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The BearMaiden's avatar

All caught up now, after about two weeks of being on the go and being intermittent with my reading. Funny that this is where I land.... on a personal vow that I made to myself to follow you on this journey of reading all 929 chapters. As a fiercely (and I do mean fiercely) independent woman who has battled patriarchy (albeit sometimes unsuccessfully 😂) wherever I felt it barred my path, what I take from this chapter is: women's business is then to remain women's business. If a man can overrule a vow I've made, and one which I haven't made lightly, best believe that my vow will remain unheard by his ears.

But another thought here; there is a power here to undo a vow a woman may have made but needs to change because her circumstances have changed. Suppose she makes a vow, but then has a family and there is a conflict between fulfilling her vow and attending to her family? Suppose her husband or father's learning of this vow is during a frank discussion of options?

It's interesting too, that a patriarchal critisicm of women that I've heard often in my life, is that women are "wishy washy" or "can't make up their minds" or "change their minds like they change their clothes" when in fact, we have strong opinions about a lot of things--but those opinions can change DRASTICALLY when we have families. And we sometimes struggle with those changes, really really hard. So rather than look at this chapter as something that squashes my autonomy, I rather take it as a way to reassess a situation with support, and change my mind if I have to without incurring penalties.

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