![]() ![]() Photo by Jonathan Hayward, Canadian Press Winston Blackmore with six of his daughters near Creston, April 2018. But the subtitle - “What I Learned about Feminism from My Polygamist Grandmothers” - is misleading and the content of the book did not convince this reader that the grandmothers, however admirable, were feminists. This is not a woman to accept a life of serial marriage, multiple children and limited access to travel and choices. Her hair is cut stylishly and she looks attractive but determined. Mary Jayne Blackmore is pictured wearing tight jeans and a denim jacket as she hunkers down with a rural scene in the background. The photo on the cover reveals much of the second half of the story. Her love for her parents and the memory of her idyllic childhood hold her to the colony even as she divorces, travels the world and becomes the principal of the colony high school. But the content is rich and carries the reader easily through the book as Mary Jayne marries, bears two children, and acquires a post-secondary education. Words like the Saints and the Great Destruction grated on this reader and stylistically the text is overburdened with adjectives and adverbs. The turn of the new millennium passed without incident. But like all apocalyptic predictions throughout history, the LDS world did not end on schedule. The leader of the LDS sect is referred to only as the “Prophet” and LDS members as the “Saints.” The entire sect awaited the “Great Destruction” as if it would happen soon, and when it did, only the Saints would be saved. Throughout the book certain words are used that indicate the difference between the polygamist community and society in general. And when it came time for marriage placement, both boys and girls had to marry the person who had been chosen for them, but the boys would go on to marry additional wives while the girls would not. This meant that the boys had to return home to sleep too when the only teenager old enough to have a driver’s licence was a girl. For example, teenagers of both genders were allowed or even required to earn money at jobs at work camps off site, but the girls had to return to Bountiful every night to sleep. Many of the rules were designed to ensure that the girls’ reputations were protected. Their ever-lengthening single braids made them instantly recognizable as residents of Bountiful when they went to Creston to shop.Īs Mary Jayne became a teenager, there were other examples of the difference between the way boys and girls were treated in Bountiful before they reached the age of “marriage placement”. Even though the boys were allowed to cut their hair the girls were not. Children of both genders had to cover their legs which was easy for the boys but required the girls to wear long underwear which showed below their skirts. Even when swimming, when both genders had to be modestly clothed, the girls were required to wear long, loose dresses while the boys swam in their jeans and shirts albeit buttoned to the throat. ![]() Photo courtesy Kimberley Bulletinīut boys and girls were treated differently. Winston Blackmore, former bishop of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In the children’s eyes the lifestyle was ideal cosy adjectives abound in the text: the beds were always warm the biscuits always buttery. The plentiful food was home-grown and home-cooked by their mothers. They milked cows and pulled weeds, swam in the river and rode horseback. It contains a detailed description of an idyllic childhood where Mary Jayne and her ever-growing circle of siblings, half-siblings and second cousins worked and played hard. The first half of the book reads like an apologia for him and the polygamist colony. I knew from news sources that Bountiful was a Mormon or LDS (The Church of Latter Day Saints) community in the East Kootenays near Creston that practiced polygamy, and that Winston Blackmore, the spiritual leader of Bountiful, had acquired twenty-seven wives serially and sired one hundred fifty children.Īuthor Mary Jayne Blackmore was the fifth child born to Winston Blackmore. And so my motivation for choosing to read Balancing Bountiful by Mary Jayne Blackmore was entirely out of curiosity. People who live in British Columbia have become familiar with the names Blackmore and Bountiful over the past three decades. Balancing Bountiful: What I Learned about Feminism from my Polygamist Grandmothers ![]()
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