Unknown: Paisley.
Paisley: Hey, welcome back, everybody. Paisley. I Perfect
here again today, and today we're going to talk about
something that can get a little heated. My goal is to approach
it with logic and understanding. But if you feel that I
misrepresent something, please let me know it is never my
intention to make anyone feel excluded or unwanted, and I'm
going to introduce it with a quote from elder D Todd
Christofferson. He said, an area of concern comes from those who,
in the name of equality, want to erase all differences between
the masculine and the feminine. Often this takes the form of
pushing women to adopt more masculine traits, be more
aggressive, tough and confrontational. It is now
common in movies and video games to see women in terribly violent
roles, leaving dead bodies and mayhem in their wake. It is soul
numbing to see men in such roles, and certainly no less so
when women are the ones perpetrating and suffering the
violence as women, I fear that we have done ourselves a bit of
a disservice. We are equal to men. We always have been but
equal does not mean the same. Before you freak out, please
understand we have not always been equal in the eyes of the
law. We have not always been equal in the eyes of men, and we
have not always been equal in our own eyes. I need to be very
clear in stating that that is not what I mean. What I do mean
is that as women, our roles are different and distinct from the
roles of men. They are not less, they are not more, they are
equal and different. Both sets of roles are needed and
necessary for our society to properly function, and because
of that need for both of those roles to be to exist and to be
working together, because of that need, that need is what
makes those roles equal. Still does not make them the same. It
just makes them equal. And before somebody decides to tell
me that this is a purely Mormon view. Here are a few more quotes
from people who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ,
of Latter Day, saints that support what Christopherson is
saying. Don't worry, I'll link. I'll link out to him in the in
the show description too, so you'll be able to learn more if
you want to. The first one comes from Pope John Paul the second
in 1988 he said, the personal resources of femininity are
certainly no less than the resources of masculinity. They
are merely different. Hence, a woman as well as a man, must
understand her fulfillment as a person, her dignity and vocation
on the basis of this principle. He also said women's
contribution is uniquely valuable, and the equal dignity
of men and women is realized in their unique roles. I think that
supports what I said before, that our society needs both of
those roles as distinct and different, and that need is what
makes them equal. The second quote comes from, and I'm
probably going to butcher this name, I apologize someone named
chim Amanda Ngozi Adichie in a TED talk titled We Should All Be
Feminists, she said, I think the most honest answer is that women
and men are different, and we should embrace those
differences, instead of trying to erase them. Embrace versus
erase and one more. This one comes from a guy named Jordan
Peterson. He's a clinical psychologist and professor, and
he said men and women are more alike than they are different,
but the differences are significant. They're
complementary, not competitive. So we have been given these
roles and responsibilities and the capabilities to fulfill
them, and we were given the roles, responsibilities and
capabilities before we came to this planet. It's part of the
plan. It's part of our Heavenly Father's plan. For us, we don't
have to be the same to be equal. So the quote that I shared at
the beginning from Elder Christofferson came from a talk
that he gave back in 2013 titled The moral force of women. And
while I know that we already have a huge list of things that
we're trying to work on, from presidents Kimball and Nelson
elder. Christofferson shares a quote from a former general,
young women's President Margaret, Dean adald, and she
adds a few more that I'm going to put on our list. She said the
world has enough. Enough women who are tough, we need women who
are tender. Notice. She didn't say strong, she said tough. The
world has enough women who are tough. We need women who are
tender. The world has enough women who are coarse. We need
women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude. We
need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and
fortune. We need more women of faith. We have enough greed, we
need more goodness. We have enough vanity, we need more
virtue. We have enough popularity, we need more purity.
And then Elder Christofferson adds to the end of that quote,
he says, In blurring feminine and masculine differences, we
lose the distinct, complementary gifts of women and men that
together produce a greater whole. I've been told that I
tend to oversimplify my i My analogies, but I'm going to
share one anyway. I love food. I love lots of different kinds of
food. I love Mexican food, Chinese food, Italian food. I
love Filipino food, Southern barbecue, fish and chips. I'm
not really a fan of Mediterranean. It doesn't really
like me either. But other than that, I generally just love
food. What would happen if we took all of those different and
distinct kinds of food and tried to make them all equal in the
world's definition of equal meaning the same? What would
happen if we told the Mexicans that they couldn't use cumin or
cilantro in their cooking anymore. What if we told the
Italians no more basil, no more thyme, no more oregano. What if
we said everybody can only have white rice, no butter, no soy
sauce, no salt, just plain old white rice, no brown rice, no
frying it. You have to cook it all the same way. You can only
eat vegetables on the side and only the ones that are currently
in season for your area. That's not even the same. We can't make
bread anymore because it would be different in different
regions throughout the world and different based on your economic
status. So we can't have bread, we can only have rice and
vegetables. That's not what equal means. That's what the
same means. But we're not the same. We are not meant to be the
same. We are different. We are meant to be different. But
that's what we're trying to do, and getting the women and
getting the roles of women and men to be exactly the same.
Instead of embracing our differences and being able to go
have Mexican food for lunch and Italian food for dinner, we are
trying to make them all the same. I mean, as a society, I
think that we are finally starting to learn, finally
starting to learn how to embrace different kinds of cultures.
There are traditions, there are different kinds of food, there
are different ways of doing things. We are finally starting
to learn how to do that. I mean, how do you think I've tasted so
many different kinds of food, right? But if we can't learn to
embrace them and start trying to make them all the same, we will
end up with a very bland menu. And like I said, I know
oversimplified. There are so many complications in that right
we would have to in order for men's roles distinct and
different from women's roles distinct and different, in order
for them to be held to the same standard, to be seen as equal,
we would have to erase things like selfishness, pride,
arrogance, dishonesty, laziness, intolerance, unreliability,
rudeness, vanity, popularity, some of those things are
starting to sound a little familiar, but as A closing
reminder, here's how we can do it, going back to that quote
from nadald, be women who are tender, kind, refined and good,
have faith virtue and purity, while strongly defending and
protecting children and families. We can do that. And if
you ask me, that is the true definite definition of
femininity. Thank you for being here with me again today. Keep
learning, keep growing, and be strong and of good cheer until
next time you.