As a rule, I don’t follow The Transformed Wife, aka Lori Alexander, working woman turned 50s era evangelical housewife guru. I find her views short-sighted, offensive, incredibly stupid, and infuriating. However, someone in the Duggar Family News group shared news of her most recent post, and that led me to take a look at it myself. The poster in the Duggar group had taken someone following Lori’s page to task over misinterpreting an episode of Little House on the Prairie. Since I am, myself, a fan of Little House, I took notice of that post, which was really about how worried Lori is about Joe Biden’s choice of a replacement justice for the Supreme Court when Justice Stephen Breyer retires this summer. Below is a screenshot of Lori’s post:
Christ, she’s dumb!
I wish Lori and her ilk had more concern for people who have already been born. However, I understand that the unborn make for a convenient cause, since they can’t be disloyal. And, on the surface of it, who supports “murder”? People like Lori use loaded legal terms like “murder” to describe abortion, but they don’t seem to have the same concern for children who have already been born and don’t have the basic necessities of life. They preach about Democrats being “socialists” who don’t care about unborn babies, but then they vote in selfish, incompetent, narcissistic asshats like Donald Trump, who do everything they can to penalize people for being poor, which makes it much harder for babies and children to thrive.
I look at the world today, and all of the many problems we have… the many people who suffer because they don’t have what they need, and have no means of getting what they need. Why do we need more people in the world, competing for scarce resources? Why should we encourage people who aren’t ready or don’t want to be parents to reproduce? Why should we shame people who can’t or won’t have children? According to Lori, my whole life has been wrong, since I don’t have any babies to nurture. It’s not because I didn’t want them. That’s just how life worked out for me.
Then I look at Lori’s followers, many of whom are just nuts. Below is the screenshot of the discussion about Little House on the Prairie— seriously? Does the world need more people who think like this?
Good God.
God forbid some women would rather not spend their lives on their backs with their legs spread for guys like Nathan…
I was feeling crappy and unfulfilled yesterday, but felt better when I woke up this morning. Then I saw Lori’s proclamation that my life should have been spent pumping out babies who would grow up coping with COVID-19 and climate change, among many other depressing issues to deal with in life. I used to want to have children, but now I’m glad I didn’t have them, because things just keep getting more and more extreme and weird, with people like Lori promoting their anti-woman platforms to the masses.
Before anyone points this out to me, I realize that by writing about this, I’m helping to expand Lori’s platform. But, as I mentioned above, I don’t follow Lori at all, except for when people who do follow her point out her more egregiously ridiculous statements on life. And then I see that there are people out there who take her seriously. She has thousands of followers, and most of them aren’t there to snark on her nonsense.
Do we really need to add to the collective idiocy of this group by having more babies?
And on and on it goes… and this is just ONE of her posts.
Actually, sometimes people have abortions for reasons besides “fornication”, that are no one else’s business but theirs. I don’t see a lot of these conservative and religious types clamoring for more affordable healthcare and facilities for the elderly and disabled that provide safe, competent, and humane treatment for those deemed a “drain on the system”.
The stupid hurts. It really does. Gosh, she’s just so dumb.
A Black woman wrote the first post. She seems concerned that Biden will likely choose someone like her to take Breyer’s spot. Then she writes about how Planned Parenthood is a “racist organization” that commits murder.
No matter who Joe Biden chooses, the Republicans will do what they can to delay the new Supreme Court Justice from being confirmed until midterm elections. It doesn’t matter that Trump pushed two wholly terrifying and inappropriate people into the Supreme Court so that Roe v Wade might be quashed. It doesn’t matter that Amy Coney Barrett took a seat just weeks before the 2020 presidential election and was an actual “handmaid” before she was a judge. God forbid progressive people have a voice in the Supreme Court instead of people who want to pull us back to the 15th century. It doesn’t matter that Brett Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault and heavy drinking during his youth. Seems to me that the Supreme Court should be made up of people who are above reproach, and with the number of Americans who have law degrees, there ought to be qualified people who fit the bill better than Trump’s choices. Joe Biden better have the chance to find someone to balance out Trump’s disastrous picks.
I wonder how long it will take before the poster who praised Kamala Harris gets deleted and banned… That’s what Lori does when people post things that go against her warped, backwards views.
