Women are the weaker sex

by stillajwexelder 49 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  frenchbabyface

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  blondie

  Stilla, did you see the 3/1/05 WT page 17,18

  "A Weaker Vessel" In What Way?

  In saying that the woman is "a weaker vessel," Peter did not mean that women are weaker than men intellectually or spiritually. True, many Christian men have privileges in the congregation that women do not expect to have, and in the family women are subject to their husbands. (1 Corinthians 14:35; 1 Timothy 2:12)

  Nevertheless, the same faith, endurance, and high moral standards are required of all, men and women. And as Peter said, both husband and wife are "heirs...of the undeserved favor of life." As far as alavation is concerned, they have equal standing before Jehovah God. (Galations 3:28)...same heavenly hope...both would serve as priests and kings in God's heavenly Kingdom!

  Anointed Christian wives were in no way inferior to their anointed Christian husbands...same is true of those with an earthly hope.

  In what way, then are women 'weaker vessels'?

  Perhaps (buzzword meaning the Bible does not say)

  Peter was referring to the fact that, on average, women are smaller and have less physical strength than men.

  In addition, in our imperfect state, the wonderful privilege of bearing children exacts a physical toll.

  Women of childbearing age may be subject to physical discomforts on a regular basis. They certainly need special care and consideration when experiencing such discomforts or enduring the exhausting triaks of being pregnant and giving birth.

  Translation: Your menstrural cycle renders women incapable of rational thought and physically disables them.

  (What about men in wheelchairs, blind or deaf? Are they incapable of the "privleges"? What about women who no longer have their menstrual cycles?)

  Once againt the WTS goes back to the menstrual cycle as a reason for disqualifying women to be used in the congregation. Try looking up the word "vicissitudes" on the WT-CD.
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  stillajwexelder

  Yes Blondie I had just finished reading the article and that is what prompted my post - I though their explanation was BS -- In addition, in our imperfect state, the wonderful privilege of bearing children exacts a physical toll. -The whole point - THAT IS WHAT MAKES WOMEN STRONGER THAN MEN -
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  blondie

  Actually, it has been the explanation for a long time, stilla. And rather than women being the weak flowers the WTS paints them to be, we are strong people, physically. I remember reading The Good Earth, by Pearl Buck, in high school. This woman is pregnant and working in the fields. She stops momentarily to go into their little house and gives birth to the baby, straightens things up, puts the baby in a carrier on her body and goes back to working in the field.

  Blondie

  PS

  Some women in the WTS organization made this worse by using their menstrual cycle as a way of getting out of "spiritual assignments." I remember a Bethel sister saying she was amazed at how many sisters developed menstrual problems a few months after getting to Bethel. I read several studies and articles showing that about 5% of all menstruating women had PMS and only 5% of those had symptoms severe enough to be disabling. I think all 5% of them were in my old congregation.
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  bisous

  Tatiana...I don't know why that is the case, it is just my general experience. Probably one of the main reasons I have lived independently and unfettered most of my life. For me, that has worked out just fine.
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  TD

  I don't usually care too much for Kipling, but he did say it well...

  W HEN the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
  He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
  But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
  For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
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  Bryan

  I open jars for my wife!

  Then again, she'll be pushing a cantalope out her butt soon... and wants to do it! She's wanted to do it for years!

  Yeah... I'll stick to the jars.

  Bryan

  Have You Seen My Mother
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  vitty

  Sorry Blondie but the myth about women giving birth then carring on work in the fields does nothing for the ordinary women who give birth and need at least 5 days rest.

  Macho men who think having a baby is like shelling peas, then go away leaving you to cope with other children and household chores is no fun

  My husband took a week off work and was ridiculed for being a whoose when I had our baby.

  I remember crying when he went back to work and left me on my own with her, so sorry I am a whooose too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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  blondie

  Macho men who think having a baby is like shelling peas, then go away leaving you to cope with other children and household chores is no fun

  True, vittvin. I didn't say it was easy for this woman. If you haven't already, you might like to read this book, as it is about a Chinese woman of years ago who tries to lift herself out of poverty in a society that devalues women.

  But I don't think that in a country with good medical resources that women are incapacitated physically or mentally to the degree that the WTS depicts a woman's lot.

  Making a home is a joint effort as is raising children. It was around the 1850's with the onset of the Industrial Revolution that both men and women started leaving the home and children behind to work, partly because the work they did at home had disappeared.

  Love, Blondie
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  stillajwexelder

  Anyway - I really appreciate women - I am not a chauvinist pig - though many years ago I was