Challenging Feminism

Posted on by beautybeyondbones

Lately, it’s been really weird to be a woman.

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Not because of any fashion or makeup trends…although, I will say…I don’t quite understand the reemergence of the shoulder pad.

But because of all the recent hyper focus on…feminism.

The Women’s March, International Women’s Day, protests, walk outs, I mean, we get it already…

But to be honest, I am confused by the whole matter.

Women are not marginalized in the United States of America. 

What are they fighting for? Why all the anger?

Now listen, I know that this post is probably going to garner a lot of backlash, but you know what, that’s okay. I would love to hear thoughts on all sides of this issue. Truly. Every person is entitled to their own viewpoints, and I respect those feelings, even if they differ from mine. And of course, there is always room for improvement in removing some lingering issues, (representation in senior management, ensuring equal wages), but there is no attack on women.

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But again, I don’t know what women are fighting for.

Is it because we have access to health care?

Is it because 57% of enrolled college students are female?

I’ll repeat that….57% of college students are female.

Is it because women can hold any job they desire, up to and including the President of the United States?

Is it because women can wear anything, say anything, go out in public, drive a car, vote, go to school, worship freely, and have/adopt children here without the say or approval of a man?

I just don’t get it.

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Perhaps they’re marching for the end to rape. Okay. That’s truly a phenomenal cause, and I salute that.

But I honestly don’t think a march is going to change that. You know what might? A change in our culture. Maybe we need to reconsider the messages that we’re sending to young boys and men in society about how to treat a woman. Perhaps we shouldn’t be referring to women as “bitches and hoes” in our music and television. Perhaps we shouldn’t be objectifying or infantilizing grown women in our advertising. When we reduce a person to mere body parts or tools for pleasure, it’s no wonder that men feel they have the ability to take advantage. Perhaps we should challenge the multi-billion dollar porn industry. Perhaps we should be changing the narrative on that, and reclaim our dignity as women and prize our sexuality and virginity for what it is.

And women, we’re not off the hook either. Listen, I love a little black dress more than anything. Especially if it’s backless. But if we’re going to walk out of the house in lingerie-equivalent club wear, it’s asking for trouble. Of course men should be able to control themselves. “Asking for it” is never, ever, ever an excuse. But if we’re not respecting our own bodies, how can we expect anyone else to?

The biggest thing I have a problem with, is women who are marching for abortion rights.

It’s no secret, I am staunchly pro-life.

But here’s where the feminism argument just doesn’t hold up.

So much of feminism is tied up in the sexual revolution and the emergence of The Pill. The cry of feminism for women to have the sexual freedom that men “have” is the exact antithesis of what true feminism really is!

The very essence of being female is the ability to bear children. Bring life into the world. That is the one and only thing that is uniquely female. That is the aspect of being a woman that is what should be celebrated and cherished and protected. And, in the name of feminism, we’re fighting to squelch that? Fighting to suppress that exclusively female gift? That, in my opinion, is the exact opposite of feminism.

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“But we’re fighting for a woman’s right to control her own body.”

Okay, terrific. That’s important.

But here’s the thing. Abortion is different because it involves two bodies: the mother’s and the baby’s. Her decision is not just hers, but her child’s. How is ending another human life controlling her own body? That sounds to me like controlling someone else’s body.

You want to fight for the marginalized? How about you start with the smallest and most vulnerable of them all? – The child in the womb.

Frankly, I have been so disappointed to be a woman here recently. All the photos of women wearing red, and proclaiming that they’re boycotting work to show what it would be like to have a world without women.

Please. Give me a break. You have a job. A paycheck. A degree. Benefits. Clean drinking water. Health care. Equal opportunities.

This whole feminist movement thing, it just smells of domineering, desperate estrogen, if I’m being really honest.

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I am uniquely female. God made women as the crown of creation. We bring life into the world. We are relational. We are receptive. Feelers. Communicators. Soft. Delicate. Those things are who we are by nature.

Frankly, it is unnatural to try and dominate a man and emasculate him.

