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This study analyzed the portrayal of Mormon women in the reality TV show, SLOMW, from September 2024 to March 2026. This timeframe captures season one to season four of SLOMW (2024). Through this study, I wanted to find if SLOMW’s cast’s representation of Mormon women aligns with Mormon values.

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I watched the first and last episodes of every season, excluding the reunion episodes for season two and three as they are technically the last episode of the season. I chose to exclude them from this study because they are focused on recapping the drama from the season.  While I watched the show I took notes on plot lines, direct quotes that relate to the cast members' relationship with religion or relationships with family or friends. From my notes I found three overarching themes: false female empowerment, challenging traditional gender roles, and moral policing. Looking at cast members through these themes allowed this study to find how these themes portray Mormon women.

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False female empowerment in this study means that the females wanting to empower other females don't exhibit those traits in their lives. This leads to a disconnect between what the cast wants to accomplish v.s. what they’re portraying throughout the show. Challenging traditional gender roles stems from the cast's claim that they want to challenge the patriarchy within the church through posting about their experiences online and through the show. Within the show they discuss this theme throughout, particularly the aspect that they are the breadwinners in their family. In the church, men hold more power than women (Jenkins et al., 2024). According to Dauper, “In Mormon culture the church puts men on this pedestal where you promise to obey your husband and he is the leader of your household and your family” (Jenkins et al., 2024, 20:43). Moral policing refers to the cast publicly judging and shaming each other based on their actions. According to Lawlor et al. (2025) when shame is “chronic, excessive or weaponised, shame shifts from regulation to harm” (para. 3). Due to how shame is an emotion and difficult to indicate when someone feels shame, this study will be subjective with regards to whether a cast member felt ashamed by another. Moral policing also refers to the double standards the cast has depending on who’s the villain at that moment.

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