People have been asking me to get merch for the longest time, and I’ve just never had the bandwidth to sit down and figure it out.
But inspired by the webinars we’re doing this week (Tea and Tent Pegs was AMAZING last night with Kristin Kobes Du Mez and Beth Allison Barr, with the brilliant Devi Avraham hosting; and The Tide Has Turned will be awesome on Thursday night), I decided it was time.
With Christmas coming in just a few weeks, I thought it was a great time to launch the merch! You can still get it by Christmas, and it makes wonderful stocking stuffers.
When you buy from our store, it helps support the blog.
Honestly, with no speaking this year because of COVID, pretty much all of my income comes from sales from the store, and from royalties from our books. And with that I pay my team. We do have a Patreon where you can help support our research and our social media efforts, but that money goes to pay for Joanna and Rebecca’s time, not me (because I don’t make enough to pay them!).
I really want to run this as a business and not a donation site, because I want you to give your donor money to things like stopping sex trafficking. So with that being said, here are some merchandise designs we have that I think you’ll love!
Pretty much everything is available as a T-shirt, a mug, or a tote bag–your choice.
Be a Biblical Woman collection
When you hear “biblical woman”, you likely get a very specific picture: meek, gentle, mild, prays a lot, cares for her husband and kids.
Those are all good things. Great things, even! But they are not the whole picture. And when we try to make that the whole picture of biblical womanhood, we artificially restrict what women are called to do.
Joanna and Rebecca and I sat down one day and tried to brainstorm all of the things that biblical women did in the Bible, and we came up with this:
Personally, my favourite is “Say no like Vashti.” I think Vashti is a very underrated biblical character.
Buy it as a mug, a T-shirt, or a bag! And you can change colors, too! The mugs start at just $10, so they’re a great gift.
What is biblical womanhood?
Along those same lines, we created another design to emphasize biblical womanhood with fewer words:
Choose how you’d like to have it!
Love AND Respect
Because we both need both.
Need I say more?
We’ve already uploaded two different kinds of coffee mugs for this one!
What do you do with books you don’t agree with anymore?
I have some more designs I’ll be sharing with you in the next little while (some are in the store already, but they need their own post to explain the story behind them).
But one thing that many people have asked me for is stickers.
They have marriage/parenting books or other books that they don’t agree with, but they don’t want to throw them out because they may use them for research. Or there are counselors and pastors who don’t agree with them, but want to keep them so they can show people where the books are wrong. But if they leave them on their bookshelf, then people may think these are good resources!
I have a solution. Stickers! These warn others that you think the book is hazardous, but let you keep it for research.
(And if you don’t want to keep dangerous books, please don’t donate them! They may end up in the Third World where they can do even more damage. Just throw out or recycle after you tear off the covers).
They’re 4×4, which is nice and big so you can’t miss it. Just line up the line against the right side of the spine of the book and wrap the rest around. That way the poison sign is visible from the spine, but the rest is on the front of the book!
You can also get this one in a variety of colors too.
I hope you may enjoy some of those for Christmas gifts.
And if you’d like the designs on something else–sweatshirts, etc., or travel mugs–let me know and we’ll try to add it to the store.
Plus we’re always looking for new ideas! We have two ideas for limited edition merchandise, and we’ll reveal that around the one year anniversary of The Great Sex Rescue. But I’d love to know more of what you think, too!
Thanks so much for supporting us here. We really appreciate it!
Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for our Tide Has Turned webinar!
Last night’s webinar Tea and Tent Pegs was wonderful, and I’ll be sending out the link to everyone who registered so you can view the recording later today.
Didn’t register? Just sign up for my email list, and you’ll get a link to the recording in Friday’s email!
Sheila Wray Gregoire
Founder of Bare Marriage
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Love AND respect. Yes!
This was my reaction to a love and respect seminar my husband and I went to as an engaged couple. I was left scratching my head and saying, well I guess I’m weird because I wouldn’t feel loved if he didn’t respect me too! So I told him that, and he said basically the same thing but the other way around. So we just figured we were oddballs.
Thankfully I never actually read the book. But I like the idea of putting a sticker on it. I wish the copy of for women only I borrowed from my church library at age 14 or so had one!
Love and Respect are supposed to be symbiotic.
Exactly!
Remember the old line that a man would say to a woman: “I’ll still respect you in the morning”?
Yeah, right!
That’s so awesome that you and your husband did not buy into the Love & Respect teachings! ALL people need BOTH, not just one or the other.
“ ALL people need BOTH” yes exactly. And love doesn’t come in a male flavor and a female flavor. Neither does respect. I didn’t get at the time why the L&R message seemed so off to me since on the surface it does still say that both genders need both. Like I said I thought we were weird or I was “rebellious” or something.
Neat
I had a blast last night! I cannot wait to buy a Biblical Woman T-shirt. I totally agree about Vashti. Several years ago when I went to a women’s Bible study and as we went through the story of Esther, I noticed for the first time that Vashti was in the right to say NO to her husband’s request to parade around a bunch of drunken men. I pointed this out to the other women and was met with dead silence. I wasn’t sure if I was in the wrong with the teacher. Maybe they were all shocked at what I said probably because they never considered the fact that Vashti was right to refuse her husband’s unreasonable request. After all, some of these women in the Bible study “bragged” that they never told their husbands NO.
