A Woman’s Place

This reading challenged me a good deal as it spoke about marriage customs and general treatment of women in Biblical times (as well as the customs and expectations that are still prevalent in those areas today).

I grew up in a strictly traditional, old fashioned community of people who believed that a woman’s place was by her husband’s side and nowhere else. While my parents never agreed with these views, I was heavily influenced by those around me and grew up believing that I would remain in my parent’s home until someone wanted to marry me, at which point I would go to live with them and simply have as many children as possible. It took me a long time to realize just how stoutly I disagree with these ideas.

To this day I am still trying to decide exactly where I stand as far as independence, feminism, and woman’s rights vs. the Bible’s teachings. My traditional upbringing is constantly at war with my fiercely independent and progressive opinions on a woman’s ability and right to take care of herself.

In light of all of this, the section on woman frankly angered and upset me. I will never, ever understand what it is like to live in that severely of a male dominated society, but somehow these issues are closer to my heart due to how stuck I used to feel when I was younger. I remember thinking that my only option as a girl was to marry whoever would have me and desperately hope that he didn’t abuse or cheat on me as divorce for any reason was unbearably shameful.

Even while I myself view sex as something that should only ever be engaged in by two married individuals, it is horrifying to think that a girl’s punishment for sleeping around was automatically death. Absolutely horrifying. What is even worse is the ridiculous double standard – while women are shot for it, men brag about it. I hate it so much, I really do. I can’t stand it. It’s outrageous and not fair and I hate both that this was and is the reality that so many woman face.