Ep. 27: Alyssa Has the Plague

Welcome to the latest episode of the We Are More Podcast, where we navigate faith and latest Feminist TikTok trends—all while Alyssa battles a 'plague!' Join us in our bubblegum pink room as we react to our favorite videos and quotes. We delve into societal expectations, Pride and Prejudice, and the boxes we put "masculinity" and "femininity" into. Get comfy, grab a glass of wine, laugh, and engage with some serious (ish) conversations about respecting women and reclaiming space. Tune in for thought-provoking quotes, hilarious commentary, and our unapologetic voices!

What is We Are More: Sisters Talk Faith & Feminism?

We are Alyssa and Bri, two sisters who believe God wants more for women than we've been taught. Join us as we dive into the intersection of faith and feminism, learning together as we go.

Welcome to the We Are More podcast.

My name is Alyssa.

And my name's Bri.

We're two sisters passionate about all things faith and feminism.

We believe that Jesus trusted, respected, and encouraged women to teach and preach His

word.

And apparently that's controversial.

Get comfy.

Hello everybody.

Hello world.

Welcome to Live on Locations.

Brianna and Alyssa, but Alyssa has the plague.

Also, we're not live in any way.

I'm alive.

I don't know that I am.

You're not.

So if you've noticed a little bit of a change in our social media.

It may be lacking.

This week, the plague took over my whole body.

Just yours.

Just mine.

I was in the ER twice this week for a couple of different things.

But one of which, interestingly, was pneumonia.

Which we have established is a new name of a demon.

I mean, at this point, probably.

I don't like, I feel like old people get pneumonia.

No.

You are old.

Shut up.

So that's why we've been a little bit less present.

And frankly, I'm still, you know, on the verge of death at any moment.

I've discovered a good way of engaging on the social medias is just reposting other

people's posts.

That sounds great.

I've been doing a ton of that.

If you're like, why do I have 17 notifications from this feminist podcast about them reposting

every video they've ever seen in their life?

That was me at nine o'clock last night.

I'm sorry.

Bree's been holding things together for us.

But not well.

But together, though.

Just because Frankenstein looked like a monster doesn't mean he wasn't together.

I think.

What are you trying to call me?

I was going to make an analogy about a bad bra.

Oh no.

Bree, I can't laugh that hard.

The cough is coming.

It's in the back of my throat.

The plague.

The plague.

So today is going to be a way shorter episode.

I know you just want to hear our voices and know that we're semi alive and present.

So what we're going to do is talk about TikTok.

And also a book that I bought.

Oh, yeah.

That I'm very excited about.

Yeah.

So really, we're just chatting about a whole lot of hot garbage.

And we hope you're excited about that.

Yeah.

Welcome.

Get comfy.

Put on some...

Take off your bra.

You know, take off your bra.

Sit down.

Let the freak flag wave.

And by that I'm talking about your boobs.

Thank you.

I actually went to my therapist today and I was like, she was like, so what's your next

episode about?

Because I told her we just finished our Bathshiba series, which was extensive.

And she goes, so what are you doing the next one about?

And I was like, like TikTok.

I was like, no one's having a spiritual transformation today.

Just prepare yourself.

Sometimes we just need to rest.

Yes.

This is, let me tell you, this is the week of rest.

I have barely pulled it together.

I can attest to that.

Yeah.

She's not together now.

So jumping right in.

Alyssa and I do this thing where we just send each other feminist TikToks and reels

back and forth all the time.

But also what I do is from my personal TikTok, I will send it to the podcast TikTok so I

can then repost it from the podcast.

I always, I never even bother to look at them because I assume you're like gonna reference

this for yourself later.

Oh yeah.

I do that.

It is something that I do.

Oh, I want to make a point also that we are currently recording.

So we've been at my mom's house, at our mom's house.

No, just yours.

For the last like week or so because I'm passing on and you know, need that assistance.

And we are currently recording in our childhood bedroom.

And it is bubblegum pink.

Let me just show you that much.

Fairies along the border.

Bubblegum pink.

And traces of my feet from the ceiling.

There's glow in the dark stars up there.

Many things are happening.

So lots of throwbacks for Alyssa and Brianna today.

We definitely destroyed this room.

We did.

And it's really frozen in time.

