Should a Woman “Submit” To Her Boyfriend?

This concept makes me laugh.

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

Dating relationships today are often not so different from common-law marriages.

Two people living together, sleeping together, splitting financial responsibilities, and sometimes even sharing children or pets. (Sounds a lot like marriage to me…)

Anyway, I recently came across a video where a young woman was talking about the concept of “submission.” Specifically, the idea that a woman should submit to her male partner.

Submit, she argued, was just another word for “default to” which meant allowing her man to handle things and trusting his judgment. If what we mean by “submit” is trusting the judgment of our partner, I could get behind it.

But if it’s gendered, as in, “women should submit to men” I find the concept of submitting to a boyfriend utterly ridiculous.

Boyfriends aren’t husbands. Most of the time, boyfriends are being considered to potentially become husbands one day, but there’s a reason why they aren’t husbands yet. It could be immaturity. It could be competing priorities. It could be a lack of a good fit for the couple in general.

The idea that women should be expected to “submit” to a man who they maybe, might, possibly marry someday in the future is misguided…