Excellent article, thank you. It makes me shudder reading those phrases again, women are weaker vessels and should spent their time preparing nutritious meals for their family.
'Women are relatively powerless in a male-dominated society. Feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, worthlessness, futility and suppressed rage, the major ingredients of depression, are the emotional responses of anyone in a permanently subordinate position. (p. 258)'
'Having survived into the 20th century, WTS still maintains its 19th-century attitudes toward women. Women are told to be in submission” and to maintain a state of “wifely subjection” to their husbands. They are not allowed to address the congregation directly as a man does, and may not religiously instruct a baptized male member. All of the leaders-- from the Governing Body, which runs the worldwide organization, down to Elders and Ministerial Servants of the local congregation--are male.'
'Much concern exists over insuring that the male openly acts as the clear head of the house. If it is felt that the wife makes too many decisions, or has too much to say in the affairs of the house, the husband may not be eligible for positions of responsibility within the congregation. (p. 246). Clearly, women are relegated to a position of less power than their male counterparts. Women are instructed to defer to men both in their personal/marital relationships, and in the social and religious life of the congregation.'
The article says that if the locus of control, a person's source of motivation, is internal rather than externally forced upon them as in an ideology they tend to fair better psychologically. People with an external locus of control tend to have difficulty accepting responsibility for their lives and blame others when things go wrong.
'A woman with an internal “locus of control” defines and interprets her experience by a set of internal judgments, comparison of prior to current experiences, and a singular set of moral values that has been refined and constructed over trial and error. '
Of necessity in a cult and particularly a strictly patriarchal one like JWs she would have to repress this ability and the result can be depression, phobias or personality disorders the article says.
I thought this was of general interest too that those articles in the Watchtower saying things like would it be wise to..... Listen to heavy metal music, play this computer game, watch this film, wear this garment are not suggestions, they are introducing a new rule.
'I was forced to wear a mask so none would see how I really felt'. I so recognise this. At meetings I would see speakers staring at me to see if I was humbly accepting the information so I learned to develop a poker face to stop them picking on me if I seemed to be disagreeing, which they would do in a book study or meeting for field service. Wretched woman, how dare she have that look on her face as if she disagrees with me. Who does she think she is.