So where my bed was I'm looking at right now, in the corner of the wall I had taken these

like foam stickers for some reason of monkeys and bananas and put them like every other

one.

So monkey, banana, monkey, banana.

All the way from the ceiling to the floor.

And now there's this residue of brown gook.

And it's been there for probably what?

15 years?

It's been there a long time.

Yeah.

And then we sharpie down the wall a couple places.

Everywhere.

It's weird.

Terrible.

We were destructive.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We always criticize Brandon for like hanging stuff up.

Our brother, his wall was terrifying.

His room was terrifying.

But I feel like maybe we were worse.

Sorry Brandon.

No, I'm not.

Brandon, you deserve that.

So back to TikTok.

Back to TikTok.

Some of the more recent trends I've been seeing lately.

Hilarious.

It says, letting men know I'm not an easy target when I'm on, when I'm on.

And we thought I was going to be the problem today.

I can't breathe.

I can't.

When I'm on a walk.

All right.

Just start the whole sentence over again.

Letting men know I'm not an easy target when I'm on a walk.

There we go.

She got it, folks.

So it's like girls on the phone or, you know, on their headphones or something talking while

they're hiking or doing a run.

Just so like, especially if you're alone.

And it's just funny, like this girl's on the phone and she goes, my doctor told me to stop

eating Tide Pods, but they're so good.

But to me, it's just ridiculous that that even has to be a thing.

That girls have to come up with clever ways to make sure that they're safe.

And it's a joke, but it's not a joke.

It's not a joke.

It's not a joke.

Actually, a couple of years ago, not far from us, a woman that was just taking a walk through

like a semi populated area.

You know, she was kind of in the back wooded area, but semi populated area.

And she was murdered.

Just taking a walk.

They say something like if you're a single woman or you live alone, whatever.

Something that you should do is get like big, heavy, large construction boots that look

like worn by a man and leave them somewhere noticeable, like outside your front door and

get a mannequin or something to keep in your passenger seat or whatever.

So it just appears that you're not alone.

Right.

Ridiculous.

Well, it's the same thing as they say if you're out at a bar and a man is harassing you and

won't leave you alone.

You can say a million times over, I'm not interested.

No thank you.

Leave me alone.

And he will, not everyone, but oftentimes women experience where men continually won't

leave them alone despite the fact that no is a full sentence.

But if you say, I have a boyfriend, you're much more likely to have that man back off

because men have more respect for another man that they've never met.

As opposed to the woman that's standing right in front of them.

And I think that's what a lot of that plays back into.

Well, it reminds me of that, I think that we've said this before, but you know that

scene from Pride and Prejudice where Mr. Collins is proposing to Lizzie and she says no.

And she says it as polite as she can, but she says no.

And he's like, oh, silly women.

I know that you often say no when you mean to say yes.

So I'm excited to propose to you again or something.

I forget what he says, but she goes again like, I said no.

And it takes him a while to get it through his thick skull.

I think we've taught men that like, oh, it's the chase.

Women like you to chase after them, blah, blah, blah.

But what hasn't been taken into account in that statement and that sentiment is not every

woman wants you to chase them, first of all.

And second of all, we have to be scared of you now.

Right.

Well, how often are we telling girls that a boy likes you if he teases you?

If he pulls your hair.

Or antagonizes you.

So it teaches men too, like, oh, do you want to show her that you like her?

Oh, torture her a little bit.

Yeah.

And it goes all the way back to taking a walk.

Taking a walk, eating Tide Pods.

Maybe you should bring some Tide Pods along.

Snack on them as you go.

Because Tide Pods make me stronger.

All right, Brie, on to the next TikTok.

On to the next one.

Which one should I talk about?

This one I thought was good.

To make yourself small, quiet, and easy to swallow.

They said your fire was too much.

That your desires were too wild.

That you should be ashamed of the hunger in your soul.

But here's the truth they won't tell you.

The world fears women who know what they want.

They fear women who refuse to play by the rules.

Who aren't afraid to burn everything down just to feel alive.

You were never meant to fit in their little box.

You were born to shatter it.

They want you tamed because they can't handle the storm that's inside you.

But why should you apologize for being powerful?

For wanting more than a life of empty smiles and shallow conversations?

You deserve to be wild, to be unruly, to take up space unapologetically.

Stop dimming your light for people who can't handle your shine.

Remember this.

The ones who fear your power will always try to silence it.

