Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) recently published a memoir, Just Fly the Plane, Stupid!, regaling the public with tales of his ascension to owner of an oil-field service company and then on to winning a seat in Congress. When it comes to his personal preference for managing his household, the 67-year-old Republican from New Mexico says that his wife should submit to him and that he should lead.
Piggy-backing off of an allegory from the Bible, Pearce writes, “The wife is to voluntarily submit, just as the husband is to lovingly lead and sacrifice. The husband’s part is to show up during the times of deep stress, take the leadership role and be accountable for the outcome, blaming no one else.”
Pearce acknowledges that his words may appear to be controversial however, he emphasizes in his book that submission does not equal inferior.
The concept that Pearce describes is not a back swing against the progress that women have made in being respected as equals in society. Pearce is describing his family’s mode of operation which obviously works for them. Being a man who is willing to lead his wife and family by providing for them and making the best decisions for them, Pearce is taking on the brunt of the responsibility and his wife, through her submission, is showing that she trusts him to lead.
With this type of arrangement, there will be no blurred lines for expectations for either party and both can relax into offering their relationship the best of what they have with the best of intentions because their respective roles have been clearly defined and agreed upon.
What would all of our relationships be like if we respected our partners enough to sit down, discuss and map out the expectations and desires that we have? If two mutually consenting adults can agree, there should be no problem.
A Republican member of Congress says in a recently released book that a wife is to “voluntarily submit” to her husband, but that it doesn’t make her inferior to him.
Rep. Steve Pearce’s (R-N.M.) memoir, “Just Fly the Plane, Stupid!” was released last month. Its publication — and his acknowledgment in the book of the controversial nature of the submission debate — come as the Republican Party reevaluates how it talks to and about women.
In the book, Pearce recounts his rise to owning an oil-field service company and winning election to Congress. In the book, the Vietnam War veteran says that both the military chain of command and the family unit need a structure in which everyone plays his or her role.