In spite of my complaints, I’m glad Lori has the right to speak her mind, even if I think her mind is completely fucked and her opinions are frightening. But it disturbs me that so many people, male and female, seem to agree with her. Am I really an outlier? Did our mothers and grandmothers really fight all those years for freedom, just so Lori and her followers can demand that women get back into the kitchen and on their backs with their legs spread for impregnation? It just boggles the mind. She really should read up on Romania in the 70s, 80s, and 90s… you want to talk about sad? That’s pretty sad… and that was a “socialist” state run by a madman who wanted women to have babies instead of living fulfilling lives.
Not everyone wants to be a mother (or father). Not everyone should be a mother (or a father). And many of us would rather not live in a culture dominated by religion. It seems to me that if that’s what Lori wants, there are places around the world where she can go that route. I’ve written about some of the cults that promote her views. Why doesn’t she join one of them and shut up? After all, she’s a woman, and women don’t have the right to work, have an opinion, or express themselves. They were put on the earth to breed. /sarcasm
What I really need is an educational Facebook post, like this one… I think I learned more from the squirrel than Lori Alexander’s feed.
Meh… after yesterday’s angry post, I can barely summon the ire to write about The Transformed Wife today. I’m feeling kind of apathetic and over it all. It didn’t help that Howard Hesseman, aka Dr. Johnny Fever of WKRP in Cincinnati died a couple of days ago. I loved that show when I was a kid. It was genuinely funny, and had great music, and was so well-written that it stands up even forty years since its last episode aired. Granted, Howard Hesseman was 81 years old, so he had a good run. We all have to die someday. But still, I genuinely liked him, so it sucks that he’s gone. I liked him in Police Academy 2, and on Head of the Class, too. May he rest in eternal peace.
Bill will be gone in a few hours, and hopefully I’ll see him Friday. Maybe I’ll do something worthwhile this week. Maybe the sun will even come out long enough to dry out the backyard and I can work on destroying the rest of the tree that fell over a few weeks ago before it kills the grass. I’m ready for spring. If I make it to spring…
Before I get started with today’s post, let me state upfront that I don’t regularly follow “The Transformed Wife”, aka Lori Alexander. I do occasionally write about some of the dumb things she posts on social media, especially when they get people especially spun up in tizzies. I have a pretty high tolerance for stupid postings, though, so it’s not that often that I feel moved to opine about Lori’s commentary. I understand that she probably believes the stuff she writes, but I think most of it is laughable, and I generally don’t see the need to give her a platform.
I’m writing about her today because yesterday someone in the Duggar Family News group decided to do a little trolling on The Transformed Wife’s Facebook page. She asked Lori Alexander what she thought of the Duggar parents. I can’t find the specific post in question, but Lori– true to form– was quick to block the rabble rouser. But then she posted this…
There are no “perfect” parents, true… but I don’t think I would call Ma and Pa Duggar “very good parents”.
Lori Alexander explains that Josh Duggar “made his own choices”, and Jim Bob and Michelle shouldn’t be blamed for Josh’s choices. Well yes, Josh is an adult and he did make his own choices. But there were many signs, when he was still years before adulthood, that he needed significant help. At the very least, his siblings needed to be protected from him. Didn’t we hear Jim Bob say to Megyn Kelly that Josh had come to Jim Bob and Michelle in tears and told them what he had done to his sisters? Wouldn’t this be a sign that Josh needed assistance with a big problem? But they did nothing effective to address this issue.
This interview was full of untruths and half truths. I remember watching it in June 2015 and stating that the Duggar parents were lying through their teeth. I remember a now former Facebook friend taking me to task for stating that this interview was full of bullshit. Based on the results of this week, I was right.
In the above interview, Jim Bob and Michelle said that all of the children had professional counseling. They also said that Josh paid for his own counseling. We now know from Justin’s and Julia’s podcast that Josh just got his head shaved, and his “very good parents” sent him to do hard labor for a family friend for a few months. The “professional counseling” certainly didn’t come from a licensed mental health professional. It came via a stern lecture from a former cop, who is now in prison, himself, as a sex offender, and in the form of interrogations from religious leaders. Jim Bob also said that Josh touched the girls over their clothes while they were sleeping. Also, clearly untrue. Then at the sixteen minute mark, Jim Bob and Michelle explicitly state that their son isn’t a pedophile (or, more accurately, a child molester).
