This is probably the creepiest video you will watch this week:. . . yeah.Old Fashioned is a Christian movie alternative to Fifty Shades of Grey, released the same day last week. In the above video, the producers of Old Fashioned compare the hero of Old Fashioned, Clay, with Christian Grey, and frankly, it's not flattering---to either of them.In fact, I found this advertisement so bad I ended up transcribing it:It’s a hard thing for a dad to accept any man as being worthy of hi … [Read more...]
Evangelical Christianity’s Patriarchal Alternative to Fifty Shades of Grey
February 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Fifty Shades of Disagreement: Evangelicals and Feminists on Fifty Shades of Grey
February 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment
I've avoided discussing Fifty Shades of Grey, but I do feel the need to touch on a specific aspect of the controversy that surrounds the book (and now, the film). Namely, I'm fascinated that feminists and evangelical Christians have been the book's most vocal critics. The two would seem unlikely allies! But then, while both groups have tended to condemn Fifty Shades of Grey as toxic, they aren't truly allies in this, because they oppose the books for completely different reasons. Feminists speak … [Read more...]
Do Traditional Gender Roles Lead to Good Sex? No.
December 25, 2014 by Leave a Comment
I recently read a blog post from several years ago that had me doing that whole "but . . . wait . . . what . . . NO" thing throughout my reading of it. I thought I'd share, because illustrates something we've seen before---the idea that anything good in a marriage must of necessity be a result of following the gender roles God laid out, not, you know, a result of things like communication or compromise. I've covered posts in the past by women who are functionally living in egalitarian marriages … [Read more...]
Male Sexual Entitlement, Again
December 4, 2014 by Leave a Comment
While googling something else, I recently came upon a rather horrifying article titled The Secret to Keeping Him Committed, from a Guy's Point of View on Simon & Schuster's Tips on Life and Love. This isn't a religious website, but it echoes many of the ideas I heard growing up in a conservative evangelical church and community.On a larger scale, the thing that most faithful men complain about is that they can’t get sex when they want it in a committed relationship. When a man is single o … [Read more...]
“He’ll never by the cow when he can get the milk for free”
December 3, 2014 by Leave a Comment
I recently noted this comment between readers on one of my blog posts. trinity91Oh god, did your mom use the old "He'll never buy the cow when he can get the milk for free" idiom on you too? So, let's talk about this, because I did grow up hearing this idiom. When I was a teen, my parents told me that if I were to have sex with a man, he would have no reason to marry me, because he would have already gotten what he wanted. I was also told that once a man had gotten what he wanted---i.e. … [Read more...]
“The reason was ‘sex might happen'”
November 26, 2014 by Leave a Comment
I appreciated this recent comment by reader smrynda:I got a real world look at something like purity culture when a friend of mine decided to try to meet guys online. She went on a date with a self-professed evangelical Christian and then afterwards, he made a big point that he would not go into her residence. The reason was 'sex might happen.' She said she was totally not having sex with him, but his reason was 'I trust you but not met.' So my friend asked him, 'are you admitting you are … [Read more...]
Sex and Respect
November 19, 2014 by Leave a Comment
A recent post got me thinking about what led me to give up the idea that a man choosing to wait until marriage to have sex with his significant other was a sign of respect for her. There was a time, of course, when I held this view very strongly. I had been raised to view that any young man who would even consider having sex with a young woman before marriage did not respect her, and that any relationship built on that foundation would be troubled.While in college I met a young man---Sean. I … [Read more...]
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