Interview With Judy Dushku at Religion Dispatches

Over at Religion Dispatches Joanna Brooks interviews Judy Dushku, a "Mormon feminist, global women’s rights activist, and professor at Suffolk University" who has known, and criticized, Mitt Romney.

It should be obvious to anyone who reads this blog regularly that I won't be voting for Romney in November. However, I highlight this interview because it's infuriating to me that a person with such problematic views about women can potentially hold so much power. For, a recurring theme that I noticed was the male-supremacist "men should lead, and women should be seen but not heard" interpretation of Mormonism. Of Romney, Dushku, a divorced woman with children, says:

"...[H]e was very invested in the grooming of young men, and the families most valued in the ward were cohesive and had successful strong husbands. I do know Mitt took his home teaching [an LDS program that assigns male members to visit families in the congregation monthly] very seriously and there were families who loved him because he would really go out of his way for them. But I was different, somehow. I was not 'weak' in terms of 'to be worried about in a pastoral way,' but different in that I had needs, but had some idea of ways I might be served. I felt that he wanted to tell me what I needed without my input. He did not want to hear what I said."

With respect to Mormon feminists who male bishops had excommunicated because of their political views, Dushku says that Romney stood by his men:

"Mitt said, 'With any bishop who excommunicates a woman, I will not question his reasoning. I will support the bishop'"

It's just more of the same ol', same ol' story of men creating their own special male-only affirmative action "leadership" programs where they don't have to compete with women as equals and then, by uncritically backing up other men so as not to undermine male privilege, they preserve male power and supremacy at the expense of girls and women.


Dushku also speaks of the press seeking "dirt" on Romney and being somewhat disappointed when Dushku didn't have any on him. By "dirt," the press apparently was after evidence of him being unfaithful to his wife.

After all, sexism and male supremacist views of powerful, especially religious, men is simply too unremarkable to be considered "dirt."