Brian's Reflection: Wednesday, Feb 4, 2009

Men weren't really the enemy ..... they were fellow victims suffering 

from an outmoded masculine mystique that made them feel unnecessarily 

inadequate when there were no bears to kill.

- Betty Friedan, Thinker, born on this day, 1921, and died on his day, 

  2006, on her 85th birthday.

Betty has a little bit of her tongue in her cheek! (I think.) But her comment brings up interesting questions. Are we human beings "run", defined, only by our "biology"? Are men the "warriors", and women barefoot and pregnant and making dinner and clothes? Has there been no change, no growth, no development, since we crawled out of the water? And if not, why do we have "religion"? Has not Religion purported to show people since its invention how to grow and develop and become complex and more fully human? 

So far as I can see, there is nothing in the Biblical Creation stories that indicates that male and female are not equal, with perhaps different roles to play in every generation as the human community develops  -  by choice of the people involved. (In highly cultured Rome, men engaged in politics and culture and the arts, while women ran everything else. And in Liberia in the 70's, when I was there, women did, so far as I could see, all the physical labour. A far cry from the American woman as Barbie Doll!) Women only became inferior to men by patriarchal fiat - a problem that continues to plague the World.

It seems to be that we ought to be WAY beyond the stage where masculinity is defined by how many bears you can kill. And femininity by hairdos and how by much jewellery and makeup you can pile on. Let's get a grip here People!

Betty is right:  both men and women suffer tremendous diminishment and demeaning as we continue to pander to our biology for our self-definition. Religion and the arts and education teach us that we transcend - while including - our biology. 

This is what it means to be "made in the image of God"  -  both male and female. Biology does not excuse us as human beings from becoming caring, loving, compassionate, understanding, vulnerable, self-giving beings.

None of us should agree to be victims, or to collude in our own diminishment.

Brian+