Date of Award

Spring 4-25-2025

Document Type

Honors Project

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Classics, Philosophy, and Religion

Department Chair or Program Director

Mentore, Laura

First Advisor

Mathews, Mary Beth

Major or Concentration

Religion

Abstract

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) places high expectations on mothers because their role in the church is to rear children into godly adults. When their lives are made public through social media, Mormon mothers online avoid religious expectations by withholding information about their Mormon faith and scarcely showing their husbands on-camera. Mormon husbands are expected to be the providers for the family, but as demonstrated through mothers’ vlogs on Instagram, husbands’ erasure allows for mothers to market their expertise to others as a paid product to earn their own revenue. Through descriptive coding, this study categorizes the roles of husbands, children, and online marketing in the vlog content of ten Mormon mothers on Instagram. The coding process incorporated the 10 most recent videos on each Instagram account as of March 21, 2025, totaling at 100 posts coded. In only 9% of the videos, husbands were present and cared for, while in 33% of the videos, children were present and cared for. In place of the absences of family, 53% of the videos contain advertisement, the operational definition of which includes partnerships, sponsorships, affiliate links, or self-promotion. Looking to their accounts as a whole, all 10 Mormon mothers earn commission on products, sell their own products, or both. Finally, only 2% of the videos mentioned their religious beliefs. Mormon mother influencers omit their husbands and religion where possible to monetize themselves independently of their family members, become marketable to a broader audience, and subvert expectations of the LDS Church.

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