Quiverfull: How to Give a Liberal Feminist the Whompin’ Heebie Jeebies
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Free to Be You and Me
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Free to Be You and Me
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Mommies are NOT People
When I was a little kid in the early 1970’s, I loved (LOVED) the album Free to Be You and Me, in which Marlo Thomas and her leftie friends (like Alan Alda, Tommy Smothers, and football legend Rosey Grier) sang songs and told stories to teach children to break free of the narrow gender boundaries that were still prevalent at the time. It was radical stuff… Rosey sang It’s All Right to Cry, a stirring anthem giving boys permission to express their emotions. William Wants a Doll gave those same boys leave to engage in nurturing play.
I especially liked Parents Are People.
Mommies are people,
people with children
When mommies were little, they used to be girls
Like some of you, but then they grew
And now mommies are women, women with children
Busy with children, and things that they do
There are a lot of things a lot of mommies can do
Some mommies are ranchers, or poetry makers
Or doctors or teachers, or cleaners or bakers
Some mommies drive taxis, or sing on TV
Yeah, mommies can be almost anything they want to be
Well, they can't be grandfathers, or daddies
Similar verses follow explaining that daddies can be anything they want to be too, except grandmas and mommies (and even that’s arguable, nowadays).
That’s how I was raised, and that’s the framework from
which I view the world. Women (myself
included) have all of the rights and freedoms accorded to everyone else (you
know, men). So imagine my shock and
dismay when I picked up Quiverfull:
Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement, and learned that there’s a whole
movement dedicated to opposing the rights and freedoms of women. In the Quiverfull movement, mommies cannot be
anything they want to be. They can only
be mommies.
Kathryn Joyce Must’ve Plotzed
To be clear, this book is an expose written by a journalist, not a marketing piece for the movement. The author clearly struggled to maintain her objectivity in the face of vomit-inducing philosophies. In sum:
- Women and girls are subordinate to men and boys at all times in all ways
- God demands that women cede all power of any kind to their husbands, no matter how stupid, crazy, or abusive said husbands might be
- Birth control is unacceptable God-playing
- It is the duty of a woman to conceive and bear as many children as God sees fit to “bless” her with—preferably 12 to 15
- Women may not be employed outside the home (not that they could be, since they will be pregnant AND nursing a baby AND hauling a toddler at all times)
- All 12+ children must be homeschooled (by the mom, of course), lest they risk exposure to the non-insane world
- Daddies can be anything they want to be
The purpose of all this rampant
fertility? Creating recruits via birth
rather than persuasion.
A Famous Quiverfull Family
You say you’ve never heard of these people? I’ll bet you’ve heard of Andrea Yates.
Andrea and her husband Rusty belonged to a Quiverfull sect. Head of Household Rusty insisted they would have “just as many children as came along,” even though his wife became progressively crazier with each baby. Andrea had a history of post-partum psychosis so severe she’d been repeatedly hospitalized and had tried to kill herself. But a woman who is not incubating has no reason to live, so another baby “came along.” Then Andrea drowned all five kids and went gratefully to the loony bin for a rest.
Mystery Solved
Here’s something that has always puzzled me. Feminism is and has always been about equality. Equal rights, equal opportunities, equal pay, equal everything. How can anyone reasonably argue with that? But many people argue against feminism, with the greatest vehemence and disgust. “Those radical feminists just hate men and want to put women ABOVE them,” they say all over the right-wing blogosphere.
What? Where did you get THAT idea? I yell at the screen.
Now I understand. It’s not that they imagine a race of Amazonian women enslaving men. They are upset because equality means that some women will be in positions of power over some men. And that’s just not ok with God or the male leadership of the Church of Patriarchal Whackjobs.
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Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement
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Should You Read the Book?
Yes, but it’s best taken on an empty stomach. Joyce painstakingly documents the activities, beliefs, and effects of the Quiverfull movement, particularly its efforts to convince women that their subjugation is done at God’s behest. (Men do not appear to need as much convincing.) And if you do the math (12-15 children per couple…multiply it out a few generations) you will see how demographically dangerous the Quiverfull movement is. You can’t count on the kids rebelling and moving to the west coast to shack up and follow their bliss. Only the gay ones will do that. At least I hope they will.
Best not to be taken by surprise where social trends are concerned. And watch that slippery slope.
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Comments
Makes me think I need to have 10 more kids... not to thwart my own career or submit myself to God's will - but to try to balance out the demographics!
Tiff, I had the same thought. But, no.
Interesting review. I'm curious to read the arguements used to convince women that this is the way they're supposed to live, although, in a way, I can see how this life might actually appeal to some women--those who see the world as a scary place and don't want to deal with it, and hand over all control to a man. (This is Daylily from Xanga, BTW.)
Subordinate, you say? In all ways, you say?
Hmmmm....
Nah, my wife would never go for it.
