So as some of you may know I’m back to Jr. College to finish up some transfer classes required by the UC system and one of the classes happens to be English critical thinking. I already had a fairly good knowledge of what I was getting myself into but it’s still fun to actually experience ignorance. Let me get to the point which is the little story I have from yesterday.
Our instructor wants to focus on interpretative argumentation which in my opinion is fine because I didn’t want to argument about the existence of god, morality of abortion and whether or not gays have the right to marriage. Her first exercise for us was interpreting a piece of art that was published in “The New Yorker”. You can find it here . We were to determine as a class what the artist was conveying in the picture. We students immediately begin to describe the picture factually with three women, NY subway bench, Catholic, Muslim, Secular, etc. Then we began interpreting. I said, “On either side of the middle woman we have the extreme representation of the world religions and the woman in the middle is obviously someone who is suppose to stand out.” Students bounce that idea around in their own way. And then I pointed out, “She’s clearly meant to be out there because most women don’t wear a halter top and a short shirt.” Immediately a girl next to me says, “Well women do dress that way, so it not like its abnormal.” I took my leave for the moment, let the students continue analyzing and looked about the room to see NOT ONE girl dressed that way. Thankfully the African man came to my rescue. “These aren’t just women they are the extreme forums. This isn’t just a Catholic it is an extreme Catholic, this isn’t just a Muslim it is an extreme Muslim,” all the students paused in adoration of such foreign intelligence and he continued, “and so in the woman in the middle. I do not see one woman in here whose dress like the woman in the middle,” he finished in his thick African accent.
Students came up with other ideas like the three monkeys, “Speak no evil, See no evil and hear no evil.” But nothing really stuck like our first statements so we continued in that direction which led to good old’ feminism. The teacher brought up the idea of the current anti-feminism movement with such figure heads as Dr. Laura. Then an Indian man, though very American, spoke up in reference to feminism and commented that feminism was like when a teenager receives freedom, they don’t know exactly what to do with it. Knowing he was on the right path but would be lynched if it wasn’t finished I stated, “Well yeah, its like a pendulum which swings from abortions and pole dancing to all you’re (as a woman) good for is making babies.” And no sooner than I finished my sentence the later thirty something getting married to PhD in three months over weight woman pipes up and says, “What about a pole dancer mother?” Thankfully the teacher took it from there but I was just shocked at the stupidity of feminism.
Thank you for your patient reading but the point of this of post is how shocking to me hearing feminism spoken from women’s’ mouths. I expect it from the liberal media from the New Yorker, MSNBC, CNN, my local news paper etc, but to hear it for real just strikes me differently and is just shocking. Feminism began in the late 1800s and eventually succeeded in its objective to give women suffrage in early 1900s. This in great numbers was driven by Christian women. But in the wake of this came the second and third feminist movement which as we see today has taken women to the other extreme. I understand the reasons for feminism in regard to men objectifying, raping, disrespecting, insulting and in so many ways treating women like a second class human being. I often think of the “Leave It To Beaver” mother who takes care of everything in the home, the children, the husband and is more of a robot than a person. Often for these 50s women the husband thought little of her and would go out and arrogantly have an affair or two knowing the wife would do nothing. Women have indeed suffered so much under men through out all of history so in this regard I understand the reaction of feminism.
God created man and woman in the beginning and put them as equals to each other and to God. They were equally responsible to keep the covenant; they were partners. However, with the fall of mankind God placed specific curses on man and to the woman he stated:
3:16 “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”
So from that point on women were on a hierarchal lower position than man in the world, which I believe has given the fact that “Its a man’s world.” Women do not have a lesser nature and have equal rights to God’s love, forgiveness and grace but as the Father has a position of authority of the rest of the Trinity the husband has the position of authority over women and they have suffered because of this curse. And as my wife points out, this is what happens when women chose another thing to be there God. When Eve chose to heed Satan she was placing herself under his rule and not God’s rule, therefore, God said, “Okay if what you want is to be under another’s headship and not mine then this is what you’ll have.” Since that time women have been under the rule of man. The world of Islam, for example, in Iran is a perfect example of how women are made to be less human than men. Women are stoned to death for dating a man the family doesn’t agree with, they must wear their dress even when swimming at the beach, and they are even segregated at the Mosques because it’s believed they distract the men from their prayers.
Getting back to the extreme which feminism in America has achieved its understandable why the anti-feminist movement has come to be. Feminism in its blind desire of “freedom” has received it but not known what it would do with it, at least nothing more than abortions, divorce, spousal abuse and pornography (visual in strip dancing or physical in prostitution). Yet all of these things are not forums of freedom but enslavement and self hatred. Freedom for the sake of freedom is dangerous. Often the argument for abortion is “choice”. Choice is placed over the sacredness of life! Insanity! Choice is placed over the sacredness of the woman’s body so you have women who see themselves merely as sex toys and honestly not people. Feminism is clearly not just about getting more legal rights and job opportunities which I believe are good, its been about the freedom to have choice for the sake of choice. The social aspect is a lie because choices have consequences and choice is not the ultimate achievement as I hope people will come to see.
In America the only reason why people such as Dr. Laura are so successful is because there’s a deep need for answers and guidance for women who need to know how to be a woman because what they’ve done in their past has not worked. This is why Dr. Laura is so strict. Women need to date for a certain period of time and need to become engaged and married before they “shack up” lest they become “humped and dumped”. If these feminists would take the time to listen to Dr. Laura they’d realize she isn’t as far off her rocker as they think. Feminism has produced the lie that women are just like men and the truth is we are not the same which is clearly displayed by the fact that we have different but complimenting bodies. Men and women were created for specific purposes and similar purposes. Men are physically stronger and built for hard work and war and do this in great numbers though some women can do this as well. Women are very good communicators and find it natural to give and help, though men can do this also. Specifically though men are designed for humble leadership in all regards of the word (its no coincidence that Jesus Christ was a man) and women are specifically designed for giving life. The fault is when we begin to place priority on certain things over another but the fact is we need both to be fulfilling their abilities and callings because they fit together like puzzle pieces to make life.
The inability of men to teach and disciple their sons and daughters with this wisdom is why feminism and chauvinism came to be. The problem with feminism fundamentally is that it is still placing women under the headship of something other than God. Christian women are not called to be mice who are stuck in a corner of our churches. Women are called to challenge the men in their lives, particularly husbands and their children to become better people. Not to say that one must become married to be fulfilled or feel whole but the fact is we were created to be complimented by the opposite sex in marriage. Therefore, a wise man chooses a woman who he can love and respect. A wise woman is patient and chooses a man whom she can respect and challenge and not a chump. All to often either sex selects another in the hope such things can come to be, but it never passes. I was once told the following which I find very true:
“A man marries the woman he has come to know and the woman marries the man whom she hopes he will become.”
It just illustrates how man and woman are different but how they also compliment one another.
I hope in my class that as we continue in our discussions this white, middle class, blue eyed, Christian male gets a little more credit. Nevertheless, I am thankful that we’re not going to be discussing such hot topics as abortion and homosexuality as they always opens up a can of worms with lots of vitriol.
Peace out.
