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(Self) Seduction 101
Before the lingerie, heels, perfume, lipstick, tips and tricks, seduction begins with self-acceptance.
Religion perpetuates the frustrating notion that being a woman is all about waiting: waiting for a spirit man to redeem us, waiting for a human man to validate us and our opinions and lives, waiting to get smaller, waiting to start a family, waiting to feel happy; just waiting all the damn time. And what are most of us doing while we’re in the waiting room? Self-loathing and harshly judging ourselves instead of enjoying our lives…and recognizing that we are already in paradise.
What is so freeing about leaving the Christian church is how I have slowly but surely grown to feel safe enough to enjoy all of the pleasures that life has to offer me now. I don’t have to wait on any male god to be worthy of pleasure, nor do I have to wait on any human man either.
Christianity and organized religion in general teaches women, not men, that they are only deserving of pleasure and sexual exploration once a man picks and chooses them. But of course there is a lot of emotional and mental turmoil that comes with betting your womanhood and future on one man choosing you. Of course the deserving part includes obsessing over clearing your skin, losing weight, whittling your stomach, toning your body, and marketing yourself as wifey material.