ABSTRACT

Building on the feminist foundations of scholarship on women, this chapter features a queer analytic and attention to men and masculinity. The designation “gender studies” refers to this expanded vision of a whole range of perspectives on sexual differences. While scholars of religion and of Mormonism have long seen the importance of gender as a lens on their traditions, it has not necessarily been a reciprocal relationship from women’s and gender studies departments. Scholarship on Mormonism and gender in the past five decades has centered primarily on history, theology, and sociological approaches. A further development in gender studies has been the inclusion of sexuality and the inclusion of men and masculinity. Today, gender studies often takes an intersectional approach to gender, seeing it as situated within broader structures like race, nationality, class, and sexuality. Historical approaches to gender have not only been an important methodology in Mormon history, but to the field of gender studies itself.