The year before that interview with Megyn Kelly, Michelle Duggar did a robocall urging Arkansans not to support a bill allowing transgender people to use restrooms that apply to their genders. She claimed transgender people are deviants who automatically put women and children at risk. Where was their concern for their daughters, who were clearly at risk with their sexually deviant brother still living at home?
The hypocrisy is astonishing.
But… I think the biggest sign that these two aren’t “very good parents” is that all of this stuff happened as many as 20 years ago or so, years before this family became reality TV stars. They knew their son had a problem, which allegedly began when he was as young as 12, but they chose to go on television anyway. They held themselves up as an example of an “ideal” Christian family. They got away with the deception for well over a decade before reality smacked everyone upside the head.
Then, once the truth came out, not only about Josh as a teen, but also about Josh as a philandering and sexually violent adult, Jim Bob still wanted to pimp out his adult children on reality TV! He was behind the new reality show, Counting On, which focused on the lives of his adult children who weren’t sex pests. And then he didn’t even pay them for their work! One of the reasons Jill Dillard is estranged from the family is that she sued her father so that she and Derick could be paid for their contributions to Counting On. I think I read that Jill finally got the equivalent of minimum wage for her work on the show. I doubt the rest of the “kids” got a similar payment.
I think raising children to be independent is the mark of a good parent. And yet here’s Jim Bob Duggar with quite a few adult children still living in homes that he owns, working for him, and completely dependent on him for their livelihoods, which he apparently doles out as he alone sees fit. The adults who are still being supported by Jim Bob are certainly not free to voice their opinions, and they must be loyal to Jim Bob or risk being cut off financially and shunned by the rest of the family. The adult children who have managed to be independent are somewhat on the fringes of the family, which now seems like the better place to be. But it also means that the youngest children don’t get exposure to their more independent siblings and in-laws, who might show them the possibilities of life beyond the Duggar compound.
So… while I agree with Lori that there are no “perfect parents”, I also think that there’s ample evidence to suggest that Jim Bob and Michelle are anything but “very good parents”. In fact, I think it’s pretty shameful that they did all they could to protect golden boy Josh from facing the consequences of his despicable actions, yet marginalize their daughters, Jill and Jinger, who were not only Josh’s victims, but were also smart enough to marry educated men and get the fuck away from Jim Bob’s toxic influence and control!
I’m sure if I really felt like it, I could sit here and think of all of the crazy stuff that has been said and done by this family over the years they’ve been on the airwaves. I can think of all of the fucked up and bizarre parenting and discipline techniques and methods I’ve seen on their show. Let’s put it this way. Before the Duggars were a thing, I didn’t know what “blanket training” was. I didn’t know the significance of the word “Nike!” (having the guys look at their shoes when a woman showing too much skin walked by– it obviously didn’t work). Outside of the film, Carrie, I had never heard of a prayer closet, nor did I know anything about Bill Gothard, or the wacko beliefs in the Gothard cult. I’ll admit, it’s all interesting stuff to me, or I wouldn’t read and write about it so much. But I don’t know that the Duggar family has contributed much to making America great again.
In fact, just last night, the news broke that eldest daughter, Jana Duggar is also in trouble with the law. In September, she was issued a summons for reckless endangerment of a child. She’s due in court next month. I don’t know the specifics of Jana’s case, but I do think that she probably wouldn’t have gotten into trouble with the law if there weren’t so many babies and children in the Duggar household that need constant supervision. And, if you’ve followed this show at all, you know that Michelle Duggar routinely handed off her babies to her eldest daughters to raise. Now that Michelle is a granny, the grandchildren are apparently being minded by Aunt Jana.
It’s certainly true that the adult children “make their own choices”, but they were not raised in an environment where they had a lot of one on one time with their parents. In fact, they were mostly raised on camera, which is definitely not the ideal place for a person to grow up healthy. Childhood is a time when people should be free to make and learn from mistakes. It’s a time when people should be protected and nurtured. I see little evidence that the Duggar parents did a lot of nurturing. How could they? They were always on TV, and they were always focused on having the next child– a “gift from God”– who would inevitably be passed to an older female sibling to raise.
