E x p o n e n t I I Southern California Volume 27 Number 3 CONTENTS Exponent II EDITORIAL STAFF Editorial Editor Nancy Dredge Letter from the Guest Editors ..........................................................3 Guest Editors Caroline Kline Jana Bouck Remy Associate Editors Kate Holbrook Interview Heather Sundahl Lael Littke: A Lifetime of Writing ...................................................4 Editorial Assistants Kimberly Burnett Aimee Hickman Pondering the Proclamation on the Family ...................................6 Designers Nancy Dredge Lori F. Smurthwaite Evelyn Harvill Artists Kathryn Knudsen Family Home Evening and Our Forever Family ..........................8 Emma Donaldson Taylor Ruth Hathaway Mauss Photographer Hideko Cannell Business Mgr. Barbara Streeper Taylor Poetry Editor Ann Stone Panel and Roundtable Discussion Guest Poetry Editor Brooke Williams Feminism and Mormon Women Today .......................................12 Book Review Editor Deborah Farmer Production Evelyn Harvill Red Moon and Metaphor................................................................18 Rosalynde Frandsen Welch EXECUTIVE BOARD President Aimee Hickman Transformations ...............................................................................20 Secretary Linda Andrews Susan Layton Freitas Treasurer Barbara Streeper Taylor Historian Cheryl Davis DiVito No Swans Allowed ..........................................................................22 BOARD MEMBERS Catherine Vaughan Linda Andrews, Robin Zenger Baker, Kimberly Burnett, Emily Curtis, Cheryl Interview Davis DiVito, Nancy Tate Dredge, Judy Then and Now: Erna Wong............................................................26 Rasmussen Dushku, Karen Call Haglund, Evelyn Harvill, Kate Holbrook, Aimee Poetry..................................................................................................27 Hickman, Heather Sundahl, Barbara Taylor, Resurrected Thin by B. Jean Williams Laurel Thatcher Ulrich The Fidgeting Ghazal by Brooke Williams Exponent II (ISSN 1094-7760) is published Some News About the Soul by Sunni Brown quarterly by Exponent II Incorporated, a non-profit corporation with no official Negotiating Identity: Keeping My Name ....................................28 connection with The Church of Jesus Christ Amy Hoyt of Latter-day Saints. Articles published represent the opinions of authors only and So I Married a Mormon Feminist ..................................................30 not necessarily those of the editor or staff. Mike McBride Letters to Exponent II or its editors and Sisters Speak articles are assumed intended for publication in whole or in part and may therefore be used for such purposes. Copyright © 2005 by Exponent II, Incorporated. All rights reserved. The purpose of Exponent II is to provide a forum for Mormon women to share their life experiences in an atmosphere of trust and accep- Cover art and artwork on pages 20, tance. This exchange allows us to better understand each other and 27, and 32 by Emma Donaldson shape the direction of our lives. Our common bond is our connection Taylor. Artwork on pages 18 and 22 to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and our commit- ment to women. We publish this paper as a living history in celebra- by Kathryn Knudsen. Photographs tion of the strength and diversity of women. on pages 4, 13-16 by Hideko Cannell. 2 Exponent II Editorial Letter from the Guest Editors Caroline Kline Jana Bouck Remy Last summer, Jana and I volunteered to be One of the greatest guest editors for a Southern California issue gifts I’ve ever re- of Exponent II. As young Mormon women— ceived from my Jana has two children and I am just begin- mother is the stack ning to think about starting a family—we of yellowed Exponent were trying to find ways to deal with the II papers that she expectations and roles placed upon us by gave me when I was the Church and by society. As we talked a freshman in col- together at church, during visiting teaching, lege. The articles I and at our UC Irvine graduate student read inspired me, Institute class, we discussed the needs we and the women who saw among the young Mormon women wrote them became around us, who seemed to need a forum to reach out to other my heroines. Among that group of women and learn from each other’s stories and insights. We papers was the 1979 Southern California saw editing our own issue of Exponent II as the perfect vehicle issue that Lael Littke edited. What a to gather these women’s insights and perspectives and to join privilege it is to be following in her foot- the powerful community of women already supporting and steps with this issue! I look forward to empowering each other through the Exponent II readership. the day that I’ll pass a copy of this paper on to my daughter. Perhaps she will find Last fall, during election time, as Jana and I worked on gather- some joy in reading about what her ing articles and organizing our feminist panel, I