TLC to Put Spotlight on Controversial Lifestyle with ‘Submissive Wives’ Guide to Marriage’

I may need a stick to bite on while I watch this show...
I may need a stick to bite on while I watch this show…

By Holly Rasmussen

The network responsible for 19 Kids and Counting and Sister Wives is at again! This time, however, TLC will take a look into the controversial world of submissive wives with its new special, Submissive Wives’ Guide to Marriage.

Yes, you read that right.

The special, which features two couples who are currently in a submissive marriages and a third couple that is thinking about giving it a go to save their marriage, airs tonight.

One of the couples featured, Tim and Tara Furman, have been practicing the submissive lifestyle for years. Tara tells the cameras a woman’s job is to, “help her man, serve her man, submit to her man, and sleep with her man.”

The cameras also catch Tara giving some advice to Kristin Haywood. Kristin and her husband, Mark, are considering the submissive lifestyle. Tara tells Kristin her love tank is empty and needs to be filled.

“She needs to be having hot sex with her man. That’s what that means,” Tara says. “That means making sure that his love tank is full. Grab his butt! Be in the kitchen and grab his butt! Girl, you gotta be showing the goods. And you gotta be dressing like the hoochie momma. When you’re around your man, talk dirty to him.”

This is like the X-rated version of Michelle Duggar’s “only you can meet his needs” speech.

Tara tells the camera that “it doesn’t matter the way she feels. She has to do it anyway. She has to suck it up and do it anyway.”

I’m sure Tara’s teenage son is really going to enjoy this special. But, Tara doesn’t care. She says submission is one of the greatest gifts that God has given women.

“If you are a strong woman, you can submit to your man,” according to Tara.

We don’t see much of the other submissive couple, Eddie and Autumn Miles, in the preview. [Probably because TLC knew Tara and her quotes would pull in the viewers.]

This is not the first controversial special that TLC has broadcasted this year. In January, the network’s “My Husband is Not Gay” special, which featured Mormon men who were gay but married to women, caused quite a stir.

‘Submissive Wives’ Guide to Marriage’ airs tonight on TLC. Watch the preview for it below:

10 Comments

  1. Michelle Duggar DVR’d the hell out of this show and watched it for hours, I’m sure lol.
    Her little cult believes in being submissive wives… plus a whole lot of other creepy things.

    I watched about 10-15 mins of it. I understand tending to your husband’s every need, physically and mentally, but only if your man is doing the same amount of work for you too. I don’t mean making money while the wife is at home… I mean being understanding of his wife’s needs physically and mentally as well.

    I don’t believe a woman should be the only one “serving” her husband. Both husband and wife should serve and tend to each other….and it wouldn’t be called “submissive”, it would just be caring and loving one another to make each other happy. “Submission” is a harsh word to describe a loving marriage.


  2. I watched this show last night, and it was completely uncomfortable. I felt like a horrible person watching it. For starters Tara Furman is super creepy and so fake- pretending to be happy every time she sees her husband and sending him off happy by telling him “bye” and “I love you” a million times before he reaches his car, would personally annoy the crap out of me. The Furman couple is just one big show boat. I mean.. what else does she have to do besides make snacks and look pretty for her husband? Forcing yourself to be in the “mood” anytime your husband wants to have sex isn’t really something that sound awesome to me, but hey, I’m a prude.. so what do I know.
    Next, I was a little outraged with the other couple who were going to try the submissive marriage. Kristin pretty much slept all day, so yeah, if I was her husband I would be sort of mad that she isn’t helping with the house hold chores while at work. But, that doesn’t mean she should be submissive, she just needs to get her act together, quit being a baby, and take care of business.


  3. I essentially watched this trainwreck because I knew it would make me angry,and it totally did! Nothing about this was about being submissive…it should have been called ‘living biblically’ as it was about tending to your ‘husbands’ every whim. Honey, that’s being a servant, NOT submission. I knew what it would most likely be about, but still hoped it would feature like a dom/sub relationship that has bled out of the bedroom and into everyday life, or I don’t know, a submissive personality type dealing with the issues that might bring up in a marriage? Nope, got this bonkers woman who came across to me like if she ever said no he’d smack her. Not entertaining or educational.


    1. Right?! I caught this show right after the one on the people who live like it’s the 1950s (I had to balance out the season finale of “Call the Midwife” somehow, mustn’t expose myself to too many media portrayals of women treated as intelligent, capable, independent human being-also set in the ’50s btw) I’d love to see The Ashley recap that one as well. I’ll give it that it wasn’t an abusive marriage so much as a really weird one. But it was just uncomfortable to watch. A definite tendency towards Duggar-y (admit it, you’ve used it as an adjective too) baby-talking and unsettling sort of admiration of their husbands


  4. So upset that I missed this disaster! Somehow I didn’t see any commercials for it. Is it going to be replayed? I couldn’t find it again on the dvr.


  5. pssh! It should be called “My life as a doormat”! It should be 50/50 in a marriage. Period.

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