Greetings gentle posters,
I have been inspired to write this by the following quotes from various posters on a thread started by Amnesian titled THE EX-[ELDERS] FILES: EYES WIDE SHUT.
The following was quoted by Amnesian from various responses to a thread started by Amazing titled: EX-JW WOMEN, YOUR SIDE.
Thanks for asking!…Thank you Amazing for asking that question…Just my 2 cents. Thanks for letting me share…Amazing, this is a great topic!…Amazing, great idea…Thanks for starting this thread Amazing…What an excellent topic. It is so healing to be able to say how we really feel and felt…I love this thread…There is something about this topic that usually causes a burning desire for our voice to be heard…Thanks...great thread…Thank you Amazing for starting this thread…This is an excellent thread because so many JW women are oppressed…
I will quote a few responses to Anmesian’s thread that intrigued me:
Also some women who still carry over the ladylike civility a la WTS. You'll know them by their posts. They bought into that definition of 'the good woman' but forgot to return that old used up costume to the store lol. Real assertive competant outspoken women scare them,because they havent realized the status quo changed long ago. Pollyana is dead and buried. Civil=little ladylike kow-towing here.And this from a male:
If these comments weren't so tragically sad they would be downright sickening. It reminds me of the exact same inability to speak up for the distress women feel within the brotherhood (emphasis on "brother") that is the Spiritual Paradise. So much pain and misery not allowed to surface and men walking around acting as they have all the answers but knowing all the while that they don't.And also this:
You no longer speak from behind the authority of the podium at the KH and women are no longer hostages held in your audience with no choice but to give the impression of sitting in quiet rapture, “lapping” whatever concoction you’re ladling if they wish to “earn” G-O-D’s approval.
Except for the first one provided, I do not match the posters to their various quotes for a reason. My objective is not to call them out, and duke it out via this forum, but only to provide my inspiration in the starting of this thread. I wish to make it abundantly clear, that I have NO ax to grind with anyone on this discussion board. However, I do have a somewhat different perspective and the desire to share it.
I also harbor no personal animosity towards Amazing. When I write about elders, I am not referring to him. I, myself, have found insight in his posts.
First off, a little info about; Moi. I was raised with the unfortunate “privilege” of having my own personal “elder/Jehovah”. Self-appointed by my JW Father. I know the smothering hand of oppression up close. And I have experienced the frustration of having the message sent, covertly, and overtly, that because I was born a female, my thoughts, opinions, dreams, and ambitions were trivial, silly, and just a plain waste of time. That my very existence on this planet was a burden to be carried by the stronger, wiser, and proudly swaggering, males, that traveled in my universe, and that I should know my place and keepeth my mouth shut.
So, here’s where I take a deep cleansing breath, and offer my various musings on a little ditty I like to call:
BURNING THE WATCHTOWER BRA
It seems like another lifetime that those “little pearls of Patriarchy” were planted in my impressionable mind. I’m older and wiser now, and know, really KNOW, who and WHAT I am. What is acceptable and what is not to me. If some ex-elder feels compelled, by old habits, to fall back on his “Elder-EASE”, I really couldn’t care less. I understand that many others here are less understanding. Yet, some women who have been silent on the subject of their roll, or rather, lack of, in the WTs, or when asked to give evidence of their experience, are highlighted as still in the grips of submissive female WT mentality. Also, that the silence of other females indicates their fear of even sharing at all. So frightened are they of being challenged and ridiculed. That may be true in some cases, but not in all.
Is subjection a condition taken on by women that desire not to divulge their personal experiences? Or, when they do offer their perspective, and include a polite, “thank you” for being asked, are still under the thumb of the Society?
And if the asker is a male, a former elder, if her contribution is not riddled with in yer face sarcasm, and indignant fist-raising, she’s the cowering little woman still in the clutches of twisted Borg “sisterisms”.
Well, maybe not.
I know that many women here, on this discussion board, are in various stages of shedding their WT mannerisms. However, some have chosen not to throw the manners out, only the, opinion stifling, WT isms. Perhaps they don’t need to go to the mat with every puffed-up, full- of- himself, male, who thinks he can “show the little lady a thing or two”. They react with mild bemusement when encountering his imagined superiority. They are way beyond anger. It’s more of a reaction of indifference. Elders, whether they be, current, or former, have NO POWER in their lives anymore. It’s her party and she’ll be polite, or quiet,for that matter, if she wants to. They don’t need to feel pissed off and hurl personal insults in order to feel liberated. They are liberated! Their Watchtower brassiers are nothing more than a few wind-blown ashes floating away into a clear blue sky.
However, I understand, usually , that some EX-JW women need to vent, sometimes angrily, about their years of frustration and stolen dignity. Sensitive they are to, what they consider to be, condescending elderisms. Fine. In my opinion, however, civility doesn’t equate with subjection, and biting sarcasm doesn’t equate with liberation.
GDW