If we're being honest, probably every woman has occasionally thought about ditching the dudes and setting up a women-only community. Personally, I consider it every time I have to clean a toilet used by my three young sons. And really, women have a lot of qualities that make them great co-citizens: We're generally neater, more peaceful and compassionate than men. But one Brazilian town decided to actually do it. Noiva Do Cordeiro — literally "bride of the lamb" — is home to over 600 residents, most of them women between the ages of 20 and 35.
The town was founded in 1891 after Maria Senhorinha de Lima left the husband she had been forced to marry and was kicked out of her home town for being an adulteress. For good measure, the Catholic Church excommunicated her and the next five generations of her family. So she left the men who'd treated her so cruelly, both spiritually and physically and founded her own town. Ever since then, with a few exceptions, Noiva has been mostly women. And that's the way they like it.
"There are lots of things that women do better than men. Our town is prettier, more organised and far more harmonious than if men were in charge," Nelma Fernandes explained to The Mirror.
"When problems or disputes arise, we resolve them in a woman's way, trying to find consensus rather than conflict. We share everything, even the land we work on. Nobody competes with anyone here. It's all for one, and one for all."
But make no mistake, this is not a community of man-hating sister-power Amazonian women. Rather, the women say they do want love and marriage, a prospect that is rather difficult the way things are now.
"Here, the only men we single girls meet are either married or related to us, everyone is a cousin. I haven't kissed a man for a long time," admits Nelma. "We all dream of falling in love and getting married. But we like living here and don't want to have to leave the town to find a husband."
Determined to find a way to have their city and love, the women have put out a plea on the internet to find men — but only men willing to live by their rules. Ideally they'd like a man who has his own job somewhere else during the week and returns to Noiva only on weekends. The men would also have to let the women keep doing things their way, including religion and politics, two realms that men traditionally like to be very involved in. Of course it helps their case that the town's women are renowned in the area for being gorgeous.
Women from Noiva Do Corderio
Now the real question becomes: Can romance flourish under circumstances where the woman is the head of the household, the primary breadwinner and the local authority? According to the hundreds of comments left on the town's Facebook page they will have no shortage of suitors. Men from all over the world are pledging not only their love and devotion but also their obedience. Could this be the new face of modern love?
Unfortunately (this is the internet after all), mixed in with the nice comments are hundreds of perverted, sexually explicit and degrading comments. These seem to have overwhelmed the residents of the tiny town as they deleted all the posts referencing their press appearances and photos of individual women and aren't responding to media requests.
Previously some members of the community had written that they did not appreciate the way the world media has been portraying them as a sort of hybrid naive child bride/man-eating sex addict. Whether they will be able to find the kind of loving relationships they seek is unknown but one thing is clear: The men have certainly found a way to make it all about them. And that's exactly what these women don't want.
You may also enjoy
Talking to your kids about same-sex families
Relationship myths vs. truths
Open relationships: Couples who found success