Reply #11: Jinx! I just wrote the same thing. I "borrowed" a fundy written book that my mother kept on her [View All]

[EmilyAnne]

bedside table for many years. Its called "In the Hands of a Woman." It is both hilarious and frightening and many drunken college nights would involve my animated readings of it to my friends who were so fascinated with the crazy way I was raised. I had a lot of friends in the Womens' Studies program who would borrow the book from time to time. It became famous in my circle of friends and years later, we can still quote directly from it.

One chapter deals with the selfish women who deprive God of his rightful dominion over her womb and how the should be dealt with by the church. The writer argues that IF and only If there is a true biological reason for her to not carry children, she should be pitied rather than scorned (how sweet), but that she should always explain her circumstances to the people she meets so no one gets the wrong idea and decides to follow her role and choose to remain childless. She should be careful to not seem too happy about it and shouldn't spend too much time worrying about her appearance and going on fancy vacations or engaging in a lot of leisure activities lest she glamorize childlessness! Bat shit lunacy. I was raised by a woman who believed in this bullshit for most of her life and I still deal with a sort of internalized misogyny that has been very difficult to own up to. I want to have a child, but sometimes I am afraid to have a daughter because I may subconsciously view her as inferior to males. It scares me.