I've always wondered that too. Is it the super-speshul-secret talks about masturbation that no one is supposed to hear? And why is it men can sit in on Women's Conference but it's frowned-upon for women to join the men in the PH session?
Why, of course, it's because men have the super-duper priesthood which means they can go to the RS conference, because they are the ones who are running things (because God likes them best). Women are inferior beings which is why they can't attend the priesthood session, and why the men have to run RS. Thank Eve.
It's so the men never have a weekend without a church meeting. The transcripts will be on the internet in a few days, usually by Thursday, and the next issue of the Ensign will have them, also, so there's no secrecy involved. It's just so the men don't have an entire weekend without a meeting, because they could get used to that.
as having appeal in the early days. She said smith was aware of the need for ppl at the time of a new cutting-edge, millenialist religious movement combined with a sense of tradition and conventional morals. The priesthood rang true since it embraced ancient authoritarianism and met the liberal demand by endowing every male with that power.
I think the current priesthood meetings are an extension of that, making each male feel empowered and elite. It was a bit more normal in smiths time but now we recognize it as sexist. Now the prophets are only preserving what worked in the first place, and TBM's let them get away with it because of that sense of presrving traditional morals. The lds obsession with gender always bothered me, even when I was in primary.
I attended the priesthood session for several years until leaving. I never really remember anything special happening. Once, I remember hearing ETB singing a rendition of "A Mormon Boy" and feeling embarassed about it.