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It is, as we all know by now, a recipe for disaster. But that doesn’t stop Ms Wiid from behaving like a self-proclaimed latter-day prophetess channeling the hungry ghost of some long departed 50s housewife.
At a recent breakfast in Centurion, Ms Wiid told an audience of “ladies” that if they wanted to keep their men happy they had to do the following; brush their hair and put on lipstick before their husbands came home from work and never say ‘no’ to sex.
She told the audience that if their husbands did cheat on them it was probably their own fault and that they should shave their legs and armpits more often. Women, she suggested, should view all other women as enemies and potential rivals for their husband’s bounty.
And then the absolute show stopper (and I’m still looking for this passage in the bible) – that women should use sex as a means to an end and that if you want your husband to buy you something, shag him. (Maybe I should get a copy of The Happy Hooker instead of wasting my time with the good book).
Then there’s the old hoary cliché that women should just get used to the fact that men are driven by pure instinct and can’t help it that they are hunters and need to conquer things.
That the male brain is generally larger and more powerful than his penis does not seem to feature in Ms Wiid’s understanding of human reproduction.
Besides, the male of the human species is not – unlike the Mongolian Gerbil in mating season – incapable of reason or bereft of the ability to access a higher level of consciousness.
Anyhow, Ms Wiid’s “Worthy Women” series is being touted as the female equivalent of Mr Buchan’s “Mighty Men” sideshow currently revitalizing millions of South African men.
A Dr Melleta Louw, of Wellington, wrote a very interesting letter to Die Burger this weekend suggesting that these movements might offer something much more significant and valuable if they simply swapped the adjectives to “Mighty Women” and “Worthy Men”. Wouldn’t that be amazing?
In the meantime, sanity prevails. The NG and Hervormde churches have spoken out saying men and women are partners in marriage and complete equals in society.
“The world has changed a lot in the last 2000 years and so has marriage,” said Rinel Hugo, a member of the NG general synod.
There was no biblical injunction, said Dominee Nelus Niemandt, that aspects of marriage were designated to be either male or female. “Their roles are complimentary. Couples can decide for themselves how they would like to live out various roles,” he said.
In the meantime Ms Wiid continues her bright little personal crusade to drag marriage and women back to a primitive and oppressive domestic space.
Ms Wiid herself was once a victim, she tells her audiences. Her husband Francois, had multiple affairs until they both found God and she had a vision about how to be a better wife.
That men and women should be friends, lovers, equals who respect each other, who share responsibilities, who don’t shag for a bit of bling or use sex to manipulate seems to be beyond her scope of understanding.
By the way, my next door neighbour believes the world is flat and that the moon is made of cheese and is offering himself as a motivational speaker…He’s taking bookings for his “Sardonic Skeptics” movement….Any takers?
Do you buy into the Angus Buchan, Gretha Wiid school of marriage?
