Manners

You awoke the next morning, and after going through a morning routine lay out by you mother yesterday, you went downstairs to find your mother and father waiting for you.

“Good morning darling!” You mother chirped. “You ready for your next lesson?”

“Umm… Mom? Have you… you know… told dad?”

“Don’t worry sport,” responded your dad, “your mother filled me in on everything. And while I can’t exactly say I was quick to believe her, I now see that she was right. You’re the spitting image of your mother.”

You couldn’t help but blush a little at the compliment. You took a seat at the table with your parents.

“Now darling,” said your mother, “today’s lesson is going to be on the manners that every young lady should know. Now, first I’m going to list them off, then we’ll spend the rest of the day practicing what you’ve learned. Understood?”

You nodded in response.

“Good. Now, let me start with the guiding verse on which all womanly manners are based: _The women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. _The first letter to the Corinthians, chapter fourteen, verses thirty four to thirty five.”

Your mother continued, “what this means, is that as a woman you must understand that your role is one of submission to man. These rule will help you remember that. Rule one, do not speak unless spoken to. Rule two, keep your head lowered in the presence of a man until he first addresses you. Rule three, when responding to a man, only say what is necessary to answer him, nothing more. Rule four, you must address all men as sir and all older women as mam. Any younger women are to be addressed as miss. Rule five, if you have a question, do not ask for someone to answer it during the conversation. Keep the question to yourself until you and a man are alone. Rule six, never do anything to embarrass a man in public, no matter how they may be behaving. Rule seven, you must never give orders to a man. You may quietly make suggestions, but if he refuses them you must not push any further. Rule eight, when attending a social gathering with a man, you are to stay by him unless he dismisses you. Rule nine, when attending a social gathering, you are never to be in the company of a man or group of men without being accompanied by another woman or the man who brought you. And rule ten, you are to uphold yourself in a manner befitting a young Christian woman.”

At first these rules seemed somewhat arbitrary and sexist, and you struggled to keep track of them. But as you continual practiced them in mock conversations with your parents, you found them to seems less and less archaic. Thanks to your mother’s strict tutoring, you found yourself following these rules out of pure habit by the end of the day. You thought of them not as outdated and archaic, but rather simply as the perfectly normal and reasonable ways which a young lady should act. As you went to sleep that night, you wondered what tomorrow’s lesson would bring?