Can you be a Christian and a feminist?
(This question is aimed at Christians, by the way. Comments remotely resembling ‘OMG the bible oppresses wOmeN!!111 trollolol’ will probably be ignored).
Anyway I’ll leave you to make up your own mind after I tell you why I stopped calling myself a feminist.
I watched a YouTube video recently by a political and social commentator, who talked about a group of women in Iran who are removing their hijabs in public, as a way of protesting an oppressive Islamist regime. He commented on the absurd backlash that this received from Buzzfeed and other leftist social commentators, criticising Buzzfeed for “throwing actual feminists under the bus”.
The video kind of summed up my feelings towards feminism so I was inspired to write about it.
Whilst studying English at university I saw no problem with feminism. Supporting women’s rights? Supporting equality? What’s not to love?
Ah, naive younger me…
Looking back, the university curriculum quite unapologetically shoved feminism down my throat. For example, my degree introduced me, with no scientific critique, to the idea that gender is a social construct.
I get it – feminism in the West began as a reaction to real injustice. Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication on the Rights of Women, published in 1792, cemented her as one of the founders of early feminist philosophy – and rightly so. Mary Wollstonecraft kicked some serious ass. So did the suffragettes. And I think we can all agree that the Equal Pay Act 1970 was a victory for common sense.
It would be nice to have more Mary Wollstonecrafts walking the earth today, crusading against the serious injustices affecting women in certain parts of the globe.
But what do we have instead? Let’s do a quick throwback to last January’s U.S Women’s March – the ultimate feminist utopia. An opportunity for women to stand together in peace, love and solidarity…. Right? Uh, not quite.
Highlights included Madonna proudly saying that she’d thought about blowing up the White House, and groups of women dressed as giant vaginas. Signs were held up saying truly intelligent things like ‘witches against fascism’ and ‘the future is female’.
Worst of all, no feminist groups who didn’t support abortion were allowed to participate at all.
But, I can hear you thinking, feminism just means equality for men and women. If you care about equality that makes you a feminist, right?
Well first of all, in the West, men and women do have equal rights under the law. (Let me know if you can provide any examples where this is not the case, though).
Secondly, it matters more to me what feminism does and promotes, than how it’s defined.
Here are two recent examples of feminism’s outworkings: The ‘Free the Nipple’ campaign, and the Slut Walk, which is a pretty extreme way to protest what they consider to be a ‘rape culture’ (and saying we have a ‘rape culture’ in Western society is also pretty extreme).
Feminism today has little to do with true equality. Instead, it has largely become a political movement that tries to erase gender distinctions, demonises men, and doesn’t accept that the gender pay gap is (LARGELY) a myth (obviously they didn’t tell me that during my Lit course).
And the icing on this ugly cake is that it seems one of feminism’s primary aims now is to secure abortion on demand, and to propagate abortion as a symbol of empowerment. This is the complete antithesis of what early feminists believed.
There’s a tragic irony in how feminism has become synonymous with abortion, when gendercide (abortions solely on the grounds of the baby’s gender) has wiped out up to 200 million girls worldwide. How’s that for women’s rights?
So I can’t call myself a feminist anymore.
I hope it’s obvious that this is not about ‘staying in the kitchen’. I care about women being empowered and free – just not the way feminism currently defines those things.
If your heart burns for injustice, you’re carrying God’s heart – because God is just. But direct that passion and that energy into something that matters.
If all you can do is pray, pray for women being sold into slavery or trafficking. Women suffering sexual or domestic abuse. Women in the sex industry. Female genital mutilation. Forced arranged marriages. Women who, in some nations, are forbidden to walk down the street alone.
God’s desire was never that women should be silenced or considered inferior. Men and women are designed to work together in unity, not to war against one another. Society and even the Church has often got this wrong and it’s easy to understand why many women are reacting out of anger. Yet like everything else in the Kingdom, the solution is counter-cultural. Upside down.
Some time ago I attended a weekend away with my church. During the final session, our pastor asked us to participate in a time of collective forgiveness between the men and women. This act of forgiving went both ways, including instances of mistreatment and abuse by men towards women, but also of women emasculating and undermining men.
This wasn’t simply paying lip-service to some complex issues or taking on a false sense of guilt. It was a moment where lies about who we were supposed to be and how we were supposed to view and treat each other were replaced with the truth of God’s Word. As always when lies are replaced with truth, there was tangible freedom and restoration. What struck me most was that it was rooted in love and honour – and that’s why it was so effective.
And why feminism will never achieve this kind of result.
OK. That’s all for today. I’ve only scratched the surface of this topic so I will most likely revisit it- but I hope that for now this has offered sufficient food for thought.
Thanks for making it to the end.
There are some great insights into the pay gap and ‘gender equality’ in this fascinating Channel 4 interview with Jordan Peterson, aired only this week.
If you’re interested in learning more on the drawbacks of modern-day feminism, Christina Hoff Sommers (who does identify as a feminist) is sane and reasonable. This video is clear and concise.
If you’re interested in further reading on women and the Bible, I’d recommend Lisa Bevere’s book Without Rival– empowering, accessible and scriptural. Or look her up on YouTube, loads of good stuff there too.
Photo by Jerry Kiesewetter on Unsplash.
Hello!
I find your thoughts interesting. I agree with you about feminism but mostly for this reason: “An opportunity for women to stand together in peace, love and solidarity….” I thought for a while that this is what feminism was meant to be and it isn’t. These days, it’s often just people throwing awful accusations at each other. Not wanting to be curious but dogmatic (e.g. you’re not a feminist if you care about x). I thought it was about choice but a lot of the time people debate in soundbites and seem unable to recognise that there is something valuable in the opinion of those who disagree with them. I think that’s so damaging. The idea of sisterhood is so beautiful but often it seems conditional. I also think that a lot of the things that are done in the name of feminism in the West ignore the situation of women across the globe, women who are poor and ethnic minority women. I think a lot of feminism in the West ignores that the majority of people across the world are religious (or at least they are brought up in a religious culture) and therefore you can’t engage with people without understanding and respecting their beliefs.
