This teaching is a prime example of mine and my father's pride and I completely and utterly embrace it to the maximum. Never allow disrespect; not from your friends, not even from your spouse.
If there's one thing that my father's family and his ancestors have experienced, it's disrespect. My father's ancestors were brutal, they were savages and no one would dare to disrespect them and if someone did, they'd be killed. And my father takes pride in this. He always boasts about, in his own words: Our race was the strongest, most feared race of the village, that's why we're seen so violent and dirty, so never allow disrespect (now of course, my father's family is Christian which is why they take disrespect from people without killing them anymore). My father wants me to be the strongest that I can be, he wants me to the best that I can be and neither him or I would allow disrespect to get in the way. You see, when a person disrespects you once and you don't react, they do it again, and again, and again. They then go around and spread rumours that you are weak, small, insignificant and useless and then nobody will hesitate to disrespect you. You see, disrespect is like a virus, like a disease, if you don't catch it early and get rid of it, it'll grow to the point where you can't sort it out anymore. That's why as soon as you get a hint of disrespect from someone, you must sort it out. That doesn't mean going and beating up everyone who disrespects you; you'd be seen as a violent, wild fool. No, the best way to punish someone who disrespects you is to simply cut them off, stop giving them the benefit of doubt. If your friend thinks it's acceptable to disrespect you- by disrespect I am not referring to jokes as those are essentials to a successful friendships, I am referring to them disregarding your privacy, your boundaries, your trust, and your kinship- then those aren't your friends. However, you shouldn't even be in the position to be disrespected by a close-friend if you had listened to teaching two; if you truly trust someone, that also means you trust them to respect you. A real friend, a friend not for just the title's sake, a friend from the heart, will never disrespect you. Sure, they'll make a few jokes here and there, who doesn't, but to actively go against your boundaries and status, they won't do that. That's of course if they're real friends. In today's world, friendship isn't common, relations are (as I've said before). If it means being seen as a higher status person, a 'friend' will disrespect you in an instant. So, don't waste your time with people who treat you like a waste of time. Don't give them a second of your day. As soon as they disrespect you, simply cut them off. Don't swear, don't fight, don't argue, just cut them off. When you see a dead plant in the ground, you don't try watering it to bring it back to life or give it more nutritional soil, you simply uproot it and throw it in the furnace. The same should be with fake- friends who disrespect you. Simply cut them off. I wish my father would listen to his own advice and he has a collection of horrible friends yet he still hangs on. Because at the end of the day he believes that being alone is worse than having fake-friends. I believe otherwise yet I feel sympathetic towards my father on the terms of this matter.
My father taught me all of this yet I look at him and don't see an example of his teaching. I see him hanging around his horrible friends and can't help but feel disappointed. He himself critiques them to my mother and constantly mentions their disrespect yet he never does cut them off. He always stays, choosing fake-friends over his real self.
However, the part which my father does in-fact uphold is to never allow disrespect from your spouse. My father has never once laid his hands on my mother and never will yet she never once disrespected him. This could be due to my mother's soft nature but my father's intelligence has a huge role in this. You see, my father always told me to never allow a woman to step over you. He taught me that when a woman senses- even for an instant- that you're weak, that she can step over you, then she will. No matter how much a woman loves you, if you are seen as weak, she'll undoubtedly take advantage. Just as any other person, if she disrespects you once and sees no retribution, then she'll do it again and again and again. However, the thing with women- especially wives- is that you can't just 'cut them off'. They're your partners, your lovers. If your spouse disrespects you, then for a period of time you should be silent. You should retrieve any attention you gave the person, and any gifts, and any bit of affection. The woman will then associate her lack of attention and affection from you to her disrespect and will eventually ask for forgiveness- if she's smart and connects the dots of course. No matter how smart or stupid a woman is however, she'll undoubtedly notice you pulling away. And if they loved you, they'd ask why. And then you'd get your only chance to actually talk it out because unlike 'friends' who disrespect you, a woman can genuinely change if you teach her/ punish her enough (not in a physical sense of course). However, that is all dependent on you. You shouldn't allow disrespect once or twice then go ahead and ignore her. As soon as she disrespects you once, you take action. Either she'll realize her own mistake without needing you to point it out or she will ask and you'll talk it out and resolve it. Now, no matter how much disrespect you take from a woman, you shall never lay a finger on her. Women are not men. Women should be treated with dignity. For the entirety of history, women weren't seen as fighters or warriors, so it doesn't make sense as to why you should hit her. Men on the other hand, they were seen as fighters and warriors so it makes sense to fight a man (though you should strive to avoid that as well). Avoid fights in general, especially with women. Like I said before, if a woman disrespects you, pull all attention and affection away until she realizes and fixes herself or until you talk it out. If neither of those things occur, then that woman isn't for you. Worse than a fake-friend is a sucking woman. A woman who sucks the life out of you and bleeds you dry of everything. And the first step for her to do so, is you allowing her to disrespect you. So, never once allow disrespect from anyone at any given time. I, for once, actually did take this lesson to heart. Going back to Fiona, though she was a liar, when we were dating and were 'happy', she disrespected me. She only did so once of course and I took my father's advice. I didn't text her, hug her, smile at her or even notice her. I'd say a greeting here and there, a 'I love you' here and there and she'd go ballistic. She wasn't smart enough to realize it on her own so she came at me and cried asking me why I'm like this and we talked it out and she never disrespected me that way again. Of course, she was lying for the most part and that in its self is a huge disrespect and I should've clocked it faster, yet like I said before, love overrides all logic and intelligence. I must admit, it's hard to ignore a woman who you love after she disrespects you. Yet you must, it's the only way to avoid being sucked dry and being left for dead by a wicked woman. Women are as dangerous if not more dangerous than fake-friends.