Michelle Bachmann

This is a quote from Michelle Bachmann, who is a congresswoman from Minnesota:

"Why should I go and do something like that? But the Lord says, 'Be submissive wives; you are to be submissive to your husbands." -Rep. Michele Bachmann, recalling in a 2006 speech at a Megachurch in Minneapolis that pursuing tax law wasn't her choice, but she did so at the urging of her husband because she was certain God was speaking through him.

It made me think about the question that we discussed in class...Can you be a feminist and a true Christian? I think that it is rather doubtful, honestly. If you are very strict in what you follow in Christianity, and you take the Bible literally, then I do not believe that you can be a feminist because it states in the Bible that men are dominant over women (if not directly stated, then it is implied quite a bit!). If you believe that is true then you would have no interest in sticking up for yourself as a women, or in sticking up for other women because you believe that they should be submissive to their fathers, boyfriends, husbands, men in general, etc.

But I must ask, why would women just want to give up like that? What I mean is, why would a woman read in the Bible that she should be submissive to her husband and then say "Oh, okay. Sure! I'll be completely submissive. That sounds great to me!" Maybe someone can shed some light on that for me, because I'm not quite understanding it. It makes me think of de Beauvoir and he stance on "the One" and "the Other." Maybe it is just easier if you are a true Christian and a women to become "the Other" because then you are not going against your religion, and you probably get special perks for that as well (as de Beauvoir points out).

But what do you do if you are a woman, a true Christian, but you do not want to be submissive? I think it would cause a lot if internal struggle for you and be a very hard thing to overcome. I cannot really think of a way to remedy that situation. Can you?