I do have some questions for you:
The abortion issue: how would you change abortion laws? I don’t want to assume that I know what you’re thinking although we’ve talked a bit about it before and you’ve written about it too. The phrase “abortion on demand” makes me uneasy to say the least. What would you do in order to help women who find themselves in a situation where they have to choose?
Thanks for the links! Christina Hoff has some interesting ideas. She talks a bit about uni campuses and so do you; I had a somewhat similar experience at university. I was often just confused about why some of my lecturers were so angry. But I am more interested in people who live in the real world, not the bubble of academia. I do think research is important and I think ideas are important but most people don’t live there. The ideas are still around in the media, etc. and often they become soundbites, quick snappy terms and phrases that you throw at people when you can’t argue back. But how would you begin to address them with people? I find it really hard to think about this because my more natural tendency is to just see people on an individual basis; and I try (although sometimes I fail) to evaluate their behaviour based on who they are, what they show me about themselves…rather than whether they’re a man or a woman. I resist conversations with women in which things like “men are stupid” or “all men are cheaters” or “a man’s opinion is not equal to a woman’s opinion” are said; yes, I’ve heard those things. And I don’t agree with them! But say a woman has had the experience that the 2 serious relationships she’s had have ended because the guy cheated. How would you challenge the idea that “all men cheat” whilst honouring the fact that she’s experienced it in her life? I have tried…usually by asking questions but there is a larger issue, isn’t there? There is the big picture; the culture itself. And the fact that people seem keen to silence or threaten those they disagree with, on all sides. So what do you think?
Anyway, my comment has gone for far too long. Your post did give me lots of food for thought!
Yessica
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Hello love! Thanks for such a thoughtful and nuanced response. I completely agree about feminism ignoring many of the real challenges affecting women in non-Western society – this hypocrisy seems to me to demonstrate that the movement, sadly, has little to do with real justice.
Great point as well about debating in soundbites. This is certainly problematic – I’ve witnessed this many times whilst in my last employment as media was such a big part of the job. It’s very difficult to have a well-reasoned discussion when commentators are given minutes of airtime. I also think internet culture and social media exacerbates this problem; everything is fast paced and there’s so much information competing for people’s attention. Engaging in depth with anything is becoming increasingly difficult.
Anyway coming to your questions. Regarding the abortion issue, I will address this in future and I’m in the process of planning out a series of posts (because as you recognise, there are so many aspects that need to be explored). I’m not sure what you mean about ‘have to choose’ – it depends on what the choice is between, surely. As in, if the woman must choose between her own life or the baby’s, then this is one thing (which is very rare, thankfully). I’m not sure if any other set of options justifies abortion, but again, I will address this in future! 😊
Regarding your last question. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with dealing with people on an individual basis! In fact I think it’s necessary. I also absolutely believe in honouring someone’s experience and having empathy for that experience.
But you’ve mentioned something that I’ve been thinking about recently (in fact I started a blog post about it yesterday) – dealing with ideologies vs. dealing with people. I think I started writing about it because I am wrestling with it. I want to love people but not fall into the trap of accepting everything they say (or worse, propagate).
I think part of the problem is that there seems to be a growing tendency to look at social issues through an individual (and therefore emotional) lens. I’m not saying we can or should completely detach ourselves from a given issue – because personal experience fuels a passion for societal change. But there’s also the danger that people may internalize an experience to the point that they project it onto the rest of society, and believe a given problem is bigger or more prevalent than it really is. In these cases emotion seems to trump fact and I find this quite worrying. In terms of dealing with people who demonstrate these tendencies, I suppose it depends on whether they are privately holding these generalised views, or actually propagating them. The latter is much more concerning and for me the truth has to matter more than their feelings. I’d probably be gentler dealing with the former category, haha.
I also think university campuses and the media should be taking greater responsibility to encourage debate and discussion, rather than this trend to protect feelings at all costs. Personally I’m trying to be a bit more open about airing my views (which is why I started this blog), in the hope that others may feel encouraged to do the same. Whether they will, remains to be seen!
Goodness this is also very long. But your comment deserved a thoughtful reply. I hope I answered your questions, and as I said, the ones I didn’t answer, I will try to answer in future!
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Heya,
Thanks for your reply. You’ve given me a lot to think about. On the subject of abortion; I guess I think about the societal and economic circumstances that often lead to people having them. If a woman is poor and can’t take care of the child, what are her options? I’m not saying aborting is the only option but I do worry about people who bring children into the world that they cannot look after. Anyway, since you’re writing about it in the future, I’ll keep reading and thinking.
Ideologies vs people
I agree with this: “there’s also the danger that people may internalize an experience to the point that they project it onto the rest of society, and believe a given problem is bigger or more prevalent than it really is.”
I care more about people than big ideas. Not about us feeling good all the time but about people being able to flourish in society and live lives of integrity and authenticity rather than conform to a set of ideas merely for the sake of conforming to them or because someone tells you to.
However, I do think people need to be able to handle the existence of ideas they don’t like. I think we need to be open to being challenged because it is the only way of learning.
I’ll leave it there. Looking forward to your future posts. 🙂
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I don’t believe feminism in the West to be one-size-fits-all nor do I believe that you must be a feminist to support gender equality and the equity of female humanity.
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I would agree with you on both counts there…
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