Dominion Oriented Femininity, by the Botkinettes

[Columbia]

This is the last of the Botkinettes' speeches I have, and the shortest, about 30 minutes.

I’m not sure who introduces this speech. He says that A-S and E have been giving serious thought to how, even when they’re in a family, and under the jurisdiction of their father, they can be leaders in society and culture “not by lording it over men, and not by teaching men, but in the way 7that they carry themselves, and the way that they speak.” They redefine things that have been grossly perverted, like femininity.

I believe A-S starts the talk. She jumps right into it by stating that one of the themes throughout the conference is that we need to be prepared to face hard times, and that America is scheduled for judgement. We don’t know when that will be or what that will look like or how severe it will be. The men have been talking about this a lot, but the young ladies in the audience need to be concerned with it as well. War, judgement and the economy all sound like manly subjects, but they will affect women too because they live in the same world their fathers live in, and when they marry, they will live in the same world their husbands live in.

All these women live in the same world their husbands live in. I wonder if DaddyBot would tell other men that they live in the same world their wives live in.

One of the things that most concerns A-S about America’s future is that most women (but not all) don’t know how to be strong anymore. We aren’t ready to deal with hard times and hardships. A-S contrasts the strength and virtue of the pilgrim women and the women who settled the wild west with the women of today, and says that we don’t see that same moral stamina. We lost the sturdiness American women used to be known for. A-S says that the fact that we have an America is a testament to the selflessness of the American pilgrim women who cared more about people they’d never see. A-S refers to the monument at Plymouth that lauds the pilgrim women: “They brought up their families in sturdy virtue and a living faith in God, without which nations perish.” Alexis de Tocqueville was struck by the strength and character of American women and attributed to them the prosperity and strength of the country. A-S says that if she was asked to what the growing weakness of America now might be attributed she would answer to the selfishness and pettiness of its women. 21st century women are weak in all the ways previous women used to be strong. Today’s spoiled women, instead of sacrificing for others, sacrifice their own children in the womb as a testament to their own selfishness.

A-S says that most of the people in the room would like to say they’ve rejected feminism, but there are a lot of things we’ve inherited from that legacy. It’s hard to think 200 years ahead and think about living the way the pilgrim women lived, and make the sacrifices they did. We’re still confused about basic principles of family relations, gender roles, and the meaning of womanhood. God put us into a unique time in history, in a generation that has no concept how to be a woman (“I’ve never seen this in any other generation” says A-S.)

How many generations has this girl seen?

The word femininity means nothing anymore. When A-S and E were writing their book they kept using the word femininity, and eventually their mother asked them what it meant, and said she wasn’t sure if she liked it or it’s connotations. E and A-S weren’t really able to give her a definition of “femininity.” “Feminism has separated us from the historical legacy that we had and has left us desolate and confused.” Once upon a time a girl learned how to be a strong woman from her grandmothers and mother, but we don’t have that connection anymore. Feminism broke that legacy. A-S says that she feels like we’re living on an island because we don’t have any examples to look to. Our mothers didn’t have examples, mentors, and grandmothers and great-grandmothers they could look to.

A-S says this is a great opportunity because it will be up to us to rebuild a culture of strong, real womanhood on the foundations of sola scriptura. We can examine every picture and stereotype and disregard the bad and learn from the good. Since this culture doesn’t know what real woman hood is, the young ladies in the audience will be the models for the next generation to set the new standard. In this lecture A-S and E will examine 10 characteristics that will be needed to rebuild culture.
 

1. A dominion woman is a woman of God.
When talking about what kind of women we want to be, we have to realize that what we want doesn’t really matter.  When A-S and E began writing their book people started asking them what they wanted to do, and what they wanted to be. A-S knows that this is a loaded question; what it really means is what do you want to give your life for, and what causes will you stand for? The answer comes down to this: will we pursue what we want for our lives, or what God wants for our lives?
A-S quotes a saying from The Canterbury Tales: “What every woman wants most is to have her own way.” This statement captures the essence of feminism: a desire to be a law unto ourselves, usurp God’s authority, and determine what is right and wrong for ourselves.
A dominion oriented woman is submitted to God, and is oriented toward Him and His desires for her life. “Not my will be done, but Your will be done.” She knows His will because she searches the Scriptures for herself and doesn’t wait for another person to tell her how to live. The next 9 principles in this speech won’t work or make sense if you don’t fear God.