But your voice was never meant to be quiet.

I saw this and then I posted something that said like, take up space unapologetically.

And it reminded me of, I think your pastor's wife had mentioned something about that when

I was at your church one Sunday.

She's like, quit apologizing for taking up any amount of space.

And that's so true too.

How often are women trying to make themselves smaller?

And I'm not just talking about physically.

I'm talking about how much energy you put into something or how much joy you have about

something.

Your passion for something.

You're always trying to stomp it out a little bit because you don't want to be too much.

Right.

It reminds me of, there was a, when we were younger, there was a trendy sticker that people

like, I remember seeing it on the back of cars and whatever.

Baby on board?

No.

Not that one.

Oh, no.

It was like, well-behaved women rarely make history.

It was, it was all over the place.

And I remember our mom did not like that because she was like, well, you can be well-behaved

and still, still be important, still, you know, have an impact or whatever.

And I think when you pull that whole thing apart, would you ever say well-behaved men?

Would that ever be a phrase you would even hear?

No, because there's not a way that men are supposed to behave.

There's not an expectation of well-behaved men.

Because what a childish thing to say.

Yeah.

I'm not well-behaved.

I'm a grownup.

I behave as I wish.

And yet for women, there's this concept of well-behaved.

Do what you're told.

Yeah.

The proper sort of woman.

Yes.

Someone that's smaller, someone that's not intimidating, someone whose feet are the right

size and whose features are small and you know, whatever, like that really stereotypical

tiny little woman.

And I mean, I say this as a five foot tall woman, okay?

Like I'm the little person.

Google says it's Pulitzer Prize winning historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.

Oh, there we go.

Thanks Laurel.

Thanks Laurel.

It's a good quote.

But I, and you know, we've talked a lot about how Bree and I and our mom have been on like

a feminist journey.

So I think that this reaction to that phrase has really turned around.

But it's so interesting as you pull it apart and look at the deeper meaning of it.

Well-behaved women.

Women that have decided to live in the box we've been told to live in are unlikely to

make history.

Don't make waves.

Stay in line.

I think there's a song there.

The women who stepped apart from the crowd who let their passions and their loves and

their dislikes be as loud as they wanted to and kept going.

Well, and we've said this before about the podcast too about how we look at feminism

from a religious perspective.

That's what we do here.

If this is your first episode, sorry, this is a little weird.

But as a rule, we look at things from a biblical perspective and how feminism is totally in

there.

Kind of loudly.

Very loudly.

But we've had people say, why can't you believe what you believe quieter?

Can't you just shut up about it?

Can't you just stop talking about it?

Because it lights a fire in our butt or our stomach, wherever you want the fire to be.

At the moment, the fire's in my throat and my lungs.

And it's everywhere.

That's what pneumonia is?

Yeah, fire in your lungs is what it is.

No, but it all goes back to that phrase.

If we walk away quietly, then we're allowing other women to sit in what I think is a pile

of garbage.

A literal pile of hot steaming poop.

Whereas if we walk away loudly and we say, look, that's crap.

It's not biblical.

You don't need to be a tiny submissive wife.

You don't need to listen to every word your husband says.

You don't need to worry about- You don't need to be a wife at all.

You don't need to worry about the patriarchy.

You can just say no.

You are enough.

If we say that loud enough, then maybe one or two people will hear it.

And I think we've gotten really positive responses on TikTok lately, which I'm really happy about.

We've gotten a couple of weirdos out there.

I'm looking at you out there.

Actually, I'm looking at one comment we got today in particular.

Oh, I haven't looked at it.

But yeah, join the club.

You're more.

You're more than what society and culture and patriarchy and misogyny has told you you

are.

And I also want to say this might feel random, but it doesn't feel random to me and it's

my podcast, so I'm gonna say what I want.

Misogyny and patriarchy do not reflect the love of God.

They never reflected the love of God.

They were never part of the plan.

It's not good.

Say it one more time for the people in the back.

Let me just- Hey, hey.

We're talking to you.

At no point did patriarchy, male headship, male leadership, men being superior to women

in any tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny way, at no point was that reflective of God's perfect

plan for his people.

At no point was it reflective of Christ's love.

I just- You know what?

Let's end the podcast there.

19 minutes in, we're out.

We're done.

See you, bye.

That's all that needed to be said.