I do think that Jim Bob and Michelle should share in the blame for what has happened. For years, we’ve watched them try to build a fundie Christian “empire” of sorts. Jim Bob’s blockheaded behavior was passed off as almost endearing. He was seen as a “protective dad”. But now, I see him as possessive and autocratic. Below is a quote from People Magazine in 2015:
“Jim Bob’s favorite word is ‘no,’ ” a family source tells People. “He’s like a dictator. He once saw a guy kissing a girl before marriage and confronted him about it. And the guy said, ‘Jim Bob, show me that verse in the Bible that says we can’t kiss. Get out your Bible.’ And Jim Bob was like, ‘Uhhhh …’ because no one ever confronts Jim Bob. No one.“
Adds a second source: “Jim Bob calls the shots. Always has and always will.”
In this wedding video, at around the 42 minute mark, you can see Jim Bob Duggar actually LEAD Ben Seewald by the necktie, as if he’s a dog, because the tie is wrinkled. Look at Ben’s face. He appears to be humiliated. And if he doesn’t take off the tie, he will literally have to bow down to Jim Bob while it gets ironed.
So, even if someone tried to speak up to Jim Bob about what was obviously going wrong, he would have shut them down, cut them out, and gotten any mutual associates to disassociate with them. Jim Bob even displayed his arrogant and dictatorial attitudes at Josh’s trial. When he was asked about Josh’s admissions regarding victimizing his sisters and their babysitter, Jim Bob repeatedly said he couldn’t remember. And then he objected to the line of questioning. Jim Bob said to Judge Timothy L. Brooks, “I’m not going to allow it, are you going to allow for that?”
Judge Brooks, to his credit, replied “If there is [an] objection to be made, someone will make it but it won’t be you.”
Every time negative press came out about Josh, the Duggars would either deny that anything was wrong, or they would write “pretty” statements for the media, condemning Josh’s “choices”. Below is the statement Jim Bob and Michelle posted about Josh’s “actions” in 2015:
“As parents we are so deeply grieved by our son’s decisions and actions. His wrong choices have deeply hurt his precious wife and children and have negatively affected so many others. He has also brought great insult to the values and faith we hold dear.”
In spite of Jim Bob’s “dictatorial” behavior, Josh still made “choices” that insulted the family. Instead of ostracizing him, as he and Michelle have done to a couple of their daughters, Jim Bob was all about supporting Josh, minimizing his sins, and doing everything he could to try to shield him from the inevitable consequences of his perverse actions. Instead of protecting his daughters and other innocent women, Jim Bob got his son married off to Anna when Josh was just 20 years old. Obviously, they needed to get him out of their home and find him a nice, meek, docile woman who would give him a socially and politically acceptable outlet for his obsessions. Anna Duggar was used, and has no doubt been abused. And unless she takes decisive action, the abuse will continue, only she’ll be a single mom of seven enduring it, and will probably have a lot of dealings with CPS.
How sick… If anything, this is a sign that maybe practicing fundie Christianity isn’t the best way to live life.Especially if you want to be “very good parents”.
At best, this is a half truth. It wasn’t the Duggar home that was raided. However, clearly Josh was investigated, and Jim Bob knew damned well he was. Again– it’s not very Christ-like of him to lie, nor is he setting a good example for his children.
Okay, Jim Bob… what about your son? Would you like to see him executed for his crimes against women and children? And given your track record as a parent, do you really think you should be representing people in the community?
Now, if you’re the type of person who prays for others, I see nothing wrong with praying for the Duggar family, as Lori Alexander suggests. I don’t even see anything wrong with praying for Josh. I think he needs all the help he can get to redeem himself. Like it or not, he’s still someone’s brother, son, father, and husband, and I don’t generally take joy in wishing extreme suffering on others. So I don’t wish for Josh to be dead or beaten up in prison. I read this morning that he’s being held in solitary confinement for his own protection. The jail where Josh is being held is “notorious” for “inmate on inmate alleged sexual assaults“. As a white “Christian” man from a wealthy, famous family, who has been convicted of sexual offenses against children, Josh Duggar would be a sitting duck for attacks from other inmates. So it’s probably a good decision to keep him away from other inmates. Being kept in solitary confinement will probably not be easy for him at all, but “it is what it is”.
