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Egalitarian

2012-01-18T14:06:45Z

Andycjp:

=Synopsis=

What does the [[Bible]] teach about women and their status as human beings, [[Christian]]s, citizens, and wives? This is the question of egalitarianism versus [[complementarianism]]. The purpose of this document is to present an accurate summary of the Christian egalitarian view. Christian Egalitarianism is not the promotion of female over male, nor of male over female. It is the belief that scripture shows male and female to be equal in salvation, in gifting, in service, and in access to [[God]].

=The Old Testament=

==Before Sin==

Both male and female are stated as being made in the image of God <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis%201:27;&version=72</ref>; Gen. 1:27. Neither is said to reflect or represent that image more than the other. But is authority found in chronological order? God makes the only creatures with authority, humankind, last. If there is any tie between authority and chronological order, the text can only support the idea that the last created being is the one in authority. So [[Eve]]'s being created after [[Adam]] does not imply his rulership over her, but could actually support the opposite. However, the only concrete statement that can be made about why humans were given authority is based upon their being made in God's image; no connection is made between chronology and hierarchy.

Likewise, no connection is made between naming another creature and hierarchy. Adam named animals <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%202:20;&version=72</ref> because God told him to, and Adam named "woman" <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%202:23;&version=72</ref> because he existed before her. But the text never calls this naming any kind of authoritative act. The text states the purpose of Eve's creation to be as a helper <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%202:18;&version=72</ref> for Adam. Does this constitute an instance of hierarchy, that is, is a "helper" inferior to the one needing help? The scripture here makes no explicit statement either way; all other claims about hierarchy have to be inferred from other passages, or from our own usage. Even so, we can take "helper" <ref>http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/helper</ref> as either an assistant or a benefactor, so usage of the word "helper" does not intrinsically tip the scales in either direction. In fact, if we do check other scriptures for the word "help" or "helper", we see that same word <ref>http://godswordtowomen.org/studies/word%20study/help.htm</ref> used for God as for Eve.

One often-overlooked fact in this pre-sin world is that "a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh" <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%202:24;&version=72; 2:24</ref>. The man is to join to the woman, not the woman to the man. Does this signify authority or hierarchy? The passage is silent about that; it is simply stated as a fact. This statement does not prove either way that one joining to the other indicates hierarchy. If our experience says anything, it is either neutral (a joining of two equals) or indicates that the one being joined to is superior. But there is no case of the one being joined to signifying superiority over the one joining. Their being "one flesh" can either refer to a figurative return to the unity of Adam and Eve, or possibly to "one family". From there we could say that if one must take the other's name, it would be the man taking his wife's name.

So the Bible never explicitly or even implicitly indicates any kind of hierarchy between Adam and Eve before sin.

==The Temptation==

Adam and Eve were together <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203:6;&version=72</ref> in the garden when the serpent tempted Eve; she did not try to hide from him or deceive him in any way. When asked what God had said about the Tree of Knowledge, Eve's expanded answer <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203:3;&version=72;</ref> was not challenged by either Adam or the serpent. Eve attributed her answer to God, not to Adam, and there is nothing in the text to indicate otherwise. There is also nothing to indicate that Eve lied or was improperly instructed by Adam if she had gotten the warning from him instead of directly from God. But the serpent <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203:4-5;&version=72</ref> clearly lied ("you will not die") and "sweetened the deal" ("you will be like God"). The serpent's appeal to Eve was that God had lied and withheld knowledge. This deception and appeal to being like God tricked Eve <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203:13;&version=72</ref> into sinning by eating the fruit.

Note that Adam was completely silent throughout the whole exchange, and when Eve handed him the fruit he ate it without objection. There is nothing in the text to indicate that Adam had also been deceived, so his sin of eating the fruit was deliberate and without excuse. And there is no hint of authority here except for that of God. If Adam had been given authority over Eve, he made no indication of it nor used it to protect her. Again, there is no indication of hierarchy between Adam and Eve anywhere in this passage.

==After Sin==

God turns to Adam first and demands an explanation. Adam's response is to blame not only Eve but also God <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203:12;&version=72</ref>He says nothing about his failure to act, but note also that he doesn't deny having been with her at the time; that is, he doesn't appeal to having been unaware of the temptation. Then Eve is challenged, and her response is true; she makes no effort to pass blame or change the story, and freely admits to having eaten the fruit. We must keep these facts in mind when reading about God's judgment of the matter.

First God curses the serpent <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203:14-15;&version=72</ref> directly and physically; he would crawl on his belly and eat dust. Then he adds that he will deliberately put "enmity" or extreme hostility between the serpent and Eve, and between her "seed" and his "seed"<ref>The meaning of the phrase is debated, and is not further explained in the immediate context. But we do at least have some NT help. In Mt. 13:38 Jesus defines literal "seeds" in the parable as corresponding to either children of God (believers like Eve) or children of Satan (rebels against God like Adam). So at least in the first part of the "enmity" verses we can understand it as speaking of the perennial hostility between those two groups (certainly '''not''' merely between women and snakes!). But the second part is specific to individuals: he (lit. ''it'') will strike your (the serpent's) head, and you (the serpent) will strike his heel.</ref>. But the next statement about what each "seed" will do involves future individuals. So a future "seed of the woman" will crush a future "seed of the serpent", and this is tied to their mutual hostility. We have to wait for the New Testament (NT) for elaboration on the meaning of this section, but it should be noted that this future hostility is still part of the curse on the serpent, and it is specifically stated to be the seed of only the woman who would crush the serpent. There is no statement in all the Bible that explains ''why'' God chose only the woman's seed; every explanation has to come from inference. But we can note the fact that there was a difference in the motivation for sin between Adam and Eve: Adam was not deceived and so sinned deliberately, while Eve was deceived into sinning. She nonetheless took responsibility, admitting she sinned, but also spoke truthfully about the serpent's role.

Now God turns to Eve and makes a deliberate statement <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203:16;&version=72</ref> he would make her "bring forth children in sorrow" <ref>The word typically translated "pain" here is the same word translated "sorrow" or "painful toil" for Adam when he is told of his requirement to grow food.</ref>. Then he makes not a command or curse but a prediction ("will", not "shall"): Eve would turn (possibly "desire" but no indication of what this desire was) to Adam and this would result in his ruling over her. Note first of all that Adam's rule over Eve was put in the future, so it '''did not exist in the present'''. Put another way, if Adam already had rule over Eve, why would God predict it here and make it a future event? God did not say Adam would ''continue'' to rule or rule harshly or more effectively, but just rule. Another reason we know God did not command this rulership is that he had just blessed Eve with the promise of her seed alone crushing the seed of the serpent who had deceived her (remember it was part of ''the serpent's'