The Priesthood and The Vaginas

I've been taking online courses to be able to code in a computer language called Python. Once a week I am graded on completing an assignment that requires me to write a program that works based on conditions and values that I get to set. It's pretty neat. Lately, I've been applying these concepts to real life situations. Like, IF laundry ignored x 1 week THEN output equals much sorrow in the home. --I can confirm to you that that is a true statement.

With regards to the Church, I've looked over our coded language and I think I've discovered a program that goes like this:

The Priesthood = Men/boys

The Vagina = Women/girls

WHERE Vagina = All sexual female organs (as lawmakers are want to define it)

IF The Priesthood = All that is good and most important
THEN All that is good and important = Men/boys

The Vagina = Makes Men/boys = Vital object 

When I started testing this out, I noticed several patterns. The most common was using Women/girls as object lessons as though they were, well, NOT equal to most important.

Take Elder Nelson's talk, A Plea to My Sisters. I recommend watching it on video. He describes the trial he faced when he was a less experienced surgeon. Two little girls died after he performed heart surgery on them and he was devastated by this. At this point in the story, I thought he would speak about forgiving himself for failing. I was hoping, honestly, that he would speak about those little girls a bit more and talk about the Atonement offering a hope of reunion between them and their grieving parents. Instead, he finishes on a climactic note explaining that with his first wife's urging and having learned from his poor outcomes he was able to operate successfully on President Kimball. And since Pres. Kimball = good and most important, this is supposed to sweep those little girls under the rug of our memory and convert this into a happy, uplifting story. (Listen for the audience gasp of relief.) Those girls, after all, were learning tools for The Priesthood.

The habit of using females as object lessons, once you recognize it, you'll begin to see it everywhere. Take this talk given by Sis. Cordon, Trust in the Lord and Lean Not. Normally we wouldn't think to make a negative example out of someone battling cancer, even lightly, even with their consent. But hey, an object is not a someone thus Sis. Cordon explains how this one poor lady had sunk so low as to feel sorry for herself while she was receiving chemotherapy (imagine that!), but The Priesthood (her husband) wisely put such negativity aside and made sure she could still find a way to be of service. There's even this one super uncomfortable moment in the video where the speaker is relaying the trials of chemo and the audience laughs (7:08). Laughs! To be clear, I'm not saying Sis. Cordon is purposefully trying to come down on this woman, but I am saying that we have a habit of using women to teach lessons through stories that are sad, but not too sad as they're buffered by equating women to something less important, even humorous. Silly vaginas who need The Priesthood to point out their silly ways. Conversely, if you really want to make 'em sweat, talk about The Priesthood nearly falling to its death, facing hypothermia, or anything like that.

We are so used to equating females with objects, as less than human, that we're okay talking about them dying, replacing them, and being upbeat about it. Elder Oaks has done this, and recently Elder Kevin R. Duncan thought that'd be a great Merry Christmas message for the masses.

To me, no better example of this setup exists than in a phenomenon occurring throughout the Church relating to woman's use of the church building. As a matter of policy, a woman should not to be left alone in the church. Many have taken this to mean that The Priesthood should be supervising women whenever they use the facility, even when there are many, many women on the premises (i.e. they're not alone). To try and argue this is to often meet a bishop who simply cannot compute: vagina does not equal person, after all.

Now we can laugh or cry about this all we want. The first step to fixing it is recognizing the pattern and calling it out. In doing so, I hope you won't end up as the object lesson in a cautionary tale of how vaginas women ought not behave.

Addendum:
I wish to point out that in the earlier referenced talk by Elder Nelson, he does go on to say that women are important and their strength is needed. But all of this has been framed by an object lesson that shows how feminine gifts are there to bless the lives of The Priesthood. Instead of being told how "vital" they are to the Church, to The Priesthood, I think an improved experience could be had if we taught women how to find strength within themselves for themselves, to be used as God sees fit. I realize that sounds like I'm splitting hairs, but it's like the difference between telling a woman she is complete and has a direct connection to God, versus saying she can access Him through her husband as a complimentary tool.

All I ask is that we stop using women as object lessons and see them as full persons. Consider that a belated Christmas gift wish.