Spousal Authority

Spring is most certainly here. The sun is shining, and we have a preview of summer temperatures. Our area has a peculiar climate. According to the experts, it isn’t affected by global warming. Our temperatures are expected to remain stable for another hundred years. Garrison Keillor said we have spring 9 months of the year and summer the other three. It’s true. With rare exceptions, it’s in the 40s and 50s from November through May. Then we get a dry, sunny summer with temperatures of 80 during the day and 55 at night. People think we get a lot of rain. We don’t. Our annual rainfall in the Seattle area is the same as in New York. We get ours more slowly.

Anyway, We’ve had a warm (for us) week. Our daytime temperatures have hit 80 (yesterday). Nights are still cold and get down into the 30’s. I’ve grown very fond of this climate. If we want some hot weather, we can drive 50 miles across the Cascades, where the summer is more like the rest of the country.

Now that we’ve had the weather report, I can move on to the news. It’s been quiet since my orgasm last week. Apparently, Mrs. Lion has had some BDSM thoughts but hasn’t done anything about them. In her post yesterday, she wrote that she also hadn’t flexed her authority muscles. I commented that it’d been 20 years since anyone tried to put her down for doing that. Maybe her recent thoughts about being dominant with me in the past signals that she wants to flex her muscles on some level. I hope so.

Mrs. Lion isn’t alone when it comes to being challenged by assuming an authoritative marital role. She has no role models to help her. Some people writing on the Internet suggest marital discipline be equated with maternal power. This sends a negative message to women. I don’t think many women want to marry their sons. I don’t mean this in the sexual sense. I can’t imagine a woman wanting to be a mommy to her husband and her kids.

The maternal model is the only one available to women. Men have plenty of models when it comes to male authority. There is no issue with a man taking a paternal role with his wife. Western society is based on this. If a man is paternal, he doesn’t think of his wife as a daughter. He understands that his role extends beyond his kids. Disciplining his wife may look similar to how he treats his children, but he and his wife know it is different. For one thing, he holds her to a much higher standard than his kids. While similar to what he administers to his children, punishment is far more severe, suited to his adult wife.

We don’t offer a model of spousal authority. We badly need it. Mrs. Lion’s power isn’t maternal. It’s spousal. If she chooses to punish me like a child, it doesn’t mean she sees herself as my mother. She uses the best tools at her disposal to help me to be the best husband.  Those of us in female led relationships need to avoid relating what we do to maternal authority. It’s simply not correct.

Mrs. Lion is never going to be a tyrant. She needn’t worry about that. She is a fair and loving wife. She needs to stop worrying about the consequences of expressing her feelings. Her focus belongs on changing my behavior. Spousal discipline carries the obligation to help me to improve consistently. Each time she punishes me, I learn something. Spousal authority isn’t about punishment. It’s about positive change. It’s about building a strong, happy marriage.