I'm going to start off this blog with a disclaimer. I'm a woman, I love women, but I am not a modern feminist. If you're looking for someone to launch a smear campaign against the patriarchy, this is not the place, but if you want to encounter an alternative argument about how we should honor women based on love, then I invite you to read on.
Personally, I think the current wave of feminism approaches the issue all wrong. We don't need to make women equal. We need to elevate them. You see, when we say we want women to be equal to men, we often actually mean identical. When we make women identical to men, men stop treating women with the respect they deserve. Men stop viewing women as their moral standard and goal, and start falling into the trap of using them as objects. When we place women on a moral pedestal, even if we women know that we are anything but perfection, men will always strive to keep up with women. When men strive to keep up with their women, they can do nothing but respect them and treat them with the love they deserve. When women are held up high, society experiences a moral improvement; however, when women are drug down off their pedestal even if they think it's what they want, what they deserve and need even, society experiences a state of moral decline.
Let's take for example birth control. Controversial issue, I know. But let me tell you the truth about what I think about birth control. Why oh why do women demand to have access to birth control? Birth control not only makes you sexually available twenty-four seven, but it takes the dual responsibility out of fertility and literally makes women the objects they fight against being. In a world with birth control, that guy you slept with last weekend?, not only can he have sex with you without making a long term commitment, but he can expect you to be taking care of that monthly cycle problem and actually feels as if he can be angry when for some reason it didn't work. Birth control takes the responsibility out of sex, it takes the life creating love away, and all it leaves is an object, the woman. If women want to be loved by men and not stared at and cat called and raped and used, we would be doing ourselves a huge favor if we started by taking away the agent that makes it so easy for us to be only a body.
Still thinking that women should be treated exactly the same as men? Good. Don't take my word for it, let's take the word of God, namely Genesis. In Genesis, I think we can find a beautiful explanation for why men and women are fundamentally different. In the beginning, God, in one creation account, makes Adam first. Adam is alone for a while. He fills his days doing tasks. He keeps himself busy. God, in His infinite wisdom, recognizes that man is not complete alone, so He makes Eve. Eve, the woman, never knows a moment when she is alone. She is made out of the man, made to complete man, made to be the ultimate, triumphant finale of creation. Right in the beginning, men and women are different. The first man was occupied with busyness, but the first woman was always occupied with community and love. Today, we know that psychologically men find worth in their work, but women tend to find worth in simply being. Let me be clear, I am not arguing that women should stay out of the workforce, but I think there's a deep rooted reason why men have traditionally been bread winners. The first people didn't have a good reason to make someone less than the other; they simply did what they were naturally good at.
In short, God made women and men different, but complementary. There is a transcendent beauty in our differences. Instead of demanding that we neutralize these differences, whether by chemical means or mental ones, we should elevate God's diamond of creation.
Personally, I think the current wave of feminism approaches the issue all wrong. We don't need to make women equal. We need to elevate them. You see, when we say we want women to be equal to men, we often actually mean identical. When we make women identical to men, men stop treating women with the respect they deserve. Men stop viewing women as their moral standard and goal, and start falling into the trap of using them as objects. When we place women on a moral pedestal, even if we women know that we are anything but perfection, men will always strive to keep up with women. When men strive to keep up with their women, they can do nothing but respect them and treat them with the love they deserve. When women are held up high, society experiences a moral improvement; however, when women are drug down off their pedestal even if they think it's what they want, what they deserve and need even, society experiences a state of moral decline.
Let's take for example birth control. Controversial issue, I know. But let me tell you the truth about what I think about birth control. Why oh why do women demand to have access to birth control? Birth control not only makes you sexually available twenty-four seven, but it takes the dual responsibility out of fertility and literally makes women the objects they fight against being. In a world with birth control, that guy you slept with last weekend?, not only can he have sex with you without making a long term commitment, but he can expect you to be taking care of that monthly cycle problem and actually feels as if he can be angry when for some reason it didn't work. Birth control takes the responsibility out of sex, it takes the life creating love away, and all it leaves is an object, the woman. If women want to be loved by men and not stared at and cat called and raped and used, we would be doing ourselves a huge favor if we started by taking away the agent that makes it so easy for us to be only a body.
Still thinking that women should be treated exactly the same as men? Good. Don't take my word for it, let's take the word of God, namely Genesis. In Genesis, I think we can find a beautiful explanation for why men and women are fundamentally different. In the beginning, God, in one creation account, makes Adam first. Adam is alone for a while. He fills his days doing tasks. He keeps himself busy. God, in His infinite wisdom, recognizes that man is not complete alone, so He makes Eve. Eve, the woman, never knows a moment when she is alone. She is made out of the man, made to complete man, made to be the ultimate, triumphant finale of creation. Right in the beginning, men and women are different. The first man was occupied with busyness, but the first woman was always occupied with community and love. Today, we know that psychologically men find worth in their work, but women tend to find worth in simply being. Let me be clear, I am not arguing that women should stay out of the workforce, but I think there's a deep rooted reason why men have traditionally been bread winners. The first people didn't have a good reason to make someone less than the other; they simply did what they were naturally good at.
In short, God made women and men different, but complementary. There is a transcendent beauty in our differences. Instead of demanding that we neutralize these differences, whether by chemical means or mental ones, we should elevate God's diamond of creation.
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