-Sara Bareilles
I would like to assure you that Jesus himself was a feminist. He never treated women with anything less than equality.All of His dealings with women were highly counter-cultural for that day. Technically He wasn't allowed to even speak to women without a husband or guardian present, but that never stopped him. He didn't patronize. He didn't stray from teaching women the big doctrines by using the excuse that we were too emotional, or too weak to handle them. The longest conversation he ever had with a person in scripture was with a woman, and an outcast fornicator at that. In an age where a woman's word was not even believed to be reliable enough to hold up court, He let a woman be the first to witness His resurrection, and told her to tell others. Every where He taught, women were considered equal partakers of the kingdom. The unfortunate truth is that our world is not run the same way, even in most churches.
I know that #NotAllMen are like this, but I have witnessed enough first hand to know these issues are still a daily struggle in the lives of all women.
In light of that, I decided to share a few of my thoughts here instead of overwhelming everyone's news feed. #YesAllWomen is relevant....
1. Because we encourage girls to wear long skirts instead of teaching men to control themselves. (Uganda even passed a law!)
2. Because we teach "guard your drink" instead of "don't drug people".
3. Because all over the continents of Africa and Asia women are forced to have their genitals mutilated simply because their gender is considered subversive. Sex is always brutally painful for them in order to keep them from fornication.
4. Because yesterday, a pregnant Pakistani woman was shot and killed because her family did not approve of her marriage.
5. Because consent should be in words, not manner of dress.
6. Because when I type in "why feminism" on Google the first two choices are "why feminism is stupid" and "why feminism is bad"
7. Because I shouldn't have to carry my car keys in my hand as weapon when I walk to my car at night.
8. Because the American church marginalizes women to the nursery.
9. Because I have now taught self defense on two continents to protect women from men.
10. Because its an insult for a guy to be called a "girl".
11. Because rape jokes are still a thing.
12. Because Malala Yousafzai was shot in the face by the Taliban for daring to encourage girls to get an education.
13. Because the largest number of women we have ever had in the Senate is a measly 20.
14. Because victims of domestic violence are NOT "asking for it".
15. Because we spend more time analyzing why women stay in abusive relationships than analyzing why men abuse women.
16. Because all feminism really means is that you want equality for both men and women, but its connotations are negative.(If you have ever bought a bra, you would know that we would never burn them. Those things are expensive.) You think someone feels threatened??
I could continue for a long while on this topic but I have feeling that I should stop here. By the way, if men are tired of reading all this, think how tired we are of living it.
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5 comments:
Love this. Thanks for writing. Miss you :)
Thank you! Miss you too. Maybe we can get together when I'm back stateside :)
I have seen documentaries on gendercide and such. It is Very sad to see how women are treated as a whole around the world. But I wish the feminist in our country were more concerned with the pains of women around the world than making themselves high and mighty. Too much of the feminist movement I see is motivated by pride and arrogance. There is no selfless desire to see change for women around the world
I agree, it is sad and I think more awareness should be raised for women around the world. The thing to remember about feminism though, is that just like with most things, there are levels and different types of feminists. There are those who believe that men should trampled under the feet of women, there are those who believe that women are goddess like, and there are Christians like me who simply believe that the Scripture teaches and equality and respect for women. While much of feminist movement is motivated by pride, remember that while these women advocate for their own rights, they are advocating for the rights of other women in our country as well, especially in the case of legislation.
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