I have a confession. I am ashamed of it, but last night I watched Wife Swap. Now, I am not one of those people who rants and raves and claims to hate reality t.v. It's not my favorite and I mourn the death of the truly funny sitcom, but there are some reality shows I like and others that are just the proverbial train wreck. I can't stop watching. But Wife Swap has always appalled me. I think it's very strange and it seems to really encourage drama in families. I also think they do a poor job of manipulating the situations and of scripting (because we know they are all scripted, right?). Because of this, I've only ever made it through 15 minutes or so. Last night was different, however, because both families intrigued me. Both were Christians. One was an extremely conservative family with 5 or 6 children. The children are home-schooled and the mother teaches all of the girls to serve the men of the family. None of the children are allowed to date until they are ready to be married, presumably when they are out of college. The women are being trained to be mothers and wives and not allowed to think of being anything else. The other family is extremely liberal. The father is a former pastor and a devout student of scripture. He is a stay at home dad and does all of the cooking and cleaning. The mom is a career woman.
The interaction between the women and their "new" families was really interesting. I was almost more disappointed in the liberal family than the Bible-thumpers. I know the producers manipulated the interactions to make them appear more extreme, but I feel like the liberal Christians had less tolerance and more judgment than the conservatives. Don't get me wrong. I was appalled that the conservatives admitted to brainwashing their children and that they squashed their 13 year old daughters attempts to think for herself, but the so-called liberals simply were not willing to even consider that these people might just have a different world-view than them.
I think I struggle with the things that disappointed me in this liberal family. I preach tolerance, but often I am the most intolerant of those I am trying to convince to practice it. Frankly, the conservative family on this show seemed to be happier and have a better connection as a family than the liberals. I think some of it was false and some of it was the result of some broken spirits, so I don't condone or envy it, but I also didn't come away wanting to have the life that the so-called liberal couple had either.
The show was so extreme and I left sad that the world was not able to see two positive examples of the way Christians can differ in their world views, but still be respectful of women.
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One mother and wife's attempt to reconcile her faith, her femininity and her independence. I have it all, now what do I do with it?
I am a mother of two boys. I am a recovering lawyer and a wife. I am a Christian and some would consider me a liberal. I usually vote Democrat.
I am part of a unique generation of women who are living in the implications of feminism. We've been told all our lives that we could have it all, so we got it all, and now we don't know what to do with it. This is part of my attempt to make sense of that. If you want to read about what started this all, here is my first post.
I am part of a unique generation of women who are living in the implications of feminism. We've been told all our lives that we could have it all, so we got it all, and now we don't know what to do with it. This is part of my attempt to make sense of that. If you want to read about what started this all, here is my first post.
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