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cbayer

(146,218 posts)
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 12:13 PM Aug 2012

Ann Romney’s Big Night at the RNC

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/joannabrooks/6335/ann_romney’s_big_night_at_the_rnc/


Joanna BrooksRSS
August 29, 2012 9:24am
Post by JOANNA BROOKS

Ann Romney had a big job to do at the RNC last night: to create a sense of feeling and affection for a candidate who has struggled to connect with voters.

And when I tuned in to her convention speech, I started to listen as a progressive, but then found myself listening as a Mormon woman.

After all, it is no small thing for a Mormon woman like Ann Romney to be standing before a national audience. She is probably the most visible Mormon woman since—no joke—Marie Osmond. And her speech was a historic moment for us: a chance to see ourselves on television as something other than polygamist wives. That actually doesn’t happen very often.


I started seeing her as I imagined other Mormon women were seeing her: beautiful, successful in her family and marriage, strong-minded, decisive, confident, forceful. I found myself dialing into the rhythm of her speech—a rhythm familiar to those of us who have watched LDS General Conferences.

more at link
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Angry Dragon

(36,693 posts)
1. the last paragraph is the best
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 12:22 PM
Aug 2012

It’s a model that leads women to that close, familiar space of being told that we are incredible and all-powerful and that—just between you and me—it’s us who really makes everything run, but that what we really need is one truly outstanding and hardworking man to make everything better.

cbayer

(146,218 posts)
2. Agree. I thought it was a good article overall.
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 12:27 PM
Aug 2012

I think she did a masterful job at performing the task given to her. I can see how she would appeal to Republican women and particularly to those who have been pushed away recently by the men.

She made the case for her husband as an alpha male who has made all her dreams come true and is incapable of failure.

And he makes her laugh!

patrice

(47,992 posts)
4. Yes!! What women will deny what a good relationship with a good man is about, BUT the problem is
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 01:10 PM
Aug 2012

that that requires, it NEEDS, proactively balanced tension between the two sexes, not acquiesance from either one, for _____________ (whatever payoff). That proactive tension, that "offense" is NOT, as Brooks implies, a "... close, familiar space of being told that we are incredible and all-powerful ...." for either of the sexes, because those who engage that tension do so knowing that the consequence of that "close, familiar space" is infantilization, i.e. the very thing that is driving both sexes away from, instead of toward, one another.

So much is lost to the fact that so many are running away from, lying about, and even demonizing that dynamic tension in relationships, rather than constructively engaging it and accepting the consequences of that loving struggle, even if it means ending the relationship, or continuing it, as is my perception of this situation now, never engaging anyone ever, intentionally or otherwise, always running from the challenge of developing the best of what one's self AND the other has to offer, for its own sake, NOT as the coin-of-the-realm for that mutually guaranteed "close and familiar place of being told that (s/he is) incredible and all-powerful."

We used to talk very seriously about stuff like this back in the '60s-early'70s and then it got lost.

You're right about that last paragraph, a lot of latent substance there.

..........................

I hope you'll pardon the riff; I was just reading about Clint Eastwood. He seems an icon of a specific type of failure to me, though I doubt that he is such to himself.

 

railsback

(1,881 posts)
3. That's all fine and dandy
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 12:56 PM
Aug 2012

but Ann Romney wipes her ass with the Mormon Bible (a.k.a Jesus' Excellent Adventures In America).

pinto

(106,886 posts)
6. I read it as a mixed bag of support and some implied criticism, both centered on the role of Mormon
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 05:05 PM
Aug 2012

women in the general public and religious settings. Or am I missing something? Was it all tongue in cheek?

In any event, I found this line enlightening -

"I nodded when she explained to the audience why Mitt Romney doesn’t talk more about his faith, focusing not on the fine points of what Mormons believe, but on the best of what Mormons do: the acts of service performed for one another."

Acts of service performed by Mormons are limited to other Mormons?

cbayer

(146,218 posts)
7. The author is very interesting.
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 05:13 PM
Aug 2012

She is decidedly Mormon but has been highly critical of the political positions the church has made. I haven't read her book, but I have heard her on radio talk shows, including just this morning.

I think what you are picking up is her own ambivalence. She wanted Ann Romney to succeed as representative of strong Mormon women, but wanted her to fail as a representative of Republicans.

In the end, she sees her as the typical politicians wife, telling women that we are really in charge (wink, wink) but are not complete without that strong man that we stand behind.

pinto

(106,886 posts)
8. Yeah, makes sense. Kind of my take as well. She writes well, and I appreciate
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 05:23 PM
Aug 2012

someone who helps me get out of the proverbial box to take another look at something. Good point about the "typical politicians wife".

cbayer

(146,218 posts)
9. Her book is probably a good read, based on what I have read by her and
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 05:29 PM
Aug 2012

her appearances on talk shows.

She is one of us, politically, and works from within the church.

This has to be a very difficult for time for Mormons, particularly those that don't support Romney. Even here on DU, the overall ridicule of Mormons is pretty stunning.

pinto

(106,886 posts)
10. Worked with a devout Mormon RN in my job as administrative support for our Hospice team.
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 06:03 PM
Aug 2012

She was a very good, skilled RN. And worked equally well with elderly cancer patients as well as young, often gay, AIDS patients. Still, I could see she was conflicted at times and had to make some choices. She usually chose a professional approach from what I could see.

It actually came up in our team meeting once and she was up front, which I admired. Was clear about her Mormonism and as clear about her RN role. I assumed it was discussed as well in the interview process with the RN supervisor, who was relentless in highlighting the "meet them where they are at" standard.

dimbear

(6,271 posts)
11. Mormon women believe that at the resurrection, their husbands wake first and then wake them
Wed Aug 29, 2012, 06:27 PM
Aug 2012

if they're lucky.

I'm sure she mentioned that.

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