2. (E speaking) A dominion woman understands the differences between real femininity and false femininity.
There are a lot of theories of femininity that need to be examined Biblically, such as:
Femininity is the opposite of masculinity: We’re supposed to be different from men, but not necessarily opposite.
Femininity is whatever the feminists have rejected: We shouldn’t build a philosophy on a knee-jerk reaction to something bad, as though the bad thing was what dictated morality. The Bible should be our motivation to do right.
Biblical femininity is any picture of womanhood that was around before the women’s suffrage movement: Feminism has been around since the garden of Eden, and has existed in every century
The actual definition of femininity is simple, and is found in Genesis, where God creates the woman to be a helper suitable to the man. The woman is created for the man, her role is different, she is supposed to look different, and we should rejoice in those differences because those differences make us complimentary to men. The purpose of the difference is to help, and suit, and complete masculinity. “True femininity is about helping men fulfill their calling. Any departure from this is a departure from Biblical femininity.”
In the Bible and in history we see two kinds of womanhood, the kind that devotes its identity to helping men fulfill their calling, and the kind that wants power over men. The latter is feminism, and while we might think of it as being ugly and androgynous it appears in many different forms, being charming and seductive, vain and narcissistic and ornamental, trying to out man masculinity. It’s always independent and self-seeking and trying to weaken and dominate men.
We need to understand this concept to sort through the images of femininity around us, and there are two big ones that lead girls away from femininity. Floozy femininity: uses beauty to show off and gain power over men. It’s not gentle and quiet and modest and discreet. Bimbo femininity: women become bitter about their femininity and try to hide it under men’s clothes, and sometimes become bitter towards men.
The challenge of trying to rediscover Biblical femininity is trying to sort through images and stereotypes from the past, looking for good examples and legacies. We must remember that no era is perfect.

A-S gives a short definition on the meaning of the word “help” in “helpmeet.” Ezer means to be strong, and indicates someone who is able to come to the aid of someone who is in need. A woman will only figure out her purpose if she realizes his. Therefore. It is imperative that women understand and appreciate men and the world of men. A-S says this was something she and E had trouble figuring out. A-S as a child was very feminine, and liked to dress up and looked down on what her brothers were doing out in the dirt. This attitude was very feministic, not feminine. A-S thought that being feminine separated her from the world of men “I’m pink, they’re blue, we’re different.” Femininity is not the opposite of masculinity, and men and women do not live in different worlds. It’s feminine for girls to be inspired by their brothers, and girls need to eschew the idea that men and women live in different worlds. We were created to be different, but we must not abandon our men. Brave, adventurous men need women who will come alongside them.

I have no idea what happened to number three. I’m assuming that it was supposed to be part of the femininity vs. feminism spiel that got morphed into number 2, but they never specify. Overall this is a rather sloppy speech. I have no trouble believing that these girls never wanted a life on a stage. They've alluded to their natural shyness multiple times.

4. (E) A dominion woman is invested in the family that God gave her.
E quotes Psalm 144 “and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace.” This helps us understand the role of a daughter in her family. She is there to help hold up and support her family, but she also brings grace and beauty to the home. “This verse seems to presuppose that a woman will be living at home with her family.”
A girl can live in her home without actually living there; her body can be there but her heart and mind can be somewhere different. Girls can see the problems in their families and give up on the idea that they can make things change. Girls withdraw into themselves and their own private world, they’re not invested in their families. They’re waiting to get married because that’s when their life will start, and that will be their real family, but these girls never marry. Because what man will look at that kind of young woman and decide that she’s the kind of wife he wants? Those girls don’t usually get married.
We need to be invested in the families the Lord has given us.

5. (A-S) A dominion woman lives in the real world.
Women love beautiful romantic pictures, but these pictures are not accurate depictions of history and the real world. We have a tendency to idolize beautiful feminine, romantic images. We can see that the world is ugly and ungodly and perishing, and it’s easy to want to escape into beautiful romantic pictures. Girls can retreat into books and movies and romance novels, but instead we should be grateful for the battleground we have been given. We shouldn’t wish that we lived in different times or eras. The world we’re in now is the world God chose for us, and we should be thankful for it. Wanting to escape is part of our sin nature. Because we’re born into and educated by a fallen world imagination begins to replace reality in our thinking and starts to govern it. Girls seek to escape because they’re bored, or they’re not satisfied with where God has put them, and this is the easiest way to deal with hardship. A-S says that both she and E have had a tendency to do this. A-S and E have done some research online talking to young ladies, and they discovered that 90% of them have a tendency to escape into and be addicted to romance novels.