Bad_Dogma...I should think not.
Scary.
A radical feminist with the whomping heebie jeebies!
I liked the video - Joel knew it from his childhood (his mom was such a good feminist! I love my mother-in-law!). I'd never seen it, but then we lived in North Dakota...
I am infinitely disturbed by the quiverfull movement. I have been for years. My husband's philosophy is rather than numbers, superior firepower. And he's got the bulletproof vests to back it all up!
To me, the most startling part of Joyce's book Quiverfull, is the section towards the back entitled "Daughters." Actually, I am ashamed to admit that I used to look at Anna Sophia and Elizabeth Botkins with awe and envy ~ why couldn't my girls comprehend these Visionary Daughters' inspiring insight on godly femininity? I actually bought So Much More: The Remarkable Influence of Visionary Daughters on the Kingdom of God for Angel's birthday and sent it to her in Nashville in the hopes that she would finally understand how much simpler her life would be if only she could "get" the idea that the only way to true liberation and peace is to follow her father and submit herself to his authority.
When I talked to Kathryn Joyce over the phone as she was interviewing me for an article on Salon.com, I told her I found it very affirming that for most of the book, she simply sticks to quoting the movement leaders ~ often with no commentary at all. "What that said to me," I explained, "is that to those who aren't steeped in this particular worldview, the craziness of it all is self-evident. There's no need to say, 'This is total crap!' because anyone who isn't already convinced can clearly see that it's truly insane to try and live this way."
Something else I really appreciate about this book ~ Quiverfull puts the whole movement on display all at once. The reason this is important is that for most families, getting into this lifestyle is a step-by-step process ~ a progression from "peculiar" to seriously bizarre which takes place incrementally over a period of many years
Twenty years ago, if I would have read Quiverfull, I believe seeing the big picture of where we were headed would have shocked us enough to cause me to take a good, hard look ~ no doubt, I'd have gone elsewhere in my search for solutions to the everyday problems of family life. No way could you interest me in a harsh, demanding lifestyle of lots of babies (well, you still maybe could have convinced me of that part, since I do love babies), home schooling, home birth, home business, home church, no children's programs, no teenagers (Quiverfullers do not have teenagers), no dating, parents choosing their children's spouses, husband making all the decisions and wife not daring to make the slightest commitment without first obtaining her husband's approval, no TV, only G- and some PG-rated movies, and absolutely NO Harry Potter.
Taken as a whole ~ there really is no appeal to the Quiverfull / patriarchy lifestyle ~ no matter how "biblical" it is and how "godly" a family might become by following those God-ordained family roles. It is my contention that this way of living is a package deal. Once a family takes that first step ~ if they're living it logically and consistently ~ they'll eventually find themselves living out pretty much the whole program ~ the "Vision" which, in its entirety ~ as clearly depicted in "Quiverfull" ~ turns out, in practicality, to be a very real, living nightmare.
Vyckie from No Longer Quivering
Thanks so much for coming by, Vyckie!
Most of them follow a guy named Bill Gothard. I wanted to find out more about this guy and his teachings. It is creepy. He isnt even married let alone kids. Seems a bit hypocritical. Gothard and his followers made big fuss over cabbage patch dolls when they first came out saying they are evil. He tells what to eat, wear, and tells them not to use credit cards or borrow money. Rock music and dancing is forbidden. The girls and boys too sometimes live with parents until they get married. The Duggars on TLC are deep into this movement.. They place way too much emphasis on kids if you ask me. Honestly I thought people had minds of their own in the 21st century. If you ask them about Andrea Yates they just say her heart wasnt in it or some other excuse.
i am quiverfull its about serving Jesus and we are in the world not OF the world. i am a Chirstian CONVERT to this movement. i plan on homeschooling my children and i am fifteen yr. old and i am in the 10th grade
I am a traditional Roman Catholic and I am appalled by what the Quiverfull movement teaches. In Scripture Paul calls wives to submit to their husbands AND husbands to lay down their lives for their wives. True, only one can steer the boat, but a captain that doesn't listen to anyone else in the crew is going to sink the ship. And yes, the Bible calls us to be open to life and to not contracept (Onan's sin), but we are also called to be responsible stewards and given grave reason (St. Paul says couples should consider prayerfully refraining) and the modern methods of Natural Family Planning nail times of ovulation to a T so there is no guessing as in the older rythm methods
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It's All Right to Cry About Scary Misogynists
Gungaboy says:
7 months ago
Wow. That's the same philosophy the Mormons use and they've gone from 6 to 13 million members in a little over 30 years. I can't imagine people actually joining them of their own free will, but if you have seven or eight kids and each of them does the same by age 28, (you can do it easy if you start when you're 16) then you can double the size of your membership fast even with the Gay and lesbian apostates, and those who overcome the brain washing by going to a liberal east coast college.