Diverse Yet Hegemonic: Expressions of Motherhood in “I'm a Mormon” Ads

Abstract

The LDS Church's multi-million-dollar “I'm a Mormon” ad campaign has been largely seen as indicating the Church's desire to alter public perceptions about Mormons. I read these ads differently by focusing on how Mormon ideology is perpetuated. I argue that these ads send a clear, although subtle, message about Mormon family values, especially the ideal of womanhood/motherhood. While showing diverse Mormon women in various social positions, these ads reaffirm, not defy, the “traditional” gender roles for women as they emphasize (stay-at-home) motherhood above all other identities.

Notes

¹ There seems to be no distinction between gender and sex in speeches given by LDS church leaders, paralleling the nondistinction in most other nonacademic usage. LDS leaders use the two terms interchangeably and without acknowledging debates over nature and culture. They appear to subscribe to the notions that biology/sex determines gender and that one's gender identity is therefore fixed and universal, instead of fluid and shaped by culture and environment, as argued by feminists and other scholars.

² The “new and everlasting [marriage] covenant” Joseph Smith introduced included the system of plural marriage (polygamy), also known as “the principle” or “the patriarchal order of marriage.” The new revelation was a necessary condition for exaltation, as God indicated through Smith that “no one can reject this covenant, and be permitted to enter into my glory” (Doctrine & Covenants 132:4). Decades later, however, the anti-polygamy movement threatened the very survival of Mormonism. The LDS Church eventually abolished the mortal-life practice of polygamy, a process that began when the fourth president of the Church, Wilford Woodruff, issued the 1890 “Manifesto.” Since then “the new and everlasting covenant” has been interpreted as Church-sanctioned monogamous temple marriage.

³ Public Radio International (PRI) reported that the “ads were aired nearly 800,000 times in 2011,” attributing the source to Wes Kosova, Washington editor for Bloomberg Businessweek (“Mormon Church's,” 2012). The number is far beyond what was reported in the story by Felix Gillette of Bloomberg Businessweek cited in the main text.

⁴ The most noticeable crackdown was the Church's 1993 disfellowshipping or excommunication of six LDS scholars, known as the September Six. Of them, three were feminists—Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, Maxine Hanks, and Lavina Fielding Anderson—each of whose scholarship on gender issues likely played key roles in their church discipline.