Just to sum things up… these folks are the same people who champion Donald Trump and his ilk… and Trump is every bit as sick and dictatorial as Jim Bob is. He just doesn’t use Christianity as much to hide his obvious agenda to fulfill his need for power, prestige, wealth, and control over other people. I think Jim Bob, and men like him, see other people as betas to their alphas. They can do no wrong. They accept no responsibility. And when something does go wrong, they are always victims. It’s sick and pathetic, and these are not people who should be leading anything in any way. They certainly should NOT be involved with making laws that everyone else has to follow.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I don’t follow Lori Alexander very closely at all. I really only pay attention to her when she writes something especially outrageous. Perhaps, on the surface, the statement she’s made regarding the Duggars’ parenting isn’t all that outrageous. But if you look at the outcomes, you can see that Jim Bob and Michelle are clearly NOT good parents, nor are they very good Christians. They aren’t attentive to their children or their needs, and they certainly don’t even live by The Ten Commandments. If they had been more focused on raising and nurturing their children, they would have gotten Josh the help he required when he was still a boy. They would not have kept pumping out more children and potential abuse victims. And they would have done all of this off television and outside of politics. Just my two cents… and I figure that if the Transformed Wife can share her opinions, so can the “Overeducated” Housewife. 😉
This is another repost concerning Lori Alexander, aka “The Transformed Wife”. This was composed on my original blog on July 21, 2018. I am sharing it again because it includes discussion about one of Lori’s most notoriously controversial ideas… that men don’t like women with tattoos or student loans and prefer their wives to be virgins.
I have to write another quick post to opine about a situation that has developed in blogger land. Though the Life is Not All Pickles and Hairspray group, I’ve become aware of several very successful “Christian” bloggers. One blogger that gets mentioned a lot is Lori Alexander, author of “The Transformed Wife“. I don’t really read a lot of Lori’s stuff because it’s usually poorly written and stupid, even though she’s published a book that evidently a lot of people have read. She does have a Facebook page, too, and sometimes I see stuff from it posted in the Duggar group, mainly for people to snark on. Somehow, despite writing poorly and centering all of her posts, she has thousands of followers. Maybe I should start writing badly and include a lot of religion in my posts, too. On the other hand, that’s a bad idea. Sometimes it’s better to be anonymous.
Anyway, Lori recently wrote an extremely moronic post about how “Godly” men prefer debt free virgins without tattoos. It went viral for all the wrong reasons. I originally saw it in the Duggar group, but pretty soon, it was picked up by people like God and a bunch of bloggers wrote thoughtful rebuttals, like this one. In the wake of this mess, there was another blogger who got caught in the crossfire. Not just another blogger, mind you… this one, name of Rachel, is Transformed Wife.
Apparently, Rachel was Transformed Wife before Lori was The Transformed Wife (note the addition of “The” before Transformed Wife– I guess Lori thinks that makes her name different enough from Rachel’s). Rachel writes in a recent post that Lori had sent her an email to tell her she was changing the original name of her blog to the one Rachel had already claimed. And because both women are popular bloggers, there has been some confusion about the controversial blog post that upset many thousands of people. Rachel claims that it’s gotten so bad that she had to make a public statement telling everyone that she and Lori are not the same person and they have different beliefs.
To make matters more confusing, someone else is running a snark page called The Transformed Wife 2.0. I joined that one myself and it’s where I first learned of this controversy between two similarly named bloggers.
Neither of the Transformed Wives are women that I would listen to. I actually don’t really like the whole “life coach”-“guru” trend that has emerged. I think it takes a whole lot of moxie to assume one is qualified to be someone’s life coach. To be honest, I think most people who feel they should work as life coaches are probably narcissistic assholes. I mean, some people really are wise, but in general, I don’t think it’s wise to assume that dispensing your wisdom should be your career. It’s bound to backfire.
But then… here I am writing “The Overeducated Housewife”, and God knows people have gotten a bad impression about the name of my blog. I’m not the only Overeducated Housewife out there in blog land, nor was I the first. However, I do seem to be the most prolific.
In any case, the war of the Transformed Wives has drawn out other people eager to leap into the fray. On The Transformed Wife 2.0, I learned of yet another “wise” blogger called The Joy Filled Wife… who is apparently Lori Alexander in a previous incarnation. And yet, The Joy Filled Wife left Lori a note of encouragement because of the backlash she’s gotten over her idiotic commentary about what kind of women men prefer. I guess Lori split her personality so she could sock puppet an encouraging post. Or maybe there really is a Joy Filled Wife out there who is Lori’s friend. I don’t know. I am so confused!
