Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Unflip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism: chat

Unflip

1 2

Original poster

Do you think the Amish are sexist?

37 replies

blobtobetter · 28/11/2011 19:26

In terms of their society and roles?

I watched the channel 4 programme that was on last week and it never occurred to me but a post in another thread made me wonder about it.

Not sure if anyone watched it - it is on Youtube now

OP posts:

Original poster

blobtobetter · 02/12/2011 18:23

Not sure if anyone watched the second episode ....

One of the Amish girls from the last series was in this one. She said that women were the queen of the home, women are created to be submissive, women should serve with love and cheerfulness and men are more capable!

Interesting to see an English girl and an Amish girl discussing gender roles so openly.

OP posts:

Hullygully · 02/12/2011 10:49

yes

madwomanintheattic · 01/12/2011 16:41

hutterite elders are always male.

KRITIQ · 01/12/2011 10:10

Quakers never had any connection to the Amish or other Germano-Swiss Christian communities, apart from adopting 'plain dress' during part of the 19th century and sharing testimonies on peace and simplicity/conservation. Other than that, their origins, faith, practice and traditions are very different, so you really can't compare.

The Amish are more like ultra orthodox jews in terms of observing faith traditions, including styles of dress, speaking their own language to each other and living separately from the wider community, at least to a degree.

ElderberrySyrup · 01/12/2011 09:33

Are the elders male?

(Quakers have had women elders for centuries - possibly from the beginning? - but they are very different in a lot of ways.)

madwomanintheattic · 01/12/2011 01:53

the hutterites def don't dye their hair or shave their legs. and everyone's role is valued becuase literally everything done is for the good and wellbeing of the community as a whole... but the entire society is divided along gender lines. and the fabrics are all modern, but deeply hideous but chosen each year by the elders. each family unit is allowed a specific amount of the fabric according to the number and size of the women within the unit to fashion their clothes according to the approved pattern.

i need to read up on the amish, now.

TeiTetua · 30/11/2011 19:45

Interesting that you can approach it in two different ways:

"I can't dye my hair, because god forbids it."

"God gave me perfectly good hair. Why would I ever want to change it?"

Who's living a constrained life, and who's living a contented one?

EleanorRathbone · 30/11/2011 19:17

I suppose it's easier to value your role, if all work you are doing is for God. I can see that the work you do being considered valuable by the rest of your society, would definitely make you happier. And that thing of not having to change bits of yourself, because God had made you the way he wanted you - that would work too.

MrsMagnolia · 30/11/2011 19:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

blobtobetter · 30/11/2011 17:34

On the previous series one of the Amish girls was asked if she dyed her hair and she seemed surprised and said why would she want hair a different colour to what God had given her.

OP posts:

EleanorRathbone · 30/11/2011 16:44

And also fabrics - are they allowed to use modern fabrics or just the old natural ones?

I need to go and read a book about the Amish don't I. But I can't be arsed because I'm not that interested, I'm just a bit curious and would like to know these things if anyone knows.

EleanorRathbone · 30/11/2011 16:43

D'you think that they use C17 hair dyes?

And also, I"m getting interested in spite of myself - the dyes they use in their clothes - is this modern stuff or old?

EleanorRathbone · 30/11/2011 16:42

LOL, yes if you believe that feminism is just about whether you shave your legs or not.

TeiTetua · 30/11/2011 15:01

I tried a web search on and found lots of stuff. But I can't help thinking that their attitude towards technology is that it's OK as long as it's at least 60 years out of date.

Now what I want to know is, do Amish women shave their legs? If they don't and nobody makes an issue of it, surely they are living the feminist life.

ElderberrySyrup · 30/11/2011 09:38

the ones we see on tv are going to be the happy ones.
If someone was struggling with fitting in, the community would not have chosen them to host some visiting British teenagers and get filmed.
There was the woman who had left, but she had chosen to come back.

EleanorRathbone · 30/11/2011 09:34

Human beings adapt. You find joy where you can.

But not being bombarded by messages telling you that your value is measured by how you look, would help you be happy.

Having said that, Amish women will be bombarded by different messages in a different way.

Original poster

blobtobetter · 30/11/2011 07:03

The Amish women and men seem happy with their roles and rules.

Maybe they don't think about it as the wife on the programme was asked if she ever wanted to do anything different with her hair and she said she never had.

Plus she seemed to love all the house chores!

OP posts:

ElderberrySyrup · 29/11/2011 22:04

The Amish women seemed very happy with it.

EleanorRathbone · 29/11/2011 21:52

Oh how disappointing. I was expecting a state of the art Dyson.

ElderberrySyrup · 29/11/2011 21:48

It looked like a very old-fashioned kind of twintub with no lid.

EleanorRathbone · 29/11/2011 21:39

What do they power it with?

(Am developing strange fascination with Amish generators)

ElderberrySyrup · 29/11/2011 21:09

on the tv prog they just powered up the generator to do the washing, it wasn't running all the time.
Generators are v noisy, you wouldn't want one running your fridge if you could help it.

Hullygully · 29/11/2011 19:05

They have to leave if they don't want to follow the rules

EleanorRathbone · 29/11/2011 18:21

Oh that's interesting about thje washing machine.

Am I missing something here, what else does it power? The fridge? The vacuum cleaner? The TV?

Original poster

blobtobetter · 29/11/2011 17:10

I think I would like a traditional community - not sure I could give up my home comforts and internet though!

OP posts:

Unflip

1 2