couldn’t help mother and other women thought about but think of the women who so inspiringly fought for women’s in the early years of the twenty-first cen- rights in our nation’s history: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan tury. Perhaps she will identify with the B. Anthony. As we compiled and edited articles in our own issues and challenges we face. Perhaps attempts to empower the women around us, I began to identify she will see that many things have with Anthony—the childless, intense woman of action, organiz- changed. Hopefully, she will herself be ing and dealing with practical issues. Jana took the role of a subscriber and contributor to Stanton in my mind—thinker, writer, idea-generator, a mother Exponent II. balancing her own pursuits with the needs of her family. The most significant lesson that I’ve In putting together this issue, we were inspired by the first learned in putting this issue together is issues of Exponent II that came out in the 1970s—fiery, frank that Mormon women have so much to attempts to reconcile the gospel with current societal theories share with each other. We may think we and concerns. Like these issues of the past, you may notice the are so different—in age, in color, in mari- bold, forthright tone of many of the articles in this issue. With tal status, in education, and so forth—but many of the contributors in their twenties and thirties, this issue I think we too often let these differences primarily reflects the concerns of women dealing with the divide us. However, these differences expectations of the Southern California communities we live in, give each of us a unique voice and per- as well as the expectations the gospel places upon us women. spective. It’s my hope that this issue, Articles dealing with feminism, body image, and gender roles with its many voices, will inspire each of dominate this issue, tempered with the stories and insights of a you to create a dialogue with the sisters previous generation of women who dealt with similar concerns. in your own community. Vol. 27, No. 3 3 Interview Lael Littke: A Lifetime of Writing Author Lael Littke is perhaps best writer? What or who influenced dents, I had the opportunity to be known for her books for adolescent your desire to write? the newspaper editor and get a girls, which include a number of start in writing. nationally popular suspense novels, I think the desire to become a such as Haunted Sister and Lake of writer came in the package that How did you reconcile the desire Secrets. She has also produced was me; it was included in my for a writing career with other numerous novels for Deseret Book DNA. As soon as I learned to roles for women emphasized by Company that center around young read, I knew I wanted to write the Church? Mormon girls, among which is the stories. I don’t remember anybody successful Bee Theres series. More influencing this desire except my The only role we were encouraged recently, Lael worked with current seventh and to pursue in my little Church historian Richard E. Turley eighth grade Mormon town was Jr. to co-author the children’s book, English teacher, that of wife and Stories from the Life of Joseph Emil Larson, mother. I wanted Smith. Altogether, Lael has published who told me I that, too, but I want- thirty-nine books. definitely had ed more, and I just an ability to went my own way Lael Littke grew up on a farm in write. I think he about achieving it. Mink Creek, Idaho. After graduating was sent to our from Utah State University, she tiny town just You attended Utah moved to Denver to pursue a career. to teach me how State University. There she met George Littke. They to use that mar- How did family and married and moved to New York velous tool, the friends react to your City, where Lael worked full time English language. He had us decision to move away to attend and studied writing by night. When diagram sentences endlessly, college? In what ways did you her husband was hired to teach politi- for which I’ve always been grate- grow and develop both academi- cal science at Cal State Los Angeles, ful because it taught me structure. cally and personally during your Lael turned her full attention to writ- He loved my tales of dogfights college years? ing once again, eventually teaching and family oddities and neighbor- fiction writing at Pasadena City hood games. My parents definitely encouraged College and the University of education, although I don’t recall California, Los Angeles. What effect, if any, did growing that they ever came right out and up in a small Idaho farm town said it. We kids just absorbed their In 1979, Lael guest edited the previ- have on your desire to write? general attitude, which was that ous Southern California issue of the we should do all we could educa- Exponent II. We felt it was particu- Growing up in my small Idaho tionally—something they had larly appropriate for her to be a farm town influenced my desire never had the opportunity to do.