Stockholm Surgery

evil, quiverfull, stockholm, patriarchy, misogyny, feminism, christianity,
Ah, the Quiverfull movement. As so lovingly propagandized by TLC, it's nothing more than the choice to have lots of kids and be really super niceynicenice all the time.

And then there's the reality of the Quiverfull movement: it's a patriarchy, and like all good patriarchies, it's built on the backs of the very women it oppresses. If every one of the women in the Quiverfull movement woke up one day and said, "Fuck this, my uterus, I'm doing what I want with it", the movement would be dead. It isn't the men who give power to the movement. They're not pushing out baby after baby after baby, risking their lives every time. They're not raising those children, homeschooling them, sewing their clothes, cooking their food and cleaning up after them. It's the women who, day after day, give power to the very movement that denies them power, even power over their own bodies.

Genevieve de Deugd (nee Smith) was "given in marriage" (she didn't get married, she was given, like a toaster) to Peter. Apparently, not thinking independently is harder than I would have thought.

This break was a wonderful thing and has allowed me to concentrate fully on my wifely role. And it has been a necessity and a delight to be able to dedicate all my time and energy to this—my priority. Being a daughter in my father’s home and helping him was predominantly an intellectual and sedentary lifestyle. Being a wife in my husband’s home and helping him involves a lot of manual work and is a very active lifestyle. I’ve had a lot to learn. And on top of this, have gone through a very interesting process: the process of leaving behind my father’s vision and taking onboard my husband’s vision.

Before I was married, much of who I was, what I believed and understood was wrapped up in my father’s vision. Since marrying I’ve undergone a surgery of sorts to replace Dad’s vision with Pete’s.

My loyalties had to undergo a change. I was used to thinking that Dad knew best. Now I needed to learn to think that Pete knows best. I used to do things and invest my time in projects according to what I knew Dad would want me to do. Now I needed to be guided by what Pete wanted me to do. When faced with a problem or an option I couldn’t think, “What would Dad have done in this situation?” Now I had to think, “What would Pete do in this situation?” These were exciting times and difficult as during this state of flux—learning to replace one man’s vision with another—the devil would come around and say, “But what about what you want? What about what you think?”

Poor thing. She had to go from anticipating the thoughts and needs of one man to anticipating the thoughts and needs of a completely different man. Not only that, the devil was causing her to wonder what she'd think, given the opportunity.

The devil.

If a woman thinks her own thoughts, has her own ideas, her own desires, that's evil. Evil, you know, like Hitler.