various Christian misogyny and sexism

1. One complementarian teaching is that men need respect, women need love. Women are expected to respect and obey their husbands, even in toxic and abusive situations. But men who don't show love to their wives are often let off the hook.

Commentary

Love And R-E-S-P-E-C-T | Sarah Over The Moon (December 2013)

Women Need Love and Men Need Respect? by Shauna H Springer Ph.D. | Psychology Today (October 2012)

CTBHHM: How To Be an Abused Woman | Love, Joy, Feminism (January 2013)

2. Conservative Christians often believe that (hetero) marriage is a reflection of the relationship between Christ and the church. The man is supposed to play the role of Christ (who is perfect and free from sin in many Christian theologies) and the woman is supposed to play the role of the church (which is comprised of sinners often portrayed as innately depraved and deserving eternal torture).

Uncritical examples

[video] Q&A on Womahood [sic] & Gender Roles | Julie Roys (April 2018)

Archived on Wayback Machine and Ghost Archive

Patrick Henry College Student Handbook (see page 7)

Approved By The Board Of Trustees On April 11, 2011

Archived on Wayback Machine

Uncritical examples

Addendum 1: Thoughts For Young Men & Women On Vocation by Brent Detwiler (2006)

Archived on Wayback Machine

Women are Great at Twisting Scripture | The Transformed Wife (November 2020)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive

...if the words “I have to do my own laundry” ever came out of my husband's mouth... by The Feminist Turned Housewife and screen-shot by heaven-to-betsy (April 2025)

Archived on Wayback Machine, Archhive.today, and Ghost Archive

Commentary:

Cleaning Up After Your Husband Is Not A “Blessing” by Gemma Hartley | Ravishly (April 2019)

The Unequally Yoked Club: The Terrible Bargain. by Captain Cassidy | Roll To Disbelieve (November 2013)

More about misogyny and sexism in Christian spaces

Jesus Wasn't A Slut-Shamer or How Conservative Theology Harms Black Women by Dr. Brittney Cooper | Crunk Feminist Collective (June 2014)

Keep Your Pedestals | Are Women Human? (November 2011)

The Tell-Tale Heart of #ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear. by Captain Cassidy | Roll To Disbelieve (April 2017)

Essay: God Save Us From the “Bad Days” of White Men by Mona Eltahawy | Feminist Giant (March 2021, discusses violence against women and racism that enables it)

The Blasphemy of Complementarian Dogma | Revolutionary Faith (May 2018)

Complementarianism is a scam. | Sarah Over The Moon (November 2013)

Biblical Inerrancy's Long History as an Evangelical Activist for White Patriarchy by Stephen Young | Religion Dispatches (February 2022)

The Daughters' Great Escape by Sarah Stankorb | Marie Claire (June 2018)

You Are Not Your Own: Benevolent Sexism as the Solution to Hostile Sexism | Sarah Over The Moon (June 2013)

That doesn't sound like attraction: what conservative Christianity teaches about the sexuality of women | Speaking When the World Sleeps (September 2014)

Elisabeth Elliot, Flawed Queen of Purity Culture, and Her Disturbing Third Marriage by Liz Charlotte Grant | The Revealer (February 2024)

The Problem of the “Rescue” Narrative in Christian Writing for Women | Not Peer Reviewed: By Laura Robinson (March 2023)