Post by nell65 on Apr 19, 2009 9:57:29 GMT -5
Hi, I'm Nell. I am 42, two children, an academic (history) currently living in South America with my kids. My husband and I are *very slowly* working our way toward divorce, which was at one time a great and crushing disappointment to me but at this point I feel as though I've been at last sprung from a prison I didn't know I was in. I've been reading along for about a month now, but haven't posted anything yet. Reading all the wonderful introductions here has finally prodded me out of my lurker status!
I followed a link Aimai put on another board - probably a politics board? Pandagon? LGM? Alicublog? - and found NLQ. I had read the Salon article when it first went up, and from my long time reading and occasional posting on feminist boards I have been aware of the Quiverfull for several years, but without Aimai's link - probably wouldn't have found my way here. I am so glad I did click on it, because I've been hooked ever since. So - thank you Laura and Vickie for creating this space, and Aimai for the first linking!
In my own life I'm a long time atheist. I probably always was despite my life long membership in the Episcopal Church, though I only acknowledged it in my late 20s, preferring to call myself agnostic for many years prior to that. I do, however, still belong to a church (back in the US) and have -- more or less -- raised my children within that tradition. Why? I love the people and the fellowship, and, well, I think ultimately it is better to wrestle with organized religion and leave it than look at it from the outside and wonder, and perhaps be more open to the PR of the more charismatic and fundamentalist traditions. I guess, written like that, I think of it as a kind of 'spiritual inoculation'! ;-)
I think what I have enjoyed most - and found most absorbing about reading here, Vickie and Laura's stories, and all the many other stories revealed in the comments - is the way the Patriarchy of QF is merely the logical endpoint of the patriarchal structures that surround all of us, in particular through the lens of marriage and personal experience. My not-quite-ex husband and I, both of us left-leaning academics, feminists and generally all round self identified members of the 'reality-based' left - never really noticed as our own marriage slowly drifted ever closer to the rocks of traditional patriarchal practices -- until it was too late and there was nothing left but to cushion our children against the crash and then start picking up the wreckage.
So, thank you all!
I followed a link Aimai put on another board - probably a politics board? Pandagon? LGM? Alicublog? - and found NLQ. I had read the Salon article when it first went up, and from my long time reading and occasional posting on feminist boards I have been aware of the Quiverfull for several years, but without Aimai's link - probably wouldn't have found my way here. I am so glad I did click on it, because I've been hooked ever since. So - thank you Laura and Vickie for creating this space, and Aimai for the first linking!
In my own life I'm a long time atheist. I probably always was despite my life long membership in the Episcopal Church, though I only acknowledged it in my late 20s, preferring to call myself agnostic for many years prior to that. I do, however, still belong to a church (back in the US) and have -- more or less -- raised my children within that tradition. Why? I love the people and the fellowship, and, well, I think ultimately it is better to wrestle with organized religion and leave it than look at it from the outside and wonder, and perhaps be more open to the PR of the more charismatic and fundamentalist traditions. I guess, written like that, I think of it as a kind of 'spiritual inoculation'! ;-)
I think what I have enjoyed most - and found most absorbing about reading here, Vickie and Laura's stories, and all the many other stories revealed in the comments - is the way the Patriarchy of QF is merely the logical endpoint of the patriarchal structures that surround all of us, in particular through the lens of marriage and personal experience. My not-quite-ex husband and I, both of us left-leaning academics, feminists and generally all round self identified members of the 'reality-based' left - never really noticed as our own marriage slowly drifted ever closer to the rocks of traditional patriarchal practices -- until it was too late and there was nothing left but to cushion our children against the crash and then start picking up the wreckage.
So, thank you all!