I’m with Eric. I don’t like slutty, inked out, olive oil with too many credit card bills and student loans. I like my olive oil where it belongs… in the kitchen and only educated about making food.
I myself have no tattoos. In about ten days, I will also have no debt, although I was up to my ass in it on my wedding day. I was a virgin when I got married, but it wasn’t because of God. It was more because that’s how it worked out. Bill likes me fine. He probably would have liked me if I had tattoos, too… or if I’d been with other men. You see, Bill loves me for who I am, not for what I look like. We have worked together to have the best life possible. And while Bill isn’t a churchgoer, I would say he’s “Godly” in the best possible ways.
I don’t know why so many people– particularly conservative Christians– feel the need to follow self-appointed gurus like Lori and Rachel. In my experience, a lot of these “leaders” end up being very narcissistic and fallible. Many of them eventually have embarrassing falls from grace that expose them for who and what they really are. Unfortunately, people don’t seem to learn from experience that folks like the Duggars and the Osteens and others like them usually turn out to be very charismatic charlatans who do a lot of damage, particularly to people who are honestly hurting and need help.
Not being a fundie Christian myself, I don’t feel like I have any skin in this particular game. It’s kind of amusing and disturbing to watch it unfold, though. I hope the people who read my blog don’t think of me as a “guru” of any sort. And the idea of my becoming a life coach is equally absurd. It ain’t happening.
I just got a wild hair up my ass and decided to repost a couple of blog entries I wrote about Lori Alexander, otherwise known as The Transformed Wife. I am reposting them because sometimes it’s handy to be able to link to old posts from my original blog, particularly where Lori Alexander is concerned. This first one was originally posted May 14, 2018. It made quite a stirthree years ago.
First thing’s first. I need to state upfront that I don’t regularly follow The Transformed Wife, which is a blog written by a Christian woman named Lori Alexander. I had never heard of this blog until I started following the Duggar Family News group on Facebook. I did see a recent post by The Transformed Wife where I felt compelled to leave a comment, only because she’d misspelled “censorship” in her title and it was making me twitchy (sorry). But no, I don’t regularly read her blog because I’m pretty far from being a devout Christian. Sometimes people share her more ridiculous posts, though, and that’s usually when I take notice.
2013 seems to have been the year to be talking about female physicians…
This morning, someone shared Lori’s thoughts on women doctors. She writes, “women are destroying the medical profession.” To back up her claim, she cites a five year old opinion piece done by the U.K.’s Telegraph. That piece is about female doctors who only work part-time because they are raising families. It’s apparently causing a problem in countries around the world because part-time doctors lead to a shortage. The opinion piece, written by Max Pemberton, is actually pretty sensible. He writes:
…attempts to raise these issues are routinely met with accusations of sexism. But it’s not sexist to acknowledge that women, more than men, often appear to place family life ahead of their career. Nor is it a bad thing that women want to focus on having and bringing up their children, and caring for a partner. Underlying this is a larger debate about the 24/7 working environment and lack of affordable child care that leaves so many women torn between a career and a family. This is where the real sexism lies. But until there is a shift in the way that domestic responsibilities are shared, we need to accept that most women want to work part time so they can combine a career with family life – and, in medicine at least, start preparing for it becoming the norm.
But then Lori Alexander writes:
Men were created to be the supporters of families and women were not. Women are taking men’s positions in medical schools that should belong to men.
Hmmm… very interesting indeed. I happen to know a couple of women doctors who are raising families. One is a very successful trauma surgeon. Her husband is an Episcopalian vicar and takes excellent care of their two kids while his wife works to save lives. The other just recently had her sixth baby. And yet, according to Lori Alexander, these women are absolutely wrong to pursue careers in medicine. Alexander reminds readers…
Men can be doctors but they can’t be mothers. Only mothers can be mothers and NO ONE can replace a mother in a child’s life.
What exactly makes someone a mother, anyway? Is it the simple act of giving birth? Because if that’s the case, adoptive mothers are apparently worthless, according to Alexander. Is it simply being female? Are women inherently more nurturing than men are, simply because they have female parts? What about fathers? Can they be replaced? Actually, Alexander would probably say fathers can’t be replaced, but apparently they aren’t as important as mothers are. Why is that? Is it because they aren’t nurturing? I would challenge anyone who has ever met my husband, Bill, to compare his nurturing instincts to mine. (ha ha ha) But then, I know that Bill is a pretty rare individual, especially for a military veteran. He’s unusually nurturing and kind. He’d probably be a better mother than I would, though. Or, at least he’d probably be more like the type of mother idealized by folks like Lori Alexander.
