Submitted by Cynthia Moberly
Although the editorial “Why I will not call myself a feminist” addresses the “radical feminist movement often represented in the media,” we forget that what is represented in the media isn’t realistically the core of modern feminism. Feminists have most recently attracted the media’s attention because we have an anti-female president. Not just anti-feminist, anti-female; with a blatant disregard for the wage gap, a seriously perverted view of male sexual control, and ongoing disgusting sexual remarks made about Hillary Clinton and many other women and men. Quite frankly, Mr. Trump is anti-anyone-in-his-way. This was a “huge” reason for the large turnout at women’s marches everywhere last month.
The Women’s March in DC denied a pro-life group from formal sponsorship because march organizers recognized that a pro-life group would not fully agree with all principles of the march, but all pro-life women were welcome to march. If you don’t like being excluded for what you believe, I am glad that you now know what it feels like. Become a pro-life advocate who also advocates for the importance of all lives and change the far-left and far-right obligatory labels that our society is demanding of us.
The feminist movement fights against unfair expectations and gender roles that place limits on the female and the male. God gives us differing strengths and characteristics as male and female, but our culture’s expectations go far beyond that. Behavior and appearance that conforms to the social expectations for one’s gender, known as gender conformity, has become a recent issue centered around the ethics of marketing based on gender polarity and the expectation that all males be large, macho and strong, whereas females must be small, gentle and quiet. Christian feminists like myself do not want to ignore male/female distinctions, but want to stop social generalizations and start celebrating the differences in individuals.
The feminist movement at its core is about empowering everyone to live into who they were created to be. The blurred line in this case is the question of whether all feminists then excuse homosexuality as a non-sin. Of course, many radical feminists do, but as Christians, we do not excuse homosexual behavior. We do, however, want to celebrate that God created us very differently, even though those differences are sometimes the result of living in a fallen world where even the idea of sexuality is broken.
Yes, there are crazy leftist people. Yes, there are crazy conservatives. Yes, some radical feminists are way too overbearing. We need more feminist Christians who are willing to rise to the occasion and become leaders in the church, in politics and in education, who will fight for the rights of women and girls all over the planet. Conservatives can spit statistics about Planned Parenthood all day, but I will not take a backseat to this discussion and will not stop working for the empowerment of women everywhere because of the idea that the pro-choice vs. pro-life movement demands that Christians take a fully conservative view.