What about the ones who seek to escape because they're in an unhealthy, spiritually abusive environment?

6. A dominion woman embraces a hard life, and a dominion woman loves a hard life.
That’s all they have to say about that. Seriously. A-S lists number 6, and passes the torch to E to continue the speech.

7. (E) A dominion woman thinks like a shepherd.
Jesus: “Do you love me? Feed my sheep.” This is a basic Christian duty to make disciples of all the nations. For many homeschooled girls this will require overcoming shyness and timidity and can be very hard. E used to be very shy, and had a hard time talking to a person one-on-one, let alone giving a speech to 500 people. She realized that this shyness was a result of excessive focus on self, and fear of man. Her father helped her understand that she needed to get over this by focusing on other people instead of herself, and this helped her shyness go away. To be shepherds we must stop thinking about ourselves and learn to focus on the people we’re serving; thinking like this gives us boldness in our interactions with people. Some girls tell them that they panic when people ask them what they do. E thinks they’re afraid of disapproval or confrontation, but instead they should look at it as an opportunity to tell people about the beauty of God’s design.
“So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ “For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the LORD our God whenever we call on Him? “Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?”
We should not assume that others will be hostile or look down on us because they don’t sometimes. E says that a lot of people respond interestingly when she and A-S tell them what they do. The get a lot of wistful wishes from girls who wish they could do the same thing. A lot of people can see the wisdom in what they’re doing, but we need to be bold about it.

[refugee]

Wow. And to think I used to swallow that stuff without (much) questioning.

[Columbia]

A-S grumbles out “moving on to number 8”

8. A dominion woman strengthens her arms and trains her mind.
The Botkin family has been accused of believing that women should not be educated, and A-S doesn’t know how many times they can say this, but “we believe that Christian young women need to be the best educated women in the world in the right ways and for the right reasons.” A useful dominion woman has been equipped for the battle and is ready for anything life might bring her: living in a tiny almost finished house, or being the president’s daughter, or living in a mud hut in Africa.
What is the goal of our education? The purpose of our education is to make us helpers suitable to brave dominion men who have to disciple the nations, and to be mothers and teachers of future generations of Christian warriors. “If we want to raise our sons to be the next presidents, preachers, filmmakers, culture changers…” I’m not sure what they’re raising their daughters to be. That right there may be why they’re accused of not encouraging education for women.
How do we educate ourselves in these ways? Reading (and writing books) is the best way to develop our education.
A-S refers back to novels and fiction. She cautions girls not to read them for more reasons than addiction and getting lost in them. There are many more important books to read right now. A-S and E have a reading list that includes theology and worldview, writing and communication, history and understanding the times. A-S says reading books is the best way to be educated.

9. (E) A dominion woman is doing her husband good during these years of her life.
E quotes Proverbs 31: She does her husband good and not evil all the days of her life. Today we can be doing our husbands good, even if we don’t know who they are.
One of the ways we can do this is to be diligently amassing the skills and character and knowledge that our husbands will need behind them to help them in their dominion task. A lot of us have high standards for our husbands, but how high are our standards for ourselves? Our list of standards should be twice as long for ourselves. We need to ask ourselves why a man would want to marry a woman like us, and the answer shouldn’t simply be “because I’m a young woman who can cook and likes children.” A man fighting important battles will need a wife who can be a wise counselor and sharpen him.
E says her favorite example of this is her mother.  She loves watching her mother’s relationship with her father because she is a delightful companion, and always reading and always has great things to tell Geoff that he can use in his work. She models dominion focus, ingenuity, creativity, courage, a pioneer spirit, entrepreneurialism, and love of learning. She delights Geoff with her conversation, she bolsters him with her cheerfulness, comforts him with her love, and heartens him with her courage. Wives like this are a source of constant good to their husbands.