Lori continues with the following thoughts…
No long-term good comes out of women leaving their homes. Nothing. Satan convinced women to spend years and a lot of money getting a higher education and then a degree. When they finally have children, they still have their God-given instinct to care for their children, thus they are in conflict with what they were convinced about concerning their career and being with their children. Their children are the ones who suffer and society is suffering too.
Oh… so it’s the fault of women that society is suffering? That sounds pretty familiar. Women get blamed for all kinds of shit. That’s been going on since the dawn of time. But then Lori ends with a quote from Proverbs:
She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Proverbs 31:27
I wonder what she’d think of an overeducated housewife with no children whose housekeeping skills are lacking…
In fairness to Lori Alexander, I don’t know her at all. I have no idea what shaped her opinions about woman in the workplace, other than her obvious love for the Bible. My guess is that she’s actually against women who work, not just women who choose to be doctors. Somehow, her blog has attracted a lot of attention. This particular post has been shared well over 1500 times. Maybe I should start writing really badly written provocative stuff that causes outrage. And… to be honest, I don’t necessarily disagree that children in the United States need more exposure to their mothers. Actually, I’d argue that they need more exposure to BOTH parents.
What I like about Europe is that the powers-that-be have recognized that young children need their mothers and fathers, so employers here allow them to take time off from their work to take care of their kids. That time off is paid, and they do have jobs to go back to when their time off is finished. But this generous leave has nothing to do with religion. Instead, it’s a simple product of common sense.
Europe, in general, is also a bit less work happy than the United States is. In the United States, there’s this idea that one must constantly be working in order to keep their jobs. Plenty of folks who are lucky enough to have jobs with benefits, to include paid vacation time, are pressured not to take any leave. Those who dare to enjoy their lives off the clock are often considered unproductive and poor performers. They don’t tend to climb the ladder of success the way their more driven colleagues do.
In Germany, workers get more time off and shorter work weeks, yet the German economy remains very strong and the people, by and large, seem to be a lot happier. I think Germans tend to work smarter, too. They focus is less on how long a person works and more on the quality of their work. I would imagine that having time to rest allows them to work smarter. It’s probably better for their overall health, too, including their mental health.
Let’s face it. Living in the United States is very expensive. A lot of families need both parents to work just to be able to pay their basic bills. The need to work makes it harder to focus on the family. And yet, we keep voting in Republicans, who are in bed with Christians, yet seem hellbent on making money and ruining any family friendly programs that might make it more possible for one parent (not necessarily the mother) to stay home and take care of their kids. The United States is not a community friendly country. Many people are focused on their own needs and things that only benefit them personally, rather than society as a whole.
But… in fairness to my countrymen, I can understand where this attitude comes from. And now that I don’t live in the United States, I can also see where people like my Italian friend, Vittorio, see the United States as a “weirdorama” country. We have all these God fearing people who don’t seem to love their fellow man very much at all… unless, of course, their fellow man lives in a way that they claim is Biblical. It doesn’t seem logical to me.
Anyway, allow me to go on record as saying that I think it’s great that women are following their career dreams. I also think it’s a good thing that so many of those women are focusing on their own fulfillment. Perhaps that means they have fewer children or none at all. But, as Alexander points out in the comments section of her post, women doctors are here to stay. Women will keep going to medical school. So… I guess in her opinion, the medical profession is on its way to being well and truly fucked. She’s entitled to her opinion. I’m not sorry she wrote her post, even if I disagree with her. She gave me some food for thought.
Recently, I became a fan of Mr. Atheist’s YouTube channel. Mr. Atheist, aka Jimmy Snow, puts out high quality videos about religious wingnuts. He’s done quite a few about Lori Alexander, aka “The Transformed Wife”. I have written a few posts about her myself, although I think most of them are on the original blog. Lori Alexander, for those who don’t know, is a woman who writes blog posts and makes videos about the role of Christian women. For example, she thinks women should stay home and raise children instead of working outside of the home. As I write this, I’m listening to one Jimmy Snow did about Lori Alexander several months ago.