I think one of the most beautiful things we can do as women is to let a man be a man, and challenge him to rise to his highest form of masculinity: providing for his family, protecting, guarding, leading. That is what a man’s heart longs for: adventure. Rescuing. Providing.

Their inherent natures and our inherent natures are a complimentary pair. Perfectly in harmony.

Maybe if we call out men to be those types of upstanding men, and we their equal partners, complimenting each other’s traits, perhaps all the other things will work themselves out. Because a man called to true masculine greatness will respect a woman, her body, her mind, her talents, abilities, passions.

Because at the end of the day, feminism is not a bad thing. But its definition has been bastardized in recent times. Feminism is the revolution of femininity – in all its forms.

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We, as women, bring with us, our uniquely feminine traits – our feminine genius – into each and every role we take on, whether that be a teacher, a business exec, a mother, a nurse, the President, a professional athlete. Those uniquely feminine traits make us exceptional at those things, and should be celebrated.

A woman is a unique being: capable of all that a man can do, and more. We are the bearers of life. Why are we fighting that which makes us most powerful?

That’s feminism. That’s where we need to begin.

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beautybeyondbones

BBB: Because we're all recovering from something. // For speaking/business inquiries: beautybeyondbones@yahoo.com

701 thoughts on “Challenging Feminism”

  2. I find this post exciting to be sincere, and I understand completely the angle you’re coming from, and it’s not out of place. The thing is, that the ideology of feminism has been corrupted to begin to mean a whole lot of queer things, and vain struggles, and that’s the reason for all the complications. Feminism in its originality, is a beautiful movement, because the truth remains that we still live in a patriarchal society that still give more respect, attention, honor, and preference to the male gender in situations where the both genders should be in equal standing. I believe that all human beings should be respected and honored because they are human beings, and selections should be made based on input value and worth, and not on gender or any biased means. This is why I believe everybody should be feminists in its originality. Nice post here

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Hi again! (I have some rare free time tonight – can you tell? :D)

    Here’s where I’m with you –

    • I am passionately pro-life. As I’m fond of saying, “abortion is bullshit.” (Excuse my French, but it’s really REALLY fun to say that in certain circles.)
    • In theory, women have equal protection under the law. Yay, personhood!
    • Women have been actively encouraged to better their situation – yay! Which is 1000% necessary (no that’s not a typo) because I see from your writing elsewhere that you agree that women have a much greater responsibility than men – they are responsible for creating new life.

    Here’s where I disagree –

    • Women cannot emasculate men. If men have a problem with strong women, they need to look deep inside themselves and spend some time thinking about what gives them meaning. If a certain man can only find meaning by protecting and providing and growing a BIG BEARD and having BIG MUSCLES, then find a woman who finds meaning complementing that. Or go be a priest. If a certain man finds more meaning staying home and holding crying babies and managing toddler tantrums and cleaning the house, then find a woman who finds meaning in a complementary role. Or go be a priest. That’s what my husband and I did (well, not the priest part), and that’s why I’m the breadwinner and he has raised our son and my daughters. (So far everyone is alive and the house hasn’t burnt down – success!) Bottom line – there’s room in the world (and good thing, too!) for flexibility in what it means to be feminine AND masculine. (I wrote about that here: https://athenasantics.wordpress.com/2015/01/10/its-a-womans-world-apparently/)
    • Men as a whole still need to be reminded, and reminded often, that feminism is a Thing and that women should be treated like people. Within the last few years I have worked in environments that were less progressive and more progressive. I appreciate the professionalism of more progressive environments. I am more effective and more able to provide for my family in more progressive environments. In less progressive environments, I get asked in client meetings if I’m pregnant with my superiors present and laughing it off. In less progressive environments, I get hit on by clients which my superiors knew about ahead of time and sent me in anyway because “we figured you could handle it okay”.
    • You think we need a change in culture? I agree. This progressive, feminist marcher agrees: http://samanthapfield.com/2017/01/25/the-womens-march-is-a-culture-war/ This link is what I point people to when they don’t understand why the women’s march happened.

    Anyway – lots to talk about under this umbrella!

