Crystal Paine breaks wife-as-keeper-at-home mold

[silvia]

Our favorite former Biblical Womanhood doyenne/ current Money Saving Mom blogger has a post at Mom Life Today about not trying to do all her own housework: http://www.momlifetoday.com/2012/01/i-g ... superwoman.

I think Crystal remains deeply entrenched in a fundamentalist worldview, despite downplaying this for mainstream MSM readers, but I do have to give her credit for being more forthcoming these days about how she's not cut from June Cleaver/ Beall Phillips/ Nancy Campbell cloth. My favorite quote: "Truth be told, I’ve searched the Bible high and low and have yet to find where it says that I am commanded to scrub my floors or clean my toilets." (I do wonder, though, if she still lets Jesse pick her outfits, as I think he did in the Biblical Womanhood days. Heh.)

[shangrila]

Housework is one thing. Being a housewife is one thing. Yes, floors must be scrubbed and toilets must be cleaned... But it does not mean: I - Owner. You - kitchenslave. If someone handles this matter this way and is treated this way... might really get offended, indeed.

[liltwinstar]

I think it's *awesome* that she's being so honest about what the patrio expectations did to her (obviously she's not putting things quite that way...). She was so gung-ho about doing everything herself and owning a business, homeschooling the kids, keeping the house, on and on - all the crap that fundie women are told they *must* do or they are failures as women and as Christians. Sounds like it nearly crushed her, which obviously isn't good, but I'm glad that she's saying it's ok to get help, to outsource, to cut back, to not do *everything* It's a message more fundie women need to hear, and coming from her - someone they respect - the message would probably come across better than, say, from me, a liberal childless feminist. :)

[starfish]

Hopefully some of the exhausted fundie women will listen to her...I'm just glad she's spacing those kids out and not birthing every 11 months like some of her counterparts...

Now if we could just get her to send the kids to school, and feed them a little more than the bare-bones starvation diet she promotes....

Has anyone read her new book? She's been promoting it pretty much non-stop on her blog lately.

[silvia]

What with Crystal having the book published with Simon & Schuster and all, I wonder how Jesse is taking to being second fiddle in that family. Maybe he feels relieved from the typical patrio burden of being the sole provider--he doesn't seem to be attempting to get Crystal to cut back on her work or anything like that. The idea that she is more focused on her kids than a typical working mom would be, though, is somewhat laughable... makes me wonder why she doesn't just jump on the public-school bandwagon, a la Ashleigh of Heart and Home. Despite Crystal's claims that she's made peace with not being superwoman, she has got to be driving herself nuts trying to homeschool 3 kids, do book publicity, and write many posts per day for Money Saving Mom.

Haven't read the book yet, but am curious. If someone else does, post a review!

[doggie]

oops my bad I mis read.

[silvia]

No, not Palin, Paine. Crystal and Jesse Paine are quasi-fundie-royalty--I know they have connections to Doug Phillips, and Jesse went to Patrick Henry College before transferring to a state school or somesuch. Back in the day, Crystal wrote a now-defunct blog called Biblical Womanhood, which read like she was channeling the brainwaves of Doug Phillips or Geoff Botkin re. the subordinate role of women, the importance of biblical submission and modesty, etc.

[Almost Quiverfull]

I've always been a little fascinated with Crystal - not in a creepy stalky kind of way it's just that she always seemed a little more stylish than most other women in the patriarchy lifestyle. She's pretty, keeps in shape and wears fairly stylish clothes. One time she even mentioned on her blog that she gets her hair highlighted. I've seen some pictures of her mom and she is also a very pretty lady.

She mentioned that she and her mom like to work out so I once sent her an e-mail asking what they do to keep in such good shape. She forwarded my e-mail to her mom and I was surprised to receive an answer from her. I had to laugh out loud though because her advice to me was to sit down with my husband and ask his permission about which work out I should do.

I'm glad to hear she still has only the 3 children. I was afraid she was going to keeping having children. That may seem hypocritical of me since I have 6. It's just that it sounded like she had pretty hard deliveries and I was hoping she wouldn't keep putting herself through the torture.

[Almost Quiverfull]

No, not Palin, Paine. Crystal and Jesse Paine are quasi-fundie-royalty--I know they have connections to Doug Phillips, and Jesse went to Patrick Henry College before transferring to a state school or somesuch. Back in the day, Crystal wrote a now-defunct blog called Biblical Womanhood, which read like she was channeling the brainwaves of Doug Phillips or Geoff Botkin re. the subordinate role of women, the importance of biblical submission and modesty, etc.

I think Jesse attended Washburn Univ in Topeka KS for his law degree.

[silvia]

I've always been a little fascinated with Crystal - not in a creepy stalky kind of way it's just that she always seemed a little more stylish than most other women in the patriarchy lifestyle. She's pretty, keeps in shape and wears fairly stylish clothes. One time she even mentioned on her blog that she gets her hair highlighted. I've seen some pictures of her mom and she is also a very pretty lady.

Me too! I'm also fascinated by the fact that--much like Gretchen of YLCF--Crystal seems pretty sharp intellectually, but is still sold out to some pretty extremist ideas. I guess I'm always trying to figure out how the two can coexist, since certain of my family members are the same way.

[Almost Quiverfull]

I'm impressed that Crystal has a goal of running a marathan. She's now working up to running 5K without stopping. That definitely doesn't sound like something a woman of patriarchy would do. After all, don't sports take you away from time with your family?

[Almost Quiverfull]

Me too! I'm also fascinated by the fact that--much like Gretchen of YLCF--Crystal seems pretty sharp intellectually, but is still sold out to some pretty extremist ideas. I guess I'm always trying to figure out how the two can coexist, since certain of my family members are the same way.

[silvia]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but If I think Gretchen is Crystal's sister.

Crystal does have a sister named Gretchen (Gretchen Smisor by birth, now Gretchen Middleton, I think), but the Gretchen that runs YLCF is Gretchen Acheson (formerly Gretchen Glaser). So we're talking about two different Gretchens.

[Almost Quiverfull]

Crystal does have a sister named Gretchen (Gretchen Smisor by birth, now Gretchen Middleton, I think), but the Gretchen that runs YLCF is Gretchen Acheson (formerly Gretchen Glaser). So we're talking about two different Gretchens.