Not to get political necessarily, but there was- there's a trend going around on TikTok

right now because someone made a whole song about it.

Kamala Harris was being interviewed and I forget, a governor or some- I think it was

a governor, made a comment about her from, I don't know where they were from.

Don't listen to me about where they were from.

But they accused her of, because she didn't have children essentially, that made her not

humble.

And she, as a leader, needs to be more humble and that's what she should aspire to be.

And her response, because the interviewer was saying, how would you like to respond

to that comment?

She said, well, first of all, I would like to say not all women are out here aspiring

to be humble.

Thank you.

For heaven's sake.

I just think that is so powerful.

Humility is great.

I'm not saying that humility is not something that we should have.

In certain aspects.

Because you are a woman does not mean that your number one aspiration in life should

be to be humble.

Would you say the same thing to a man?

I mean, look at any of our male political leaders.

And I'm not talking about currently even.

Look at any of our presidents going back.

Would you say he needs to be more humble?

Would you even want that?

Because in a president, you do kind of want someone who's going to stand up and be a little

loud.

So would you want humbleness?

No, you just want it because she's a woman and she's stepped outside of the box you wanted

to put her in.

Exactly.

I bought a book.

I know that everybody's shocked here.

It's a different sort of book than my normal sort of book.

Romance novels.

Yeah.

I'm known on the podcast for the romance novels.

Romance novels and her children's fiction.

Yes.

Okay.

So this book.

Now this is going to be a little bit controversial and I want to dive into it in a loving way,

but also in a way that says like there is some righteous anger behind this.

A little bit of Taylor Swift female rage.

A little bit.

Now this book was written by a man, by a heterosexual man.

I didn't know that.

He was on TikTok and he got, I don't want to say famous, but he got pretty popular on

TikTok because he did this series of how to make men angry.

So the book is called How to Piss Off Men, 109 Things to Say to Shatter the Male Ego.

And I bought it mostly because it was funny.

I saw it on TikTok and I was like, I must own this, what in the actual heck could be

in this thing.

A quick coffee table read.

A toilet read.

Yes.

It's quite quick if you want to pick it on up and have a good laugh.

I laughed very hard and actually my husband thought it was really funny too.

And that's how she got pneumonia.

Yeah, that was it.

She laughed too hard.

I laughed too hard and then I died.

Died.

So this goes into, it'll say something like, it'll give a quote, like you should say this

to a man.

And then it explains why it would hurt their ego, basically.

It hurt my feelings.

Yeah.

It makes me feel bad.

And I think it's important to point out that we're not sitting here like male bashing all

the time.

We don't hate, sometimes.

We don't hate all the men.

But it's important to point out why some of these things hit.

Like why they're funny, but why also for women these are relevant.

So let's see.

Oh, this is a great one.

So it says, say this when a man tries to explain crypto to you.

Oh, so it's like Kohl's cash?

I loved that one.

Especially for our family.

I feel like our family, like not just Alyssa and my mom, but my grandma, my aunts, my cousins,

our entire wardrobe came from Kohl's.

It's very possible.

At least at one point in our lives.

But I think it's, that one hits a little bit harder because of mansplaining.

Like I, and I love the men in our family, okay?

But the amount of mansplaining.

I'm a fairly educated woman.

Bri's a fairly educated woman.

We know stuff.

I don't need you to explain how to cook to me.

I've got it.

I've got it covered, guys.

The spice blends, we're good.

I got it.

Add more salt.

I'm not going to need any explanations.

But I think that's why that one's so funny is because we're so used to men over explaining

things we already understand.

I think there's, like we talked about, I think in the last podcast, there's a difference

between talking to someone peer to peer and then talking down to someone.

I feel like very often the issue with mansplaining is that you are talking down to someone.

You couldn't possibly understand this.

You're a silly little female.

Right.

If I ask you about crypto, if I'm like, oh hey, could you explain that to me?

Now, crypto is a large part of my job, so I get it already.

But if I ask you and we're having an educated conversation, that's very different.

Well, that's a conversation.

Right.

As opposed to you deciding that I need this information.

Let me teach you.

I like to say things to make...

I think I do these things.

I like to say things just to annoy people.

For example, if someone's watching pickleball and I say, where's all the gherkins?

I know there's no pickles in pickleball.

But the reactions that I get make me laugh.

