The Watchtower Societya Woman's Perspective (page 2)

minimus

Make no mistake: I'm all 4 breastfeeding1 Great 1st post, tootsie!

lawrence

The WTS overall treats women no better than Islam - total disrespect.

Women's Dress: what really annoyed me is that I couldn't wear a split skirt (skort is another word)--I had some nice outfits for work that had matching jackets and were dressy. Then one time I met 2 girls from Ireland who told me they wore jeans out in service! I couldn't believe it. Gouchos (long split skirt, like loose long shorts but dressier) were a no no also.

As far as the way women were treated--I knew some teenage JW girls who weren't allowed to ride horses because you know, they might break their cherry! Spare me!

BabaYaga

WELCOME to the forum, Four Lights!!!

As for my answers to the questions, I always loved beards, even as a little girl. I thought it was rediculous that even though all the men in the bibletimes were shown with beards, the brothers couldn't have one. I was a little tweaked to think I would not be able to have a husband with a beard when I grew up. Well, I showed them... and he has gorgeous long hair, too :)

As far as dress goes, the "welcoming committee" that always stood near the door of the KH ALWAYS, always made FUN of my outfits!!! I am SO not kidding you. It did not matter if they were "appropriate" or not, I did strive to show a bit of originality (imagine that) and I would hear about it... every stinkin' meeting. I know they just thought they were funnin' and I could take it. Well, you know what people, it gets really OLD.

Oh and as I only dated on JW, I talked one of the boys I liked a lot from school into coming to one of the meetings. He said afterwards, "I guess it wouldn't be so bad to have a JW for a wife, seeing as how they are so submissive!" and then laughed quite a bit. I didn't laugh much. Believe it or not, we are still great friends! hahahahaaha... I am not still great freinds with those who made fun of my outfits.

Cheers!
Evil, Crazy-dressin' Baba

dido

I was happy to dress in pretty feminine dresses, and skirts, especially in the summer, they were really cool.

I was married, so didn`t `look` at the bro`s too much in the way that you desire them, maybe because there was only one brother that i can say i fancied the whole time i was in, and that is just before my husband `came in `too marry me.

My husband didn`t make an issue of submissiveness, we were a team, and he respected me. I did everything to please him, (apart from being a jw,) so he never had many complaints.

katiekitten

I hated being a woman in the JW's. I was always feeling it was unjust to be treated so inferior just because I had a lady garden and not a winkie. I honestly couldnt work it out.

Why did god feel that people with winkies were so important that only they could give the talks and say the prayers etc etc

And I HATED the condescending attitude we got treated to. It made me feel like a constant rebel, and i really didnt want to be rebellious. But I was branded as such because I just didnt get it.

Now I love being judged on my merits. In my job its obvious im bloody good at what I do, and theres no question that im better than some men and some women. And people respect me for it. Its fantastic.

rebel8

I hate everything about the way the wts treats and portrays women. It was totally humiliating and depressing to live like a second class citizen, who by virtue of possessing ovaries are automatically regarded to be living, breathing Forbidden Fruits--always needing Older Men (TM) or Spiritual Heads (TM) to keep us from leaking our Forbidden Fruit Juice.

I was brought into the back room for wearing black panty hose once, with a skirt that showed the bottom of my kneecaps.....showing any part of your body below your ankles or above your neck is inflaming the passions of the men.

Now as for the breastfeeding thing, I have to say I HATE seeing someone do that. I feel nauseated. It's not that I'm a prude or think it's a bad thing to do. My jw mother breastfed my siblings until age 5 "because Moses did". The real reason she did it is because she wanted perpetual babies to control forever.

In my area, it is very uncommon to see someone breastfeeding in public, so here it's not a jw thing, it's just a social norm.

Now, it may not be terribly enlightened of me to not be able to avoid getting nauseous, but it's the reality. Others get offended by it for different reasons--again, maybe not very good reasons, but the reality is they do get offended. Regardless of the various reasons, I think breastfeeding in public should be avoided so as to avoid offending others. in areas where it's not the norm. JMHO

aSphereisnotaCircle

This is another way that men sexualize women, they do not want to see breasts being used in any other manner than sexually, so they try to "encourage" the women to use rooms away from them

Well said.

candidlynuts

i didnt like how i was treated (Long story..will spare you)..anyway ex was df'd.. i quit my 12 hour a day job cuz i was pregnant.. first day off of work and ex gets up and gets mad at me because he dropped an egg on the floor..he slams me into the fridge.. that scared him because he thought he might be in trouble if anyone ever knew so to distract from that issue he calls the elders and tells them to come over.. to show them how messy my house was..

i got counseled on my messy house.. counseled on being submissive and not letting situations escalate that would anger my husband.

they talked to my ex just like he wasnt df'd and talked down to me like i was a chastised child.

he wasnt counseled AT ALL about slamming a 5 month pregnant woman into the fridge.

i just sat there and bawled and didnt even try to defend the messy house because i was working 12 hour days, had 3 small children, pregnant, getting to all the meetings, service , studying w/ kids cuz ex was df'd and i was responsible for their spiritual growth while he was df'd.

that was one of the turning points for me.. i was knocking myself out for NOTHING. (side note.. one of the elders that came to the house later killed himself.. i heard cuz he'd got himself in a financial mess because he was sure the end was very soon..left the financial mess for his wife to clean up)

Good Girl or Bad Girl?

I was never very good at submissiveness. Now that I can see I don't have to follow those rules, I see how poorly women are viewed and treated within the Witnesses.

For one, it was hard to not be able to wear pants, when I would wear nice pantsuits to work and look more than presentable, but I'd have to go home and change? Then I'd go to the meeting and people would be wearing jean skirts or whatever... how is this better than a nice suit???

The Watchtower Societya Woman's Perspective