When you’re met with dead silence after announcing a “revelation,” it’s an unpleasant feeling that is hard to put into words. However, this was a revelation to me that Vashti was saying NO to something toxic and that is what we should do in a similar situation. What saddens me is that Vashti is never mentioned again in the Bible, but the church has demonized her throughout the years as the woman who “rebelled” against her husband. Women’s Bible studies have taught that Vashti was a bad example of a woman. I so cannot wait to buy the t-shirt and proudly show it off!
YES! To me, Vashti is the unsung hero of that whole story. She gave up so much and risked so much too. And she paid for it. Ironically, the pagan advisors tell the king that he must banish Vashti or else all the women in the realm will think it’s okay to disrespect your husband.
It’s PAGAN advisors that say that it’s so important that women be told they must unconditionally respect their husbands.
And yet we have Christian resources today that sound more like those pagan advisors than they do Jesus.
Vashti foreshadows what happened next as well. She’s the canary in the coal mine.
The king’s advisers were obsessed with the idea that a wife saying no to doing something demeaning would undermine the authority and respect for husbands.
That fear of maintaining power and authority and overt displays of “respect” from people with less power doesn’t disappear once Vashti is gone. It just gets a new target, when Haman feels that Mordechai is disrespecting him by not bowing down. Haman’s rage over not being in a position of power and control boils over to the point of planning genocide.
Now listen to that Mars Hill podcast episode on the treatment of women….
Not to mention Esther never would have become queen and saved her people if Vashti hadn’t said no! Even though it had consequences for Vashti, God used her strength for good. Maybe the Holy Spirit gave her that strength?
I’m sure He did!
Awesome! My favorite is also “Say no like Vashti” – would love that in a sweatshirt!! All of us women coming out from under abuse and toxic ideas need a slogan. That’s a great one because it’s not suggesting we be witchy or annoying. It encourages women to stand up for themselves, understand of their value, and behave according to their beliefs.
Toxic teacher: “You owe your husband sex!!”
Me: [points to sweatshirt] “No. My husband owes me the fidelity he promised me at the altar, and because he claims to be a Christian, he needs to practice self-control. My husband and I will enjoy mutual sexual intimacy when we both desire it and after we have enjoyed mutual emotional intimacy.”
To me the most interesting discussion last night was about the word deconstruction. I specifically love the question why do you believe what you believe? That is my mantra. The question draws yourself and others out and then it allows you to form and reform your beliefs as well as leaving room for others to do the same with the goal in mind to find the truth and ultimately correct theology! Love it! 😀
Love the mercy! Especially those stickers. I’ll need some of those for my counseling practice I am sure!
So relieved that you’re sending out a recording. I registered, but wasn’t able to tune in live because I was in class. Will the other webinar be available via recording? 9 pm Eastern is only 5 pm Alaskan – so I’ll be driving home from work at the time.
I said love the “mercy”, but autocorrect always knows best. 🙄
I want the OTHER designs as stickers, too! I would absolutely buy them for my entire bible study!!
I LOVE the “Be a Biblical Woman” set! Just one request – can we get the mug with a white interior as well? I like to be able to judge the strength of my tea.
I think so? I think you can choose the inside of the mug when you go order!
Thanks so much for the great conversation and great merch!! I would love to see the designs on travel mugs and/or water bottles. Also, could you do a 2nd edition of Biblical women with “Minister like Junia”?
Oh, I like it! I’ll see if I can fit that on.
Yay!!! Thank you!
Also, I don’t know what platform you are using for designing and selling, but some sites like Zazzle and Society6 let you supply the basic design, and then the purchaser can choose a WIDE variety of products to put it on.
Maybe you already have something like this in the making, but I think it would be great if you offered something that husbands can proudly wear/use to show that they support ideas like mutuality and respect, too!
Yes!!! I love this idea! After all, as unfortunate as it is – if we wear this shirt, it probably won’t even be read, since we are women, they might read the first line and move on.
From above
> > Me: [points to sweatshirt] “No. My husband owes me the fidelity
> > he promised me at the altar, and because he claims to be a
> > Christian, he needs to practice self-control. My husband and I
> > will enjoy mutual sexual intimacy when we both desire it and
> > after we have enjoyed mutual emotional intimacy.”
I would say that each owes the other fidelity and self control and love. A marriage where only one spouse owes the other these things isn’t built on a good foundation.
Respect is a bit more complicated, since it’s earned and should not be unconditionally given. Rather, each person in a marriage has a duty to be worthy of respect.
I don’t think that her post was meant to imply that the wife doesn’t owe the husband fidelity. I just think that it was a response to the line of thinking/preaching that women *owe* their husbands sex and the implications that if he doesn’t get it he might cheat. It is a good comeback to the teaching, and I felt her comment was well rounded and not easy misconstrue.
Just my take!
Very true. Sex should never be owed from or to either spouse.
And the whole “if he doesn’t get it, he’ll cheat and it’s your fault” theory is full of failure.
When I click on the link for stickers, it goes to a page not found error.