When a Woman Submits

Submission. It’s a part of life. We are all accountable to someone. We all have authorities who have more knowledge than us about something we are involved in. They serve as a mentor or guide on this Earth. The mentors and guides may come in the form of friends, family, coworkers or people who have initially agreed to be our mentor.

The topic of submission can become a touchy subject. Women submit to the same categories of people just as men and children. The difference with women is that women have to submit to men in a seemingly (but not actually) subservient but equal role. Observe a successful marriage or dating relationship in the United States. The man initiates the date. The man buys the woman an engagement ring. Women are only approximately fifteen percent of Chief Executive Officers in the United States. A woman dare not challenge a man’s authority in public or she appears as a renegade- a rebel that does not respect the correct order of life.

Does the woman submit because she is less than in social standing than the man? Of course not! Though some men would like for women to think that women are not equal to men. These particular men want the women around them to believe that the biblical definition of submission in marriage that has so influenced American life (whether we admit it or not) is to be as women who are mute and without a cause.

This fact does not make the idea of submission easy. In a male-dominated world in which the women characters on television are cheaters or whores the strength in submission seems dangerous at best. I don’t want a man to think he can use me and then move on to the next woman. And I’m certainly not going to twerk on him in public,

As a woman I want to practice submission to my boyfriend now so that when we are married it comes easy to me. But is it right for me to submit? Is he worth me submitting to him? Will he take advantage of the attempts I make at submission so that I look like an obedient robot? Will my boyfriend understand that my submission requires him to have common social sense and use his ‘insider’ status as a man to warn me about the ways of the world? Does he get that this is about mutual respect?

A man who doesn’t know the correct answer to those questions doesn’t deserve my time. The world is harsh enough. Some days can be wrought with bad leadership from all those in your life that are supposed to steer you in the correct direction. The boss may overextend his reach and inappropriately touch you or yell at you. Parents may give advice and pepper it with loads of negativity in a last and desperate attempt at mind control. Bill collectors call women and verbally demean and harass them (even the women collectors). The last thing women need are  the men in the life that they chose treating them like the jealous trash on the side of the street.

Think about your view of submission. How can you make the idea fit into the twenty-first century and still maintain a strong relationship?