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  8. Intriguing, thought provoking post. The feminist movement was born out of frustration, anger–righteous anger, but anger none the less–pain and resentment. All of these things are negative and are the necessary ingredients of a movement for change. But the movement must not stay in negativity, it most move to hope and empowerment or it will become stagnant and impenetrable, the very things that it sought to change. Cheers.

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  9. Wow once again such a great post!! I really don’t understand what they are so angry about either. We have rights we have equality just in a different way. I wouldn’t want the line between men and women to be blurred I think we are meant to be different and that’s what makes us great and that’s how God made us. Standing for the family as well. Keep on writing such thought provoking content. The world needs it!! xoxo all the best

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    1. Thank you so much! I really appreciate your support and encouraging words. Amen – that’s the most important thing to remember : God made us 🙂 Hugs and love xox

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  13. I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said here. It’s refreshing to see a young woman not supporting all those marches for apparent freedom, but questioning what on earth is going on and what do marches achieve anyway. Not a lot, that’s for sure… and the scary thing is… very few people actually realise that.

    When I was a in my teens and twenties in the 80’s there was a huge amount of feminism talked about in the news. Lots of female celebs involved in marches and campaigns. It used to really annoy me, because I didn’t feel women had a hard time even in the 80’s. I think there were problems when it came to working women especially in office work, there were some issues with women being suppressed in regard to promotion and also sexual harassment was a much bigger problem than it is today, and women couldn’t deal with it easily in the legal sense. So maybe because I wasn’t involved in that world it didn’t effect me, it didn’t seem real. But I doubt a march in the street really changed any of that… it takes a lot more than shouting our lungs out in the street in a march to change those kinds of dark situations. Reality is… most women involved in those marches will do nothing to make a change other than go on the march and maybe rant about what they are unhappy with… that changes very little.

    I have a horrible feeling this rise in women interested in feminism… marches on the street and many other pointless demonstrations is actually a nasty trick. This is just my own theory, I could be wrong about this, but… I’ve been watching the situation unfold and it looks to me like it could well be a way of demolishing feminism, to take us all back way into the past where women will have little rights left. I’m not talking about laws preventing women, but just society in general could over time be persuaded to stop listening to women because …”Oh look what they did or said once they had the right to demand whatever they wanted!” We are getting to a situation where men are struggling to have a say. It seems what the woman wants is all that matters because anything else is suppressing her human rights. The man’s opinions seems to be irrelevant. That’s exactly where women were many years ago… it’s all reversing. And it will most likely reverse again… but for women. History will repeat itself over and over.

    The trick is to occupy our minds so we don’t actually notice worse situations arising right in front of our eyes. Right now, many people believe we have a great system of recycling going on… not perfect, but it’s growing and changing our society… that’s not true, it’s a total lie. A lot of our recycling contents in our bins end up dumped in another country. The wrong items are sent, in some cases contaminated recycling, which is of no use for recycling, so it ends up in big containers forever dumped somewhere in India or China. That’s the reason China decided they didn’t want the recycling any more because they were tricked into accepting material they thought was suitable but it wasn’t… their country was becoming a dumping ground for the world so called recycling. That’s just one of the major horrors going on, hardly anyone is ranting about, or taking to the streets in a march. There’s a You Tube video called “China Desperately Grapples With Its Plastic Waste Crisis” that will give you a very good sense of the extent of waste dumped around the world… it’s a horrifying picture of reality.

    There’s also the problem of hidden human slaves in out own neighbourhoods where men, women and children are taken captive to work… in some cases as sex slaves. It’s not that these issues are not spoken of, but I see very few people ranting, or taking to streets to demand something be done about those poor people trapped. But instead, we will celebrate slavery being abolished or take to the streets to demand rights we already have. Mm… there’s a reason for all these things, and it’s never what it appears to be. It actually avoidance.

    I’m glad you wrote about this, not enough young women today confront illogical thinking especially over feminism. Please keep on with the questioning of these nonsense things in our society… we need more people on this planet who think like that.

    Sorry about the very looooog comment… I just felt I needed to say this.

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