Wednesday, November 16, 2016

"When you teach your daughter, explicitly or by passive rejection, that she must ignore her outrage, that she must be kind and accepting to the point of not defending herself or other people, that she must not rock the boat for any reason, you are not strengthening her pro-social sense; you are damaging it—and the first person she will stop protecting is herself."
Martha Stout

Henri Cartier Bresson



In the FLDS, they called it "keeping sweet".

In Christian fundamentalism, it was "keeping a quiet, submissive spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight".

There's nothing wrong with being kind. Or being quiet. Or being submissive. Or being sweet. Sometimes. Men too, not *just* women.

There is something wrong with using virtue as a tool to keep women in their place. There's something wrong with socializing girls to be passive, to doubt their inner voice, to be uncomfortable wielding their own personal power, to be apologetic for taking up space on their planet, for occupying their real estate.

There is something wrong with the way that down through the generations, and *especially* in Christian fundamentalism, we send our girls the message that they need to stay under the radar, heads under the parapet, and not paint targets on themselves, by being all they really are, and by being vocal, assertive, activist and loud. Because deep in our DNA, we know what happened to women who attract notice, who stand out, who speak up, who lead the way, who make revolution, who won't be silenced, who stand strong, who engage with their inner wisdom and who employ the gifts God has bestowed on them.

3 comments:

  1. Yep, I totally agree. I love this quote you have posted. Powerful indeed.

    What's FLDS? (I'm an Aussie; is it an American term?)

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  2. HI Bev, FLDS is Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (fundamentalist Mormonism). Carolyn Jessop wrote a book called "Escape" describing how she and 7 children exited the cult. So many of the religious dynamics she describes in her book are familiar to those from other stripes of fundamentalism. Including this notion that women should be so submissive, they have no barriers, boundaries or defense mechanisms at all, and become very vulnerable to exploitation.

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