"The male gaze?! How do you not know what that is?! I thought you were some uber-feminist!" I was a little embarrassed to admit to this GS student that I was not as "feminist" as she thought. In fact, I'd never considered myself a feminist before. But I had no problem with her thinking I was.
She got that impression based on my presentation of several Disney seminars that critiqued Disney's patriarchal families in Mary Poppins, and Peter Pan, and examined heteronormativity in movies like Mulan. There are a lot of problematic messsages in these films. Mr. Banks says that whether or not his children are adorable is "debatable." What?! And Mr. Darling brushes off his outburst of rage towards his daughter by telling his wife, "You know I never mean those things." (I could go on and on, but that's another blog post.) I guess my evaluations of these films made me come across as a feminist. I'm okay with that.
Some Christian women would cringe to be associated with the feminist movement. I heard one such woman make a comment along these lines at a women's conference. She portrayed feminism as the antithesis of Biblical womanhood. She called us all to action to teach the next generation so as to combat the feminist messages that penetrate today's culture. Her comments didn't sit well with me. I know quite a few feminists from my time at college and GS.
I think feminism could be a greater ally to Biblical womanhood than people give it credit. Now, let me say that I know that there are some feminist ideals that contradict Scripture. So I'll say this from the start: I believe in the infallibility of the Bible. I believe it is God's word, not just a text written by some smart and Godly men, but God's inspired word as recorded through these men. If you don't believe that as well, then you will likely disagree with many of my presuppositions and conclusions.
The way that I have come to view feminism is that it seeks to lift women out of a history of gender discrimination and degradation. The feminists I know want to empower women to be thinkers, to be active, to be self-determining. (Christians would advocate for being God-determining, but a woman can decide that following God IS her self-determination.) I had the opportunity to participate in a seminar at GS this past summer in which I simply shared why I need feminism: I need feminism because when I tell people that I want to be a stay-at-home mom, I want them to support me because that's what I want to do, not what I'm relegated to. Because feminists value each woman determining her own path, my feminist friends are delighted to support me in that. I think this is the advantage of today's push towards tolerance - being tolerant means that if I make a decision as a thinking adult, my friends have to support and respect my decision. This includes my decision to follow Christ.
Now to my purpose in starting this blog:
I recently attended a Christian women's conference during which the speaker reference The Feminine Mystique as a groundbreaking work in feminism. She quoted Friedan's reference to stay-at-home moms as living in the same condition as inmates in a Nazi concentration camp. No wonder so many Christians have a problem with feminism. Is this the only feminist message they have heard?
This is not a tenet of feminism. I haven't studied the movement in depth, but the feminists I know wouldn't criticize me for my desire to stay home with kids. They would never demean me for my value of modesty. They would never degrade me for my desire to get married. They would, however, question my willingness to "submit" to my (future) husband. There's a line drawn somewhere in there between feminism and Biblical womanhood. But some secular messages about womanhood advocate for the same principles that the Bible does.
So here's my goal. I'm going to study Biblical womanhood and feminism alongside each other. I have a lot of catching up to do in terms of feminist reading. I'm developing that reading list. At the same time, I will study scripture to determine how it would view the feminist principles I read about.
I want to be able to articulate what feminism is, what Biblical womanhood is, and the distinctions between the two.
I'll begin using Mary Kassian's The Feminist Gospel. I'm going to devote time on Sunday afternoons to this study. I hope to update this blog every Sunday to document my study, to share with my family and friends, and perhaps to provide the foundation for some written piece about this topic (at the suggestion of B.G.).
Join me. Pray for me. Ask me questions. And I'll keep you updated!