I mean, you have to ask too, why do women have to play stupid a little bit in those

scenarios?

True.

Why do you say those things?

Because it gets a reaction.

When you think about those older movies where the girl has to go through a makeover and

she's chasing the boy, that's part of the requirement.

To get a boy, you have to be a little stupid.

Play dumb.

Yeah.

You have to play dumb.

That's the advice from all the matriarchs in those old movies is like, well, you can't

let him know you're too intelligent until you got a ring on your finger.

Even now, they're like, oh, you need to make the man feel like he's still in power.

You need to give him situations where he can make the decision ultimately, but you don't

really care what the decision is.

Yeah.

I remember in college, one of my guy friends telling me...

Now, I was already dating my now husband, so I'm not really sure why this was brought

up to me, but he was like, you're just so intimidating to guys.

You told me that one time.

Well, we're both intimidating and we're proud of it.

It's okay.

Yeah, I like that about myself.

But what a thing to say to a woman.

My intelligence intimidates you as we both sit here on equal playing ground.

We're in the same classes.

I think we should look each other dead in the eye and say, good.

I want to be terrifying.

I saw a thing online one time and it was a guy saying something about brightly colored

hair on a woman.

He was like, in nature, brightly colored animals, it means stay away, I'm toxic or whatever.

He's talking about women with pink hair or women with bright red hair or whatever as

the same kind of thing.

Oh, a woman with brightly colored hair, it's a sign to stay away.

A woman commented back and said something along the lines of, that's not meant to scare

away a mate, it's meant to scare away predators.

If it's scaring you away, then it's working.

Yeah.

How about we stop talking about physical appearance all the time?

How about we talk about what's inside?

Wouldn't that be nice?

Our guts and our spleens.

Hey, my lungs are full of fluid.

Listen, maybe that's intimidating.

Yeah, all the fluid.

It's too much fluid.

So another quote from this, it says, in the next Batman movie, the Joker should be a woman,

which it then goes on to say, when he presses you on this, say, well, women are more persecuted

in society, so I think she'll have actual things to be upset about.

As he stares at you in stunned silence, finish him off with, and maybe Tom Holland can play

Batman.

Tom Holland is a beautiful soul.

He's adorable.

He's like a precious little angel baby.

But I think with that one, it's so easy for men to relegate women to a certain role.

Well, a woman could play this role, but she can't play this role.

And I understand that, you know, stereotypically, the chokers, I hadn't like, the comics say

so.

But at the same time, we expand our thoughts on what women can do and what they can be.

If they want to be a villain, they can be a villain.

Well, that's such an interesting thing, because women are held up as this symbol of purity

and peace.

Or men that want to look for a good woman.

That's what they're looking for.

Purity and peace and quiet, calm and whatever, you know.

Compliant.

Yeah.

What if we're not that?

I've never been calm, quiet.

I've been calm.

Maybe for like short moments.

I do occasionally sleep.

Not as much as I should.

Certainly not as the fluid fills my lungs.

But I remember as a kid getting these comments from the women in my life of like, and I know

I've said this before, but you need to be less opinionated because you're going to have

to take on your husband's opinions someday.

You need to be less stubborn because you're going to have to obey your husband someday.

And it just never sat right with me.

I'm not that girl.

And why would God make me stubborn and strong and opinionated and loud if that's not what

a woman is supposed to be?

I think just in general, we need to expand our definition of woman because we've made

it so small.

A woman can be quiet.

A woman can be calm.

If that's in your nature to be more quiet, more reserved, more calm, be those things.

Own those things.

If you as a woman are loud or smart or whatever it is, any attribute, that is a woman.

And the same for men.

Men, you don't all have to be full of rage.

You don't have to be big and strong and like, raw meat.

We were talking about this with mom the other day too.

Men are allowed to like pedicures.

They're allowed to like going to the spa.

They're allowed to like anything they want because you're a person and you get to have

your own personality.

Well, and you got to ask if it's such a small box, what happens when someone deviates from

that box?

Doesn't that make our God smaller?

Yeah.

If all he can do is make copy pasted boxes.

Exactly.

And yet you look at when God made Adam and Eve, he gave them individual personalities,

but then he gave each of their children individual personalities and each of their children individual

personalities and each of my children, very individual personalities.

And all of that still fits within peoplehood, personhood.

