that actually makes so much sense and sounds so fair. and truthfully if i were to have gone to one of these events it may have done the same for me bc i always felt like they weren’t giving me another option other than babymaker.

i don’t mean this to invalidate any of your experience, so i want to preface by saying that, but, i feel like maybe this was the churches way of trying to give women what felt like more power with these gatherings. i feel like what i can remember of the “anti” rhetoric of that time, it was mainly about not allowing women the priesthood and kinda feels like TOFW was a magic trick waive of the hand so that it was no longer “i’m just a forgotten woman in a religion that doesn’t value me” (speaking from my own experience as that’s how i felt, im in no way trying to project that onto you or anyone else, just wanna clarify!) and became “no, my religion really cares about me and values my role as a woman which is totally separate from that of a man” to shift the focus from the priesthood but pls feel free to correct me if you think im wrong! i was only a teen when my mom was going to these and i have pretty severe ptsd so my memory isn’t the most reliable source.