this is really just a wild guess on my part, and maybe one of you with a better knowledge of church history can fill in the gaps for me here but here's one hypothesis:

In the early days of the church, didn't women greatly outnumber men in the highest leadership circles? Is it possible we paint them too quickly as submissive and weak? I would think to the contrary, these are women who usually overcame quite a bit to make it to SLC.

In the last 30 years, how many general authorities have you heard of getting divorced? I can't think of one and I was pretty active in the church for over a decade. Is it possible the GAs are really just puppets for their wives? Isn't it at all strange for a group of men to be constantly so worried about lust and masturbation, perfectly harmless by themselves, imo, but can severely inflame the jealousy of an insecure woman?

Peppermints in the parlor, anyone?

isn't it also strange that they are worried about young men living the 'homosexual lifestyle'? I can't speak for women, but as a guy it would worry me if I thought all the women in the world were turning gay (probably just the ones I go out with)

Of course I know people don't turn gay (except Brittney spears for like 10 minutes) but most mormons I know are pretty convinced that its a 'lifestyle choice'

For many years I have believed most "successful" households (and especially LDS ones) run like this: the man is ALLOWED to think he's in charge, while it's fairly obvious by observation that the wife is really the boss. Almost like a strange kind of game.

I'm man enough to know I ain't in charge of nuthin'!

i knew i couldn't be the only person seeing this. i had this 'revelation' while watching the first season of breaking bad. skylar is beautiful but she is up his arse all the time

...that made jokes to this effect, implying that the husband was outvoted by his wives.

I doubt that was normally the case back then, but I'm sure it happened in certain households.

In a word, no.

The "power behind the throne conspiracy-theory" meme is a way of dismissing female dis-empowerment without taking it seriously. If we take Mormon doctrine and culture seriously, it in NO WAY reflects matriarchal leadership.

Being susceptible to a wife's influence, in some respects, doesn't mean that the wife is really in charge. My mother may be an important contributor to my father's reasoning process, but he's the head of the house and she is under his 'righteous' dominion. I seriously doubt the wives of the general authorities are involved in church business beyond being wives, mothers, grandmothers and soft-spoken inspirations to Mormon women everywhere.

And they have the Sisterhood's permission to call it that...

Okay, seriously, what's with all the black-and-white questions? I keep making big speeches about this stuff (and sometimes resorting to mean jokes), and yet it persists...

Time for some grown-ups to speak about the complexities; it's a goshdarn "dysfunctional dance" that doesn't lend itself to easy analysis, and probably a good chunk of what everyone is saying has large elements of truth in it...

First, a matriarchy couldn't sustain itself with invisible members like wives.

New GAs are picked by watching what the men do, who stands out, how they perform and what appearance they have.

They are carefully groomed and promoted so that no lemons make it to the top. VERY carefully groomed and promoted.

Their wives are watched, but not in the same way. They don't get that many opportunities to show or hone their skills or screw up.

Second, women love power. It they really had it, they'd have made themselves known by now. Power is what it is all about in LDS Inc, and you have to use it to strengthen it. Do you think that women are somehow doing that by making people stop multiple piercings and wearing flip flops?

They'd have changed a few rules to allow women to pass the sacrament, give blessings, etc. At the least.

I don't know about early church and women power, but I got the impression women were more active then. Didn't women give blessings and do "healings"? I remember reading about one early woman, possibly Eliza Snow, who prophecized that a little boy would become President and it turned out to be true. Sorry I don't remember the names on this; it just doesn't matter to me anymore.