Salt Lake City, UT—The Church has issued proofreading tools
for those Young Women leaders who might be working on lessons dealing with sexual purity. The tools are meant to help such leaders review key concepts
and perhaps pinpoint lesson planning errors.
Male/Female P: This proofreading mark designates parts of a lesson where a leader might erroneously assume that
pornography is only a male problem. The male and female symbols in the letter
“p” remind a leader that young women can be just as curious and turned on as
boys are by sexually explicit material. Leaders who believe that pornography is
exclusively a male problem risk making young women who struggle with this issue
feel additional isolation and shame.
Shackle?: This proofreading mark reminds those preparing a
lesson that not all sexual struggles are addictions. This mark is especially
useful for those who might conflate occasion pornography use with habitual
pornography dependence.
The T and Warning:Fear: These two symbols work well together
when proofreading a sexual purity lessons. The scroll with a letter “T” is to
remind instructors to use the truth as clearly and fully as possible. Telling
that truth can mean being honest about struggles as well as success without
being sensationalistic. It can mean affirming how powerful, pleasurable, and
bonding physical affection can be as well as discussing some of the heartache
that it can bring. The warning triangle with “fear” in it is to warn
against using fear as a way to emotionally threaten or otherwise coerce young
women to live the law of chastity.
A most obvious example of using fear in just such a way is the case of a woman from Cedar City, Utah who made cross stitches for all of her young women that said “if you have sex before marriage you’ll get syphilis and die.” The T and the Warning: Fear tools would have been ideal in the planning stages of this erroneous sexual purity message. In addition, these proofreading tools alert lesson planners to where they may feel tempted to use fear or manipulation—the devil’s tools—to do the Lord’s work.
A most obvious example of using fear in just such a way is the case of a woman from Cedar City, Utah who made cross stitches for all of her young women that said “if you have sex before marriage you’ll get syphilis and die.” The T and the Warning: Fear tools would have been ideal in the planning stages of this erroneous sexual purity message. In addition, these proofreading tools alert lesson planners to where they may feel tempted to use fear or manipulation—the devil’s tools—to do the Lord’s work.
Dynamite: This proofreading tool is used to point out where
teachers can insert messages that will make young women feel powerful. Many of
the symbols above show errors that could make women feel afraid or powerless
with relation to their bodies and the amazing things that their bodies can do.
This symbol shows areas where instructors can encourage young women to love and
feel deeply grateful for their bodies and what those bodies can do. It can also
point to places in the lesson where instructors can encourage young women to
consider how the power and pleasure that their bodies offer them can be used to
bless their lives. Women who take ownership for their bodies and love and appreciate their bodies can then consider how they can use their bodies to bless the lives of others. With those ideas in
mind, young women can set their own standards for how they will use such God-given blessings.
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