I wouldn’t know… I don’t pay much attention to Twitter, and if I did, I would pay any attention to Lori’s…
I think Mr. Atheist is bright and entertaining. Sometimes, he’s even funny. As an ex Mormon, Mr. Atheist is especially qualified to opine about ex Mormon bloggers and YouTubers. I happened to catch one he did about a YouTube content creator calling herself MonsonSchoolhouse. This is a very blonde Mormon lady with several children who makes videos about homeschooling. I haven’t watched much of the original incarnations of her videos, mainly because it’s not a topic that interests me on a personal level. I don’t have children, and if I did, I probably wouldn’t homeschool them. I’m also not LDS and definitely never would be.
But, because Mr. Atheist was raised LDS, he knows all about it. And he watched MonsonSchoolhouse’s video and provided the following commentary on it.
Damn… she is so blonde…
I did watch the above video, and in it, I noticed that MonsonSchoolhouse says that she no longer has to “re-educate” her children when they come home from school. She says that because they are closed off from influences that might cause them to stray from her LDS principles, they are better off. I couldn’t help but think of another use of the term “re-education“. Before I listened to MonsonSchoolhouse talking about the wonders of homeschooling her children and controlling her children’s indoctrination, the only other time I heard about “re-education” was regarding harsh camps where disobedient people were sent to be taught the “right” way to think and behave. Right now, they exist in China, where Muslims are being sent to have their “thoughts transformed”.
I have heard about them in other places, such as Vietnam and North Korea. They’re not nice places to be. They tend to be prisons, where unlucky inmates are “persuaded” to change their views or else. I wonder if MonsonSchoolhouse knows anything about that as she talks about “re-educating” her kids after they’ve been in school.
I know a lot of parents believe their children are “theirs” to do with whatever they want. They feel it’s their responsibility to “train ’em up” right. Some parents, particularly those involved in strict religions, actually kind of run their families like a mini cult. I don’t know if that’s how this mom runs her family… but I do think that using words like “re-education” kind of make me conjure up visions of people being forced to think a certain way… or face dire consequences.
I’m really glad my parents gave me the freedom to do a lot of what I wanted when I was growing up. I could read whatever I wanted, study any subjects that interested me, watch the movies and TV shows I wanted, and basically learn whatever I could before I became an adult. Although I was forced to go to church when I was growing up, I’m glad they chose a fairly liberal, mainstream church that valued educated leaders and embraced science. Whenever I hear the stories of children raised in strict religious belief systems and the “catching up” a lot of them have to do once they become adults, I’m glad I wasn’t in that kind of family system. I won’t say I’m not fucked up on any level because I think most people are to some extent. But I definitely could have been a lot more fucked up than I am… I look at how my husband’s daughters were raised and what they’re having to overcome, and I realize how lucky I was.
I don’t think shielding children from the world is the best way to teach them or help them grow up. Eventually, they will have to function in the real world. Being able to recite vast passages from the Book of Mormon is not likely to help those kids pay their bills… unless, of course, they manage to find a job working for the church. And, in my opinion, preventing those kids from associating with people who aren’t like them is also not the best way to prepare them for the world. Eventually, they will run into people from different places with different ideas and different appearances. Instead of being able to consider those differences and draw their own conclusions, they’re liable to hear their mother’s voice saying that different ways are “not correct”.
Personally, I think homeschooling can be a bad idea, anyway. I won’t say it’s always a bad idea. I know some people who invest the time and effort into doing it right. In fact, Bill and I know a couple who homeschooled all seven of their children and they’re all pretty brilliant. But I also know that Bill’s ex wife supposedly “homeschooled” Bill’s daughters, mainly as a means of controlling them and preventing others from influencing them. And though both have managed to get into college and one has even graduated, they missed out on a lot. They have succeeded in spite of Ex’s efforts, rather than because of them.
I noticed on Mr. Atheist’s video about the Mormon homeschooling mom, a German commenter was flabbergasted, since homeschooling is pretty much forbidden here. Frankly, I kind of agreed with what the commenter said– that most people really shouldn’t be trying to teach their children alone. It’s kind of like a doctor treating his or her own family. But then… I can’t say that all homeschooling is disastrous, because I know it’s not. It works well in some families. I think the ones that are most successful are the ones who don’t do it for religious reasons.
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