It all still fits just as humans.

There's one more quote.

I want to see if I can find it.

It's my favorite one.

Okay.

This is very, this is the last one from this book.

I probably will revisit this book later because I think it's spectacular, but the last one

for today from this book.

So it says, say this to a man wearing a Jersey.

I love your cosplay.

And when he says it's not cosplay, say, well, it kind of is.

You're not really a basketball.

I mean, that's very true.

I think a lot of what this book dives into is this idea of like really easily shattered

masculinity.

And when we make either femininity or masculinity into such a tiny little construct, anything

that goes out of that box, like we said, suddenly makes you not masculine or not feminine or

whatever.

And if someone's entire personality is, I'm an alpha man, I'm masculine, I'm whatever,

the tiniest thing that pinpricks that is going to throw off their entire personality.

Imagine that.

Imagine one tiny little comment, like one tiny little joke about a tiny little rumor

is all I need to make a big mess.

I'm the rumor weed.

Well, there's the veggie tales for the day guys.

You can check off the box.

And imagine if that's your whole personality and the littlest thing can throw it off completely

or can completely insult you to your core because that's who you are is just I'm masculine

or I'm feminine.

If that's all you've got, it's going to be really easy to destroy you.

You're going to need to spend a lot of time in therapy.

That's very true.

You're going to need to figure out who the crap you are apart from stereotypes.

Stereotypes.

There was a TikTok that I saw.

We're back on the TikToks.

Is everybody drinking along with me that I sent you, Alyssa, the other day?

I want to see what his name is.

Oh, this is Mark Driscoll.

Oh no, we hate him.

And he there's, is he a pastor?

Oh yeah.

He's a mega church pastor.

Should we listen to this or should I just talk about it?

Just talk about it.

Okay.

So I saw a TikTok from him that talks about his daughters and he said, I raised my daughters

to be strong, but not independent.

Because if you raise an independent daughter, she's more likely to get divorced or die single

and that's terrible.

That's not what you want from her.

The horror.

Because she eventually needs to be married and needs to submit to her husband.

So I raised my daughters to be not independent.

I want my wife not to be independent because they need me.

Those poor little females.

And I just raged.

You know when you see those, when you see something like that and you just want to like

spew vomit.

Sometimes you just want to like the exorcist just, she was going to say something.

Were you going to, oh, you were going to react to it on TikTok and she physically could not

because she was so mad.

So mad.

Eventually when I find, you know, some peace, I will react to it.

But I just, I'm shocked that that kind of behavior is out there in the world and people

accept it and people follow it.

That's insane to me.

I want to raise my daughters not to be independent.

Would you say that of your sons?

Like that is abusive.

What it, like is, first of all, is the worst thing in the world for her to be single?

I mean, I think he probably thinks it is.

Jesus was single.

Jesus was single.

Come on.

Paul said it's better to be single and if you must get married, then do so.

But also in today's society, it's really, really hard to be like a one income household.

So she has to have some independence because she has to go out and interview and find a

career or say that this husband that she finds if he's anything like you is abusive.

Now she's stuck in a situation where she can't get out.

Well, she's been emotionally stunted since she was a child and now she has to try and

recover herself.

What if her husband dies?

What is she going to do?

You're setting her up for failure.

Not just failure, but you're setting her up for a lifetime of misery because if you're,

here's the reality at the end of the day, people will fail you 100% of the time.

My husband's wonderful.

Like I love him, but he's going to fail me because he's a person and so people do.

If I am 100% dependent on my husband, whether that be financially, emotionally, spiritually,

if I am dependent on this human man standing in front of me, when he fails, I will also

fall apart.

I want to know what he thinks the difference between strong and independent is.

What do you think makes a strong woman?

Because to me, a strong woman is independent, but to him, maybe a strong woman knows how

to make a sandwich.

And can raise five children without ever asking for help.

My guess is it's a woman who's quiet that will never ask her husband to be a partner.

That will never ask for anything more than a person that maybe financially supports her.

And I will say it takes a level of strength to live through that kind of abuse.

Absolutely.

But don't raise your daughters for the slaughter.

Don't raise your daughters with an expectation that they're going to put themselves into

the same abusive situation that your poor wife put herself in.

Don't do that to them.

It's literally astounding to me that he can go out there and post these things on social

media and have a following.

