Saturday, August 16, 2008

Why I hate weddings

I had a long post planned, but it boils down to this:

A reading was given at the wedding I attended today about how the Bible sees marriage. Apparently the main thing it has to say (according to this reading) is that if there is an argument between husband and wife, and they cannot reach an agreement, then the wife must submit to her husband.

As an Equality and Diversity Adviser I was appalled. But it was my friends wedding, and I had to bite my tongue and seethe.

Aside: As a grumpy singleton who keeps getting wedding invites, I'm considering buying a ruined wedding dress and some toy spiders so I can attend as Miss Havisham

8 comments:

Lynn Jones said...

She must submit? That's b*ll*cks. I'd like to think the feminist genie is way too far out of the bottle for any of that to wash.

There was me thinking marriage was a partnership :)

PS: I hope you enjoyed the rest of the wedding tho!

PPS: Do you want to be Miss Haversham so you can drive a fast car? (see Jasper Fforde :D )

Lara Tyg said...

Fortunately the hipocrasy of most modern church weddings means that most folk don't pay attention to the vows they make.

But you are right, what a dreadful position.

Did she know & agree to this prior to the day ?

M said...

"Did she know & agree to this prior to the day ?"

Yeah, I was wondering about that as well! If I were the bride I would feel three times more furious than you were.

Pandora Caitiff said...

Fortunately it was just a reading (like the mother reading from Corinthians, or the bridesmaid reading a poem) so it wasn't part of the ceremony itself. And the bride is very independent anyway.

The actual vows were "love, cherish and protect" rather than the old fashioned "love, honour and obey".

In fact when my mother got married back in the 70s she refused to have the "obey" bit in her vows. Feminism is alive and well.

@Lynn: Yes. (although I've only read as far as The Well of Lost Plots)

Lucie G said...

These things, I notice take a long time to be updated, long after society has moved along.

Take care, we all know what happened to Miss Haversham.

Shinigami Liz said...

Ah, good ole religion, considering that it has killed more people than any other type of human-made conception I tend to ignore it for the most part. It pretty much is a good idea that got twisted by the fanatics and went bad ('gasp' I said something bad about religion, I must be evil then.) I never cared for weddings mostly because they represented something beyond my own personal grasp (although that may not be the case in a couple more years if I happen to find the right guy lol.) Hope that it was an enjoyable time other than the 'bad speech.'

Anonymous said...

Its in the bible, You should read it sometime

Pandora Caitiff said...

Ah the bravery of anonymous!

I have read the bible. I've also *studied* it.

Remember Leviticus? The one that says adulterers are to be put to death by stoning? Or that men may beat their wives if they are out of line? Or that it is forbidden to wear clothing made from more than one fabric?

Should they be obeyed too?