Categories: uncategorized
Date: 26 June 2011 07:41:47
Q. What do the Independent, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror all have in common this week? A. They have all, in their own way, being promoting feminism in one form or another. Yes - you did read that right "Daily Mail" and "promoting feminism" - although of course they'd never call it that. On top of this there is this book out at the moment which I keep seeing snippets of on FB but haven't got hold of yet by Caitlin Moran called How to Be a Woman which is apparently a bit of a feminist text. So what's the crack? Could be lots of things, but here is my short analysis of what's going on and why I believe Christian feminism has something really important to offer.
Good old fashioned liberal feminism and the change it facilitates does not come from the intellectuals - as anybody who has watched Made in Dagenham will be aware it comes from "ordinary" women getting fed up with being screwed over. The current public spending cut backs and policy proposals being put forward about pensions are impacting such women. This means we get the front pages of the Mail and the Mirror this week, (which I tend to scan whilst waiting for trains), both highlighting the patriarchal nature of the proposed changes and the negative impact they will have on women. Thus, the conditions for women - who would never consider using the f word in relation to themselves - to start acting in a which is summed up by the use of liberal feminist theory is in place.
Then there is the intellectual side. Charlotte Raven's piece has highlighted how "post-feminism" or "difference feminism" or whatever term they are using for this weeks wave of feminism has hit the bookshelves, proved a hit and got itself debated on Newsnight. Within this side of it, as Raven's article is evidence of, there is a new critique going on and a new wave of intellectual debate on the nature of feminism going on which is reaching out beyond 2nd wave radical v. the more modern interpretations. Raven's article is asking the question, how do we actively challenge the terms of our own status as commodified selves and redefine our identities?
Looking at the interplay between these two expressions of feminism going on I think this is an exciting time to be a Christian feminist. We have something really meaningful to bring to the table and debate, and I hope writes such as Elaine Storkey, Elaine Graham and Nicola Slee will do so. The bible in both Old Testament (Hagar and Esther) and New Testament (the bleeding woman and the woman at the well amongst others) give us a blue print of how to address these issues and affirm the unique personhood of all and the right of women to not only survive but thrive in the face of structural oppression.
As the church in both the widest and most local sense we can often, although unfortunately not always, provide spaces where women can flourish and be empowered to take charge of their own lives, strangely enough by surrendering them to a higher power. Our God is a God who gives us freedom and choices and when we say we want to follow him gives us the empowerment to make those choices. He does not call us to become people we are not, or to become moanie minnies - he calls us to express ourselves with all our creative freedom but in ways which enhance our lives and being not deminish from it - as well as positively contributing to the lives of those we are in relationship with. He gives us models for safe, healthy nurturing relationship and so forth. If we can get away from some of the ways the patriarchal institution of religion has distorted the empowering and enhancing message of scripture we can see that faith provides an appropriate framework to address and wrestle with these issues and find solutions.