And what's particularly sad to me is even the people that disagree with someone like

this often, and we saw this with Harrison Bucker, we saw the same thing, where men instead

of standing up and saying, no, this is garbage, he's wrong, he's hurting women, instead of

saying that they said, well, he's entitled to his religious beliefs.

I'm not going to tell him he can't believe what he wants to believe.

Once again, as a man, you want to defend that power.

You want to defend that power more than you want to defend a woman or the victim.

If your religious beliefs step on someone else's rights, right to live, to be safe,

to feel like an equal human being in the world, if your religious beliefs impede that for

someone else, I'm sorry, they're no longer valid.

They no longer have any credence in my mind.

I don't respect them in any way.

And that's exactly how I feel about this person.

Something on Instagram or TikTok earlier that was like, if you are reading your Bible, finding

excuses to put down someone else, you're reading your Bible wrong.

We follow a page on Facebook called Ezra Rising.

And we actually repost from her semi often.

And so she is quoting someone else and it says, if reading the Bible causes me to scrutinize

others more than I scrutinize myself, then I am not reading the Bible correctly.

If reading the Bible gives you some sort of right in your head to put others down, some

sort of right to harm their freedoms, their God given freedoms and rights, you're doing

something wrong, something very wrong.

But I also wanted to bring up when I looked up this quote, I just saw another one that

I want to talk about.

She posted this about an hour ago.

And it's a quote.

And it says, I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very

different from my own.

We are a sisterhood of the traveling pants.

Okay, when I was scrolling through the TikToks and I was looking for other Christian feminist

accounts to follow just for inspiration, but when you look up Christian feminism, Mark

Driscoll pops up and all but he was one of the men but more often than not, it's women

talking about how feminism is wrong.

And feminism is all about putting down men and we shouldn't be putting down men and blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah.

And your strength is the home and there are differences between men and women and you

should own those differences.

It's just mostly women defending patriarchy and misogyny.

But I think it's important to say, even though that's incredibly disheartening, it hurts

my soul to think that there are women out there fighting to oppress other women.

However, and I've talked with our mom about this before, there was a time I would have

said those same things because you're conditioned.

Because you're raised that this is what's right.

You're raised that that's what God wants for you.

And until someone opens the door and says, hey, no, that's not what God wanted.

It's okay, you can come out here, it's better.

Until someone does that, I think sometimes you just get stuck and it sucks.

But again, as loudly as we can shout as we run away from this garbage pile, at least

a couple people might hear us screaming and maybe they'll follow and maybe they won't

get themselves stuck in such a terrible situation.

Maybe they'll comment back to this moron of a pastor and talk about how this is not right.

Alright.

So I don't know where we're headed from here in our next couple weeks, we need to sit down

and kind of have a mapping out meeting.

But if there are things that you specifically would like to hear about, hear us talk about,

if there are women of the Bible you'd like to learn more about, we had a ton of fun with

our Bathsheba series.

Tell us Lewis and Clark.

I'd rather you didn't.

I'll be Lewis, you be Clark.

Okay, sure.

We'll get right on that.

We actually might also, we're kind of excited about a Halloween episode we want to do about

the Salem witch trials.

I think that could be really fun and interesting.

Especially because there's all kinds of shirts going around on TikTok that say they killed

women not witches.

Yeah, so that probably will be in the next couple of weeks as Alyssa hopefully heals

and perhaps doesn't pass on entirely.

I would also really like to do an episode on people pleasing.

That's been something that's been weighing on my heart lately.

I think that's something that again we as women take on mostly and it's affecting my

mental health.

Yeah.

Alright, so let us know what you guys are interested in.

We are gonna sit down, have a chat, plan some stuff out and we'll see you guys next week

for something.

I'm not gonna see a single one of you.

That's true.

I really need to get it through my head that this is a podcast.

I could start filming you, just you.

Frankly, even if you did, I still wouldn't see them.

They would see me.

We'd like to have a live show.

No, we wouldn't.

Come to my old bedroom.

No live events.

Alyssa's very anti-social.

You can sit on this bed with us.

No, no.

We're not inviting anyone.

Into our beds.

Nope.

Okay.

You'll hear us.

You'll hear us next week.

If you know anyone from Zimbabwe, share this with them because we would love to have a

Zimbabwean house.

Oh good, things I can plan out.

Bye!