Mary Pride on Patriarchy

[AmyP]

Interesting article on patriarchy by Mary Pride, author of "The Way Home".

home-school.com/Articles/phs89-marypride.html

How did this happen? Twenty-five years ago I wrote a book, The Way Home, urging women to rediscover their biblical role, including the blessings of children. The only times the word "patriarch" was even mentioned in The Way Home was in quotes from various feminists agonizing about male oppression.

Yet somehow today I find myself "credited" as a founder and promoter of the modern Patriarchy movement.

A new book, Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement, claims The Way Home "did much to recreate the homeschooling movement along patriarchal... lines."

This probably explains why major network producers have been emailing me asking for interviews the last few years. If I had actually responded to any of their emails, instead of concentrating on my family and Practical Homeschooling, they might have enlightened me about the positions I supposedly introduced to the world.

As it turns out, I do have some interest in the Patriarchy movement. Starting with this:

I thought her comments were interesting, and I was curious what you all would think.

[emmiedahl]

Whoa, she seriously threw patriarchy under the bus!

[FloraDoraDolly]

Very different from what the Quiverfullers are teaching. Thanks for sharing.

[persuaded]

Wow. That was actually quite shocking to me. Verrrrree interesting :?

[MamaJunebug]

Welcome, AmyP, and what I-all think is that Mary Pride is still as mal-informed and mean as ever:

Since feminism glorifies women, the knee-jerk reaction was to glorify men just a teeny bit.

I couldn't read much past that. It's time for me to chill a while.

[Kitty]

Wow. very interesting.

[wildflower]

Welcome, AmyP, and what I-all think is that Mary Pride is still as mal-informed and mean as ever:

I couldn't read much past that. It's time for me to chill a while.

THIS. I do find it amusing though that her "Men are Kirk. Women are Spock." analogy can be taken to infer that she believes that women are more logical than men. Hee.

[Deleted03]

Welcome, AmyP, and what I-all think is that Mary Pride is still as mal-informed and mean as ever:

I couldn't read much past that. It's time for me to chill a while.

*humph, I wish people would read feminist writings on their own. I'm tired of my fellow grad students telling me how they really don't like feminist writings and then when forced to read one for class are like: wow I really did not expect it to be like that. and that's just plain annoying.

disclaimer: yes in the beginning years feminism was about re-glorifying women, but I think you don't understand that movement unless you first read Freud's lectures on women and immediatly follow by some essentialist feminists. Then you get it!

[atheistjd]

Wow:

"The three youngest are all pursuing nursing degrees-that's only possible on campus." (Shh... don't tell the Duggars that!)

I agree with the immediate negative reaction to the feminism comment. But I'm not the one who needs to hear her message. I would love if this got broadly disseminated among our QF friends... pretty powerful takedown of the patriarchy movement from within...

[emmiedahl]

She acknowledges that the movement swung a little too far because it was reacting to feminism... but it could be argued that feminism swung a little too far in the early days in reaction to millennia of patriarchy. Certainly my mother's feminism is not mine. In fact, my mother thinks feminism is too extreme because she can see where they went too far in the early seventies, and I have had to work hard to woo her back by showing her that things are very different now.

[Olive Plant]

In I Timothy 5:14, young wives are told to "guide the house." The word in the Greek is oikodespoteo, which literally means "be a home despot." Or "home boss" or "matriarch." Does this sound like an oppressed doormat hanging out by the sink? No way! Mom is the ruler of the house.

So she's claiming the Bible is pro-matriarchy, at least under the family's roof. Yeah, this is something that more "Biblical" patriarchs need to pay attention to. Or their blog-surfing daughters. At some point, with any luck, they've got to realize that "patriarchy" is no more Bible-based than anything else out there, and they're cherry-picking and presuppositionally assuming that they're right just like everyone they're criticizing for being too worldly.