiration and guidance, they also listen to the voices of LDS women on social media to help them make sense of modern life. Mormon women who blog about their home and family life are scrutinized by other women in and out of the church while Mormon feminists carry on the tradition of thought-provoking essays and journalism begun by Emmeline B. Wells and other writers of the 19th century. For this session we assembled a panel of Mormon women bloggers including Gabby Blair (designmom.com), Meg Conley (megconley.com), Heather Farley (the-exponent.com) and Hannah Pritchett (zelophehadsdaughters.com) Kathryn (thingselemental.com) moderated, asking the questions below. Note that we ran this session as a fireside to allow more time for questions.

Mormon Mommy Bloggers

1.Why did Mormon women take to blogging so quickly?

2. Why do you think Mormon Mommy blogs became so popular?

3. Why did you decide to openly identify as a Mormon on your blog/in your writing? Has that been a benefit or a liability?

4. Is writing a blog that features your marriage or children like being on a reality show? Do you ever feel pressure to share details that make you uncomfortable ?

5. Have you changed what you write about as your kids have gotten older?

Feminist Mormon Bloggers

1. From public statements it’s clear that some church leaders are suspect of Mormon feminist blogs and see them as the means by which disaffected women are lead out of the church. How do you respond to such statements?

2. Do you know whether any church leaders—male or female—read Mormon feminist blogs? Has anyone in a church leadership position ever posted or commented on a feminist blog?

3. Why do you think the mainstream Mormon intellectual (is that how you’d describe blogs like By Common Consent and Times & Seasons?) blogs are so male-dominated?

4. In the modern age, it’s easy to construct personal “echo chambers” where we only hear/read voices that share our own perspectives. Do you think a good blogger—feminist or other—needs to consider other viewpoints to address topics effectively or does that water down a message?

5. Both of you work in the tech industry. Does that inform what or how you write?