Another thing to develop to do our husbands good is to develop a selfless attitude instead of being selfish. Instead of filling our minds with romantic ideas about how our husbands will meet our needs we need to consider how we can meet their needs so we’re not needy, discontent, and complaining.

10. (A-S) A dominion woman understands the times.
A-S explained some of the problems facing our generation at the beginning of the speech. Part of the reason girls escape through the different mediums they discussed is because they have no idea what they can do. One of the principles Geoff taught his daughters is to be actively looking for the needs of the moment. There are so many things a young woman can do if she has her eyes open, and the first place to look is in your own family. Ask your parents how you can help them. Look at your siblings and see how you can support them. Are there young ladies in the church who need encouragement, or mothers with lots of children who need help? We need to open our eyes and see all the needs around us.

Do not underestimate what you’re doing in the home, because it really is making a difference. The world is a different place because of stay-at-home daughters, and there is a battle raging around you. It’s tempting to think the interesting things are happening somewhere else, but they’re happening on the home front. The state of a nation is always determined by the state of the home. A-S and E went on a well-known feminist forum and found that they were talking about the SAHDs, and they were talking about them because they’re afraid and see SAHDs as a threat. Women can stay at home for selfish and convenient reasons, but daughters who choose to stay at home and serve at home are up to something, and the feminists are scared. “We’re not an invisible movement anymore, people know about us.” The future is changing, and there are great opportunities that come with that.

[hoipolloi]

Hail, Columbia, for taking one for the FJ team. Holy batshit crazy! 

Do you know when they gave this talk?

 

[refugee]

How long ago was this recording made? Is it old?

So sad, to read about them talking about how to honor their future husbands. Somehow it makes me think of that line from "The Sound of Silence" -- "people writing songs that voices never shared..."

And that bit about the feminist forum is total self-delusion! I can see feminists pitying such SAHDs, worrying about them even, but any fear that the feminists are feeling is likely fear *for* the SAHDs, not fear *of* them.

I think it's time for a new acronym. Rather than Stay At Home Daughters, I think they are more realistically SADs (Static, Aging Daughters). It's not complicated (to borrow the title of a Botkinette book) -- you pronounce them the same way, I should think.

[hoipolloi]

And what a coincidence -- the Western Conservatory is having its Mother's Day Sale.

[Columbia]

3 minutes ago, refugee said:

How long ago was this recording made? Is it old?

According to the properties on the podcast, it was recorded in 2009.

[16strong]

It's got to be a real soul-crusher to have to preach against yourself all the time, all the while reaping none of the benefits you preach that you'll get. Their dad is surely laughing his ass off that not only has he convinced them they're worthless, but that it is their duty to go out and preach to everyone that they are, too. Ugh.

[Grimalkin]

     They could of just saved a bunch of time and said "Sit down and shut up, you might be a worthless nothing, but To Jesus you are a VERY precious nothing!"

[DomWackTroll]

"We lost the sturdiness..."

There's that word again! What's up with that? Why do they love it so much? Botkins?... Bradrick?... Bradrick?... Anyone? 

[THERetroGamerNY]

That one badly-translated quote from Chaucer. Ha. Surprised she even dared speak it. Though, I wonder if she's even read the whole story, with it's condemnations of only virgins being acceptable for marriage, and the not-so-kind portrayals of religious figures.

Probably not.

[nickelodeon]

Urrrghhhh, they freak me out the MOST. I'm confident that if I was fundie today then I would be them. Thinking I'm a hotshot academic but not being allowed to think about any question deeper than "is it sinful to read storybooks???"

Makes my skin crawl!

[EyeQueue]

24 minutes ago, THERetroGamerNY said:

That one badly-translated quote from Chaucer. Ha. Surprised she even dared speak it. Though, I wonder if she's even read the whole story, with it's condemnations of only virgins being acceptable for marriage, and the not-so-kind portrayals of religious figures.

Probably not.

True...true.

But, there's also a reading of The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale that might support their "helpmeet" orientation. In her Prologue, the Wife tells about her marriage to Jankin, who reads to her every night from The Book of Wicked Wives that trashes women (stories from the Biblical tradition and popular Classical and medieval traditions, too).

