Because I never get tired of it....

[lady_kishiria]

http://www.reclusiveleftist.com/?p=324

The blogger asks the question on everybody's mind, "Why do these crazy women want to take over the country just because they want to be [BDSM] bottoms?"

And I still think their men should run screaming. How many jobs do they need to take on to pay for as many babies as will drop out of their wives' worn-out panochas? And you know those panochas are the only ones they're gonna get because they're too strapped to hire prostitutes.

Plus, as I said to electorprince, since exercise is unfeminine, and hard to do in layers and layers of fabric, what kind of beauty must one of these women have after kid #4? If you recall my whole "lotus birth" kick a while back, there was a photo essay about it. The Prairie Muffin in that was a Mormon living the lifestyle. Take a look at her. That's what these guys have to look forward to.

About 7 years ago, there was a woman who started a small movement called the Surrendered Wife movement. It wasn't religious per se, but it was based on the idea of the wife being submissive to her husband in the name of peace in the home. There were two fundamental flaws with it.

1. It assumed there was no middle ground between being a doormat and being a shrew.

2. It was heavily based on deceit. The classic example of good surrendered behaviour was letting your husband take the wrong exit off the freeway even though you know it's wrong because you must not make him feel stupid by telling him so. Apparently it's better to keep silent and let him get lost and frustrated.

All of this is based on refusing to see middle ground. I make cracks about being dressed like a whore because according to the PM lifestyle I am, when I'm wearing knee-length shorts and a t-shirt because it's 90 degrees outside. In their demented minds, there is no middle ground between being a college girl walking around in her underwear (no kidding, I actually read that) and wearing one of their big denim Taliban-approved jumper dresses.

So, who do I think is a good Christian wife?

http://www.abcgallery.com/C/cranach/cranach44.html

This lovely lady is Katarina von Bora, wife of Martin Luther. Isn't she formidable? She'd have taken a whip to these PMs. Sure, she adored Martin and had a lot of kids, but at the same time, she was his business manager (she handled publication of all his books), ran a brewery, took care of the finances (she would hide money from him because otherwise he'd give it to the poor at times when they WERE the poor) and still found time to theologize with him when he was stuck on a problem.

Their courtship was funny too. She was a former nun, a noblewoman obviously, who was set to marry Martin's friend Phillip Melancthon. Still, she'd set her sights on Luther himself, and once she did that, get the hell out of the way. He didn't stand a chance.

Oy vey...I need a job, and not just for money. I am bored and my brain is on overdrive. I'm stopping now before I go into my rant against Womens' Studies programs and an essay on "Man As Head of Household As Dangerous Path to the Gnostic Heresy."

You may all de-friendlist me now. :P

Comments

[garpu.livejournal.com]

From what I understand of the BSDM types is that bottoms *do* retain some sort of control (the whole notion of a safe word, etc), and that the whole play structure is mutual (and only one for the bedroom). I think your average PM is pathologically afraid of even having that much control in a relationship, and is put in that power structure because of her warped upbringing and warped interpretation of Christianity. plus, I don't think your average PM knows anything other than missionary. And probably does it fully clothed.

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

As I've said before, I think these women know exactly what they're doing and have found a seemingly biblically-approved way of trapping a man and living on Easy Street. All those babies are excuses for being able to limit their responsibilities to just taking care of them.

I also notice none of these women seem to have teenagers, so reality REALLY has yet to bite them on the ass.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

That, or the teenagers moved the hell out, since they didn't want to be responsible for taking care of children to the exclusion of everything else. I can't imagine a teen being meek, submissive, and free baby help.

[kwokj.livejournal.com]

Love the mini lesson on Katerina von Bora :)

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

She totally rocked. Martin's pet name for her was Dr. Kate because of her learning.

[knightofravens.livejournal.com]

Okay, I kind of get what they're trying to achieve by adopting 'Prairie Muffins' as their nickname, but if they're so determined to try and change the meaning of a derogatory slang term by adopting it as their own... why, of all the available slang, did they pick horse manure?

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

My comment to that has always been, "Because they are proud to be treated like shit."

[thren0dy.livejournal.com]

That first bit made me ill.

I can't understand that mindset, unless it's just that they are so mind-bogglingly lazy they can't even be bothered to make simple decisions for themselves, and would rather leave the herculean effort of thinking to the menfolk.

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

That's my conclusion. Raising an enormous passel of children while constantly pregnant is a lot harder than watching TV all day, but they seem to prefer that to having any sort of adult, real-world responsibility. Why else would they object to the Little House books, except that it reveals the truth that in the "perfect world" they envision, women were in fact running households and doing "men's work" because if they didn't, everyone in the family would DIE come winter? It's a demented sort of laziness, but it's laziness.

