Welcome to Cult of Perfect!
This is a limited run podcast about the intersection of motherhood, public performance, and bodies.
We are Sara Petersen and Virginia Sole-Smith. You can read more about us here.
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Cult of Perfect Episode 4 Transcript
Sara
So this week we're talking about several different forms of perfect all rolled into one. We're going to be talking about the perfect woman as defined by evangelical Christianity. Of course, the perfect woman in this context is also the perfect cis het woman. She's the perfect mother.
Evangelicalism might feel like a random place to start when we're interrogating these feminine ideals, so I want to ask you, Virginia, what do you know about evangelicalism? Have you encountered anything in the media? In pop culture? And why do you think we're talking about it today?
Virginia
I was raised atheist, which means my exposure to evangelicalism as a kid was when I had a couple of friends whose families went to evangelical churches. When I came over for playdates, their parents tried to save my soul.
Sara
Oh, wow.
Virginia
I had this one experience when I was 11 years old and I went over to my friend's house. It was a really hot, sunny day and we were playing in her pool. Her dad, I can remember him floating on this pool raft, and talking to me for like an hour while I got the worst sunburn of my life because I was trapped by the pool, listening to him talk to me about how the rapture was going to come, and he and his daughter and his wife would all be floating up to heaven and I would be left to burn in hell. Again, I was 11 years old. So that was intense.
I did not have a follow up playdate at that friend's house. I think very fondly of her. I don't know what happened to her. But it was clear that my atheist, divorced parent household was a little too radical for them. We were lacking in perfect womanhood, let's put it that way. We were really lacking.
Looking back, I can see purity culture was also being emphasized very heavily. I think she did later wear purity ring—and that was a big part of what her dad lectured me about. Again, to me as an 11 year-old sitting in his pool. So my understanding of the perfect woman stuff is really rooted in the purity culture stuff.
So I had this one obviously not very positive experience. But I don't know a lot else about it beyond what I've consumed in pop culture, media, and discourse. There's a lot I’m here to learn today.
Sara
I should also say that I am by no means an expert in religious studies. I did not grow up Evangelical. I grew up in a middle of the road Protestant household. We went to church on Easter and Christmas Eve, that type of thing. But I did go through a period in my adolescence, where I was attracted to the certainty of religion. I joined a youth group on my own.
Virginia
Oh wow, interesting.
Sara
I kind of forget about this chapter in life sometimes. But yeah, I joined a youth group. I went through a period where I was trying to read the Bible cover to cover.
Virginia
Ambitious!
Sara
I'm unclear where the drive to do this was coming from, but I think it stemmed from fear and anxiety. I remember as a younger kid learning that prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. “
Virginia
That's just a dark thing to say to a kid.
Sara
Nobody taught me this prayer. I found it in a Victorian book or something, but I just remember being terrified.
Virginia
“Just in case I die overnight…”
Sara
Terrified. I think my little imagination was just like, I need to get on the good side, if there is such thing as a good side. I just wanted any type of certainty, especially as an adolescent.
But I became interested in patriarchal religions from a more cultural criticism standpoint when I randomly discovered a documentary on the FLDS, so that's the fundamentalist Mormon church. I was in college and I just couldn't believe that this was happening in our country. So I'm particularly interested in religions that have really clearly defined gender roles where control over bodies seems to be a really important tenet of the religion.
That's a long-winded way of saying that is how I came to find our guest’s book and became really interested in how evangelicalism as an ideology is impacting culture today.
What do you think of when you think of the phrase “ideal woman?”
Virginia
It's a lot of the stuff we've talked about. Perfect housewife, long hair, thin, white, many children. And that sort of joyous love of domestic life without any complicated emotions or difficult questions being asked.
Sara
I also think a lot of “duty,” like the embrace of duty. This is where I think you see evangelicalism creep in. It’s motherhood as a sacred calling. Creating a home as a sacred duty. This will become clearer once we hear from
, our guest for this episode. Once you learn more about how evangelicalism is weaving its way into all facets of life, you kind of can't unsee it.So Jeanna is going to provide more enlightenment on this, but I do want to give our listeners more of a context for Jeanna's work. To do that we're going to talk about Christian Girl Autumn.
