Baring Witness: 36 Mormon Women Talk Candidly about Love, Sex, and Marriage

by Holly Welker (Editor), Holly Welker (Introduction), Heather K Olson Beal (Contribution by), Heidi Bernhard-Bubb (Contribution by), Amy Sorensen (Contribution by)

Overview

In Baring Witness, Holly Welker and thirty-six Mormon women write about devotion and love and luck, about the wonder of discovery, and about the journeys, both thorny and magical, to humor, grace, and contentment. They speak to a diversity of life experiences: what happens when one partner rejects Church teachings; marrying outside one's faith; the pain of divorce and widowhood; the horrors of spousal abuse; the hard journey from visions of an idealized marriage to the everyday truth; sexuality within Mormon marriage; how the pressure to find a husband shapes young women's actions and sense of self; and the ways Mormon belief and culture can influence second marriages and same-sex unions. The result is an unflinching look at the earthly realities of an institution central to Mormon life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252040344
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	08/15/2016
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Holly Welker is an award-winning poet and essayist living in Arizona. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Best American Essays, and other publications.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction: Attempting Mormon Marriage Holly Welker 1

Part I For Better or For Worse

Projects Heather K. Olson Beal 21

Make It Up Every Day Heidi Bernhard-Bubb 30

The Language of Marriage Amy Sorensen 37

The World We Share Marilyn Bushman-Carlton 42

Leave the Rest to Fairy Tales Melissa G. 47

I Am Never Without It Stephanie Lauritzen 57

Long, Tall, Square Peg Kira Olson 62

This Great Happiness Tiffany Moss 69

Part II Complicated Paths to the Temple (Or Not Getting There At All)

Plan A Naomi Watkins 81

Pull a Handcart Without Giving up in Missouri Christmas Tones 85

Dinner and a Movie Marie Brian 95

I, Katherine, Having Been Born of Goodly Parents … Katherine Taylor Allred 100

The Law of the Harvest Lia Hadley 104

Mormon Marriage Surprise Mary Ellen Robertson 111

Dreams Denied Katrina Barker Anderson 119

Part III Divorce and Other Endings

Reversal Erin Hill 127

Departures Bernadette Echoes 133

I Do … to You and You and You Nancy Ellsworth 135

Signs Michelle Weeks 142

My Next Scene Brittny Goodsell 149

Acquiescence Kate Porter 156

The Crash Amy Williams 163

The Last Valentine's Day viv B. 173

Sole Anita Tanner 184

Part IV Second Chances

Best Friends Lynne Burnett 189

Becoming a Couple Jari Carlton Cannon 194

Its Own Reward C. L. Hanson 200

Sacrifice and Sacrament: A Mormon Marriage Margaret M. Toscano 208

The Architecture of Marriage: Observations of a Bastard Gina Colvin 216

Part V Expectations: Met, Unmet, or Exceeded

Saying Yes Joanna Brooks 227

Across Racial and Cultural Divides Jamie Davis 231

The Shared Table Rebekah Orton 235

The Marriage Pact Alisa Curtis Bolander 241

A Breath I Held Too Long Deja Earley 248

Lucky Despite Myself Rachel Whipple 256

Thirty-Three Reasons Why: A Partial List Dayna Patterson 261

Glossary 263

Bibliography 267

Contributors 271

What People are Saying About This

Association for Mormon Letters

Honorable Mention in Creative Non-Fiction, Association for Mormon Letters, 2017

Editorial Reviews

Honorable Mention in Creative Non-Fiction, Association for Mormon Letters, 2017

"Reading this collection of intimate, intelligent, and terribly interesting essays is an exercise in empathy that truly ought to be considered required reading to the 21st century Latter-day Saint seeking to truly mourn with those that mourn, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort. Baring Witness broadcasts voices of Mormon women that are all too often quietly dismissed in the broader aspects of our culture. In the end, these stories consist of sacred narratives—not so much a record of God’s dealing with people but of people’s dealing with God.”—Association for Mormon Letters


"The stories are fresh, raw, filled with riveting, sometimes shocking details — and impossible to predict the end from the beginning. They are both universal and uniquely LDS.”—The Salt Lake Tribune, Peggy Fletcher Stack

"If you enjoy reading stories about LDS women, about both the hard times and the good times, this book is definitely for you." —Exponent

"Welker has facilitated a range of lived experiences on how Mormon women negotiate secular expectations of equality and religious patriarchy. She is creating conversations between Mormon congregations, Non-Mormon communities, and Mormon scholarship by informing us how Mormon women rebel, respond and reproduce gender inequality through marriage and expectations of relationships. Therefore, these essays are concrete examples of the contested territory that Mormon women encounter, as they simultaneously re-entrench and assimilate between secular values and faith beliefs in a religion that situates its marriage as being of divine design."—Religion and Gender

"Lively and fascinating." —Novo Religio

"Illuminating and heartfelt, frequently moving and sometimes hilarious, these essays explore moments of failure and fulfilment, laying bare the all too often unspoken confinements, complications and comforts of love, sex, and marriage."—Carys Bray, author of A Song for Issy Bradley

"One need not be Mormon to savor this collection of bold and varied essays about the joys and conflicts, the highs and lows, the complexities and contradictions of being a smart Mormon woman today. Beautifully written and impeccably edited, Baring Witness provides not just a wealth of information and experience, but also a truly great read."—Cathi Hanauer, author of Gone and editor of The Bitch Is Back

From the Publisher