[shadowcell.livejournal.com]

Heeeeeey, wait a second...enormous passel of children...hmm...

Okay, so Mrs Prairie Baked Good gets the joy of raising X amount of children that God foists upo--I mean blesses her with. Okay. But Mr Prairie Canine has to provide for them. And of course, Mrs Prairie Muffin Smith will want to be just as if not more blessed by God than Mrs Prairie Muffin Jones next door, so Mr Prairie Dawg Smith is going to have to do some serious babymakin' to keep up. But don't get too comfy, Mr Smith, because guess what you have to do for the next thirty or forty years? That's right, you've got to work to provide Mrs Smith and her fifteen children all with the comfortable suburban lifestyle they demand. So what does this amount to? Mr Smith is the kinda guy who has a futon in his office, which he makes not infrequent use of.

So Mrs Prairie Muffin here gets all of the income and children and none of the husband.

It's all so clear now.

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

And another one understands.

[electorprince.livejournal.com]

Smacks a little of samurai culture taken to a hideous extreme, doesn't it?

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

I know about as much about samurai culture as you do about the Aztecs, so....

[shadowcell.livejournal.com]

The classic example of good surrendered behaviour was letting your husband take the wrong exit off the freeway even though you know it's wrong because you must not make him feel stupid by telling him so. Apparently it's better to keep silent and let him get lost and frustrated.

I'm fairly confident that I would be angrier at her for not telling me that I was taking the wrong exit than I would for Forgetting Her Place And Daring To Correct Big Manly Me.

I mean, getting lost doesn't prove your manhood. It just gets you lost.

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

Steve told me in no uncertain terms that if I pulled that stunt on him, I'd get five across the eyes. Since I'd never pull said stunt, I didn't take that as threatening, no.

[shadowcell.livejournal.com]

So I guess this makes you a, uh, Prairie Biscuit? Or a Prairie Saltine? Something that isn't as soft and pliable as a muffin.

[electorprince.livejournal.com]

Prairie hardtack?

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

Given that I respect my spouse but do not submit, I'm not a prairie anything.

However, as I've been feeling more and more like a crunchy con, biscuits and hardtack are apt metaphors. I mean, how can I not identify with the crunchy conservative movement, seeing as I'm in the military and snarl constantly about violations of the Constitution while wearing my clunky black sandals and picking the organic produce I'm growing?

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

It assumed there was no middle ground between being a doormat and being a shrew.

This is what really irritates me. Even one of my mothers-in-law subscribes to this sort of thing (the one in Alabama) although her husband is so whipped, words do not describe.

Brian and I (and I imagine you and Steve as well) DISCUSS things. We talk about issues or problems, and come up with a solution together. It may not be perfect, but it's better than one person running the whole relationship.

I think at least the woman who wrote the Surrendered Wife deal was actually living that lifestyle - while folks like Colleen Hammond and Phyllis Schafly do not. They have important careers, travelling, lecturing, writing, and basicaly delivering a do as I say, not as I do message.

DV

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

And when we're at an impasse on something non-vital, we play rock-scissors-paper to make a decision. Works really well.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

We'd thumb wrestle. Until Steve pulled a "sneak attack" with his index finger. WTF? There's no sneak attacks in thumb wrestling. Never was in Chicago, unless it's some Boston variant.

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

Brian has suggested using some of the dice to make decisions.

I'm a personal fan of the rock-paper-scissors tactic however.

DV

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Actually, I want to read that essay....

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

In a nutshell, the essay would say this.

The thing that drove Gnosticism off the stage of orthodox Christianity and Judaism (I mean orthodox small "o", as in the opposite of heterodox) was the use of dualism. At its most basic, this dualism came down to material = bad, spiritual = good. Since in Judaism life and the body are to be celebrated, this naturally didn't go over well. Western Christianity still suffers under some bad Gnostic influence, but Eastern Christianity is much more optimistic about the material.

Another set of dichotomies the Gnostics loved was Material = female = bad while Spiritual = male = good.

Positioning a husband in the role of Christ with the female in the role of the Church continues this dichotomy. Male = close to God while Female = the nasty old body. This brings in basic Gnostic thought, and Gnostic thought is heresy, so the idea of Husband as Christ the Head must be stomped out in order to protect orthodox theology. :P

[patgund.livejournal.com]

*gak* I SO fail to understand women who WANT to be like that.

Maybe that's my problem, I want a partner, not a freaking doormat