Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Gender
Date: 18 October 2010 21:16:34
I need to rant somewhere, and what’s the point of a blog if I don’t use it for that purpose occasionally! There maybe more of these ranting blogs in November when they will be sparked by thoughts going into my novel!
Why are females taught from a young age to “act hopeless, flutter your lids and get a man to do it.” In other words be the damsel in distress, it is the way to go about life. We have it re-enforced in lots of both obvious and subtle ways. It’s in the stories that we hear as small children, sleeping beauty, snow white, you get the idea. Then as we get older we are introduced to chick lit, that genre that says the only way to be happy is to get your man, and that you have to act in a certain way for that to happen. It is re-enforced to us in lots of subtle ways that men are more important and that it’s their world and if we follow their rules we can also join it. We see men dominating politics, sport, business and lots of other worlds. If you ask a small child they will often assume that Doctors are men and nurses are women, which tells us a lot. If you grow up within certain parts of Christianity, questioning this becomes even more difficult because you can be made to feel like you are questioning God. It is selected what you are taught from the bible, and how it is taught. Women are seen as doing the caring, or flirting. They don’t get important roles, they should be silent, and as a female you can feel second class, but when you look more that’s not what is actually going on. However that’s how you can be made to feel, and if your not careful that can be used to stop you being who you are meant to be. Selected parts of the bible can be taken to make you feel that you should be and act a certain way, and others can misuse the bible to give them power over you. It’s time to reclaim the way that females are seen both in the world, and more importantly to ensure that Christianity doesn’t give anyone the excuse to force women to be who they are not, and ultimately stop the bible being misused in a way that is harmful.