I grew up mormon. It is very hard to explain the odd
vibes I always got from the
women in my
religion growing up. There is a lot of residual
Chauvinism in the
church (we men have the
priesthood, the
women do not). The counter force of that
priesthood is the
Relief Society, a
society consisting of every
LDS (
mormon)
woman of an adult age. The
society is
dedicated to uplifting and bettering the
women and keeping the
men from walking all over them. This is usually not a
problem, but
shit happens.
The version of the
Relief Society for teenagers is the
Young Woman's program. They strive to keep us (at the time)
Young Men from getting them pregnant and to teach them "womanly" skills (e.g.
homemaking,
crafts, etc).
Being in a
leadership position in the Young Men's program, I had a frequent opportunity to disagree with the Young Women. Often times it came down to a hit and punch, read
in between the lines, political
boxing match between myself and the
women advising the
Young Women. I really didn't care to
oppress or
belittle them. Quite the contrary. I simply found the amount of egg shells I had to walk on to avoid "looking like I might be putting SOMETHING in place to eventually
undermine their
authority" appalling. The whole
charade got old rather quickly, hence the politics. I've noticed this several times outside the
mormon religion, but generally concentrated around
feminist movements. Again, not that I have anything against
feminism, just when it attacks me.
These two groups are well meaning, but one can get burnt if said person sees their bad side. Hell hath no fury like an angry woman (
William Congreve). And they are ALWAYS right when their leaders are gathered together.