One of my favorite shows currently is the show wife swap (and no I am not ashamed of it). The premise of this show is that they take 2 families and trade the wives (and sometimes the husbands) for two weeks. Each wife writes a manual for the new wife and the first week the wife has to follow the rules of the manual. During the second week the wife gets to make her own rules. The idea is to switch two completly different families so that each families learn something from the experience (or create a lot of drama which is good for TV).
So from watching this show, I have witnessed an idea that is very new and bewildering to me. Some of the freaky religious families (excuse my persuasive language) believe in this idea where the man is the supreme head of the household and the wife is his "help mate". Now of course the concept of the patriarchal family system isn't new or bewildering to me, it's the word "help mate" that turns me into a fem-nazi until the end of the show.
When I think of a "help mate" the last thing that comes to mind is a wife. I think of a maid, a servant, or a slave. Someone who is meant to help the man, not neccesarily for him to love and to share equality with. Seriously ladies, did our mothers and grandmothers fight for womens rights and burn their bras to be a mans "help mate". No, I don't think so.
To me the phrase "Help mate" translates to: Help = well to help, or encourage... support; and Mate = Partner or dear friend, significant other, or lover.
ReplyDeleteSo to me a help mate is a supportive lover/partner. Therefore I don't have a problem with the term. What I have a problem with is that apparently when they said "help mate" they meant "Submissive female." I know I would have had a hard time living with anyone who expected me to do what they told me to... I probably would have been hanged as a witch just to get me out of the way, heehee!
Yes it does refer to a submissive female and only the female is refered to as a help mate. However, I don't see a lover at all in the word "help mate". Mate is simply someone you are paired up with. You do not need to be in love in order to mate with someone.
ReplyDeleteI thing El Duce would see things differently, such as the song "S.F.C.C."...
ReplyDeleteI know that's you Nick!
ReplyDeletein seminary we're taught to pay close attention to words and when someone says he'll "help" you it suggests that whatever you're doing is your responsibility and he's taking time out of his busy schedule to give you a hand. sometimes this is overreading, but when I think of a lot of men I've known who've said they "help" their women with the housework or the kids, I'm pretty certain they mean exactly this: that it's her job.
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