I'm Yours
Thank you, Angie. <3 Today's song: "I'm Yours", by Jason Mraz. It's just a fun, sunny song, I find it appropriate for summer. I have a feeling the entry today will be, as Monty says, a "wall o' text"; I've got a lot to talk about that just happened to converge in my head today.
"Cassandra doesn't like the word 'submit'!" teases Meredith, my friend and Sunday school instructor. And she's right; I don't. We've been studying current issues for the past couple of months or so, and the last few weeks have been marriage. Sure, I want to get married at some point. Straightforward, right? Apparently not. Anyway, this week the issue of 'wives, submit to your husbands' cropped up in discussion. I got asked what this meant. I was silent for a while, chewing it over in my head, every part of me not liking what I was hearing. At all. Finally, all I can say is, "I don't like the word submit." Seriously, though, who does? The connotations are so negative. Aren't they? Of course, it might be the budding feminist in me protesting loudly, but, aren't they?
Let's get some help from our friends over at Merriam-Webster.com, shall we?
submit
transitive verb
1 a: to yield to governance or authority b: to subject to a condition, treatment, or operation
2: to present or propose to another for review, consideration, or decision
3: to put forward as an opinion or contention
intransitive verb
1 a: to yield oneself to the authority or will of another : surrender b: to permit oneself to be subjected to something
2: to defer to or consent to abide by the opinion or authority of another
I want to call attention to the last section. "To yield oneself"? "To permit oneself to be subjected to something"? "To abide by the opinion of another"?
I don't think so.
Who cares if I am married to him? He has no right to ask this of me. Of course, I would defer to him on some things, as he should defer to me on others. I don't think there should be a dominant partner. It's degrading, both to him and to me. As "Corpse Bride" puts it (god, I love that movie): "Marriage is a partnership, a little tit for tat."
So there. Frak submit. I'm my own person, and so is he, whoever he might happen to be. And just because we are individuals with our own views and preferences and ideas doesn't mean we need to morph into one robot-crazy once we get married. Creepy.
There was something else I wanted to talk about, too, it's been bugging me for a few months now, but I don't really feel exactly comfortable being frank about it, and I'm a little too distracted now to think about how to word it ambiguously, so I think I'll let you go. I'll save the other half of the wall of text for next time.
Oh! I almost forgot: pictures from yesterday here. Also? I get to meet one of my online buddies, Alicia, tomorrow for lunch! Yay! I'm excited. I might have pictures, we shall see. ^_^
Enjoy your day, dear reader. <3
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7 Comments:
Sure thing. ;)
I'll have to listen to that song later, I've got a "reflective paper" to write by tomorrow and rehearsal tonight... >.> (*is trying not to ask the question, "so why am I here...?"*)
lol! That's like after Juno I hate the words "intercourse" and "active" and so on.... xD
I don't think you need to worry about all that, though, dearie. Anyone that you love and who loves you, someone who you're with for a very long time, if not marry, wouldn't dare make you a submitting 50's wife. (I need to find you that list on how to be a good wife that was made in the 50s...so ridiculous...) And if they try, they have to deal with me, Jessie, Emily, Ems, Christina...Bethany...
But yeah. In most relationships (the ones on shows like Wife Swap at least...lol), a submitting wife thinks they're happy and meant to do so for their husband. You'd be neither. Which significantly helps the situation. ;D
*dreamy fangirl eyes* CORPSE BRIDE!! -^^- aah, such a cute movie...
Woo, more walls of text to come!!
ooh, have fun with that!
Luv!
What about this verse?
Ephesians 5:21
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Submission is supposed to be mutual among brothers and sisters in Christ. I include husbands and wives in that.
^ Actually, that verse came up in study on Sunday. My teacher Meredith ran with our discussion and had wrote up a bunch of things she wanted to talk about. We're still on the topic, believe it or not. We looked at the Greek roots and all of that, it got to be pretty intense. I'm a little more neutral about it, just highly iffy on that word, submit; of course it would make sense to submit to the higher power, God, and now I realize the word implies mutual. I believe my real problem now is in 1st Peter 3, where it instructs men to deal understandingly with wives, "as someone weaker". I can't help but see the obvious male bias here--women aren't weak.
Well, we'll see how things get with the study. Thanks for your comments. =D
Hm. My thought on that - totally off the top of my head, no research behind it - is that the 1 Peter 3 verse sounds to me like a pretty radical statement for recognizing equality in Christ (think Galations 3:28). Maybe the important thing is that Paul acknowledges the fact that women were weaker in that society (not just physical, think societal power - they were had none; they were at the mercy of the patriarchy to a great degree, and I don't think Paul means weaker spiritually) but THEN goes on to instruct the men to treat them with respect and consideration anyways! Seriously, radical. He accords women value that their culture most definitely did not.
I get thought spazzes late at night. Forgive me if that doesn't make sense in the morning. ;)
Haha. Thought spazzes are awesome, so no worries. =)
Yes, that makes sense. I haven't really thought about it in the historical context before; we're always encouraged to apply it to the here and now, and I lose track of the historical a lot of the time. Again, thanks for your feedback, it's great to talk about this sort of thing with someone without them taking it as a personal affront to their beliefs.
My friends and I and sometimes a professor were having an ongoing conversation on issues of gender roles and the Bible for most of last semester, so there's a dedicated hermeneutics "on" switch for that stuff in my brain now...I couldn't really NOT touch the subject, haha.
It sounds fascinating! I'm glad I was able to trigger that switch, heheh.
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