So, the wife tears out three pages of his book and hits him, and Jankin hits her (making her deaf in one ear). In the end, they reconcile because he gives her sovereignty in their relationship, which she cedes back to him because she now trusts him to trust her.

So, leaving aside the problematic spousal abuse, they have a relationship that seems like what these people preach: the man in charge, but reverences the woman and gives to her command of the proper spheres (domestic, presumably). And her Tale is similar. The ugly old hag gives the young knight the choice to have her beautiful but not necessarily faithful, or ugly but always faithful, and he tells *her* to choose, and once that happens she gives the reigns of the relationship over to him.

So, yeah. It's clear they probably didn't read this for either the interpretation that they could crush to fit their worldview, or to understand that a lot that's going on in that text is so anti-antifeminist that they shouldn't even be reading it.

But....it was written in the late 1380s or so, so it *must* not contain any filthy feminist ideas, right?

[apandaaries]

44 minutes ago, THERetroGamerNY said:

That one badly-translated quote from Chaucer. Ha. Surprised she even dared speak it. Though, I wonder if she's even read the whole story, with it's condemnations of only virgins being acceptable for marriage, and the not-so-kind portrayals of religious figures.

Probably not.

I've only read the recap, and not heard their endless droning on about the appropriate ways for a woman to behave, but this blasphemy of Chaucer -- my heart!! The Wife of Bath had MANY bad marriages, and all of the tales were within a larger framework, but to clip one line like that....  Clearly they never spent time pondering St. Jerome and why he authored such a terrible text, nor why it deafened the Wife in the Tales.  

Really wish they'd focused on some of the lines which comment on how the priest's congregation strongly resembles him, as he had the odd tendency to marry off pregnant teens/women who'd come to him for consultation and left...in a family way.  And then were married off to suitable men ("suitable" meaning men who wouldn't question the timeline of marriage and birth, etc). 

Chaucer might weep, but I don't demand tears from these women. Their self-selected prisons are torment enough for me. Live and learn! ..... or not, as the case may be. 

[EyeQueue]

3 minutes ago, amandaaries said:

I've only read the recap, and not heard their endless droning on about the appropriate ways for a woman to behave, but this blasphemy of Chaucer -- my heart!! The Wife of Bath had MANY bad marriages, and all of the tales were within a larger framework, but to clip one line like that....  Clearly they never spent time pondering St. Jerome and why he authored such a terrible text, nor why it deafened the Wife in the Tales.  

Really wish they'd focused on some of the lines which comment on how the priest's congregation strongly resembles him, as he had the odd tendency to marry off pregnant teens/women who'd come to him for consultation and left...in a family way.  And then were married off to suitable men ("suitable" meaning men who wouldn't question the timeline of marriage and birth, etc). 

Chaucer might weep, but I don't demand tears from these women. Their self-selected prisons are torment enough for me. Live and learn! ..... or not, as the case may be. 

But these were *gasp* Catholics and not REAL (tm) Christians, dontcha know. Real men of God would never think about doing anything that isn't completely aboveboard.

[apandaaries]

11 minutes ago, EyeQueue said:

But these were *gasp* Catholics and not REAL (tm) Christians, dontcha know. Real men of God would never think about doing anything that isn't completely aboveboard.

Right? Historical context means nothing, and the fact that the Catholic Church was the only Christian church at the time would be a ridiculous point to bring up.  Absurdity, really.

[Grimalkin]

1 hour ago, DomWackTroll said:

"We lost the sturdiness..."

There's that word again! What's up with that? Why do they love it so much? Botkins?... Bradrick?... Bradrick?... Anyone? 

Is this what they mean?

...... Or is that a little bit TOO sturdy?

How about this?

       They don't strike me as women who would be ready  if and when society breaks down. 

2 minutes ago, amandaaries said:

Right? Historical context means nothing, and the fact that the Catholic Church was the only Christian church at the time would be a ridiculous point to bring up.  Absurdity, really.

         Ridiculous and absurd sums them up perfectly.

[docmom]

@Grimalkin

Or this.  I don't think the Botkins would last 5 minutes as actual pioneer women

[Baabaablacksheep]

Agreed that they are not exactly the sturdy pioneering types of old - that being said, pretty sure they could out survive my pathetic ass in a zombie apocalypse.  Any updates on these ladies? Their blog hasn't been updated in ages, I'm wondering what they've been up to - don't see any new materials from them on their family website either. 

[Marian the Librarian]

A bucket of bloviation by brainwashed Botkins, batshit blithering beliefs.

[FloraKitty35]

On 5/4/2016 at 5:17 PM, Columbia said:

What about the ones who seek to escape because they're in an unhealthy, spiritually abusive environment?

6. A dominion woman embraces a hard life, and a dominion woman loves a hard life.
That’s all they have to say about that. Seriously. A-S lists number 6, and passes the torch to E to continue the speech.

Hypocrites. They have a good life as Daddy's little Miss Havisham's 

[CyborgKin]

Oh, Geoff finally put up a new article yesterday!  It's about the Brexit.  And there's a mother's day 30% off sale.  Still no word from the robot sisters since August.

Yawn.

[docmom]

11 hours ago, CyborgKin said:

Oh, Geoff finally put up a new article yesterday!  It's about the Brexit.

Geoff needs to know that Britain does not equal England.

And also that absolutely no-one in the UK cares what he thinks about the Brexit

[fiery redhead]

Getting kind of personal here, but it really frustrated me when they implied girls should try and fix the problems at their home, and that by bot doing so implies no one will want to marry them. Well Botkins, I  tried for 4 years to be the kind of dominon oriented daughter that they touted as a true Christian daughter. I tried through God's strength, and he showed me that I do not need to be the kind of daughter you think I should in order to love him and others. 

I finally learned that my dad wasn't going to use that to step up and lead just because I was willing to work in a business he would build and help him out, AND that  my dad does need to step up for me to have a better or worse relationship with God. 

 

I finally learned that just because I was helping and supposedly alienating stress on my parents that my father was not going stop being th distant, cold, angry man he will always be to me.

 

My mom and I finally learned that letting him be the final decisions maker in finances again and "trusting God" with it would not mean he would be wise with major purchases. My mom and I have not only have to police his irresponsibility but we each make a small living of our own.

 

I finally learned that being genuinely interested in him and being kind to him would eventually give him miles to take with my inches of faith in him to take fininacial and emotional advantage of.

 

Obviously not every man is like this, but I want to call out the Botkin sisters on selling this doctrine that totally succumbing to your father's authority means a better life for your family. Anna Sofia and Elizabeth, while I am not a fan of most universities out there these days and have chosen a different route, but at least a girl going to community college or worked a job or just went to a normal church or volunteered would see first hand how broken the world is and how many girls are hurt because of how their fathers treated them. How many girls do have to get jobs and support themselves because their fathers will not, even if they are Christians (I have been working since I was 18, still doing the same job). You are do not have a better education because you compeltelt self study, you have a worse education because you are ignorant to the kinds of families out there. It is not my job to fix my dad's issues. Yes, I am there for my family, but that's because I am a decent person, not because I want to support my dad and "his vision". 

 

And finally Botkins, yes, someone does want to marry me. And he understands my life and he understands that I know problems aren't to run away from, they are to dealt with, but if you are dealing with someone as decieving as my dad one must separate themselves. 

 

 

 

 

 

 * FJers: I am doing CollegeMinus. And I kind of like that name you have for it, I will explain upon request

[Baabaablacksheep]

1 hour ago, fiery redhead said:

Obviously not every man is like this, but I want to call out the Botkin sisters on selling this doctrine that totally succumbing to your father's authority means a better life for your family. Anna Sofia and Elizabeth, while I am not a fan of most universities out there these days and have chosen a different route, but at least a girl going to community college or worked a job or just went to a normal church or volunteered would see first hand how broken the world is and how many girls are hurt because of how their fathers treated them. How many girls do have to get jobs and support themselves because their fathers will not, even if they are Christians (I have been working since I was 18, still doing the same job). You are do not have a better education because you compeltelt self study, you have a worse education because you are ignorant to the kinds of families out there. It is not my job to fix my dad's issues. Yes, I am there for my family, but that's because I am a decent person, not because I want to support my dad and "his vision". 

* FJers: I am doing CollegeMinus. And I kind of like that name you have for it, I will explain upon request

Good for you - this is a really difficult and brave place to arrive at after being indoctrinated that you are responsible for the way someone else behaves. I'm new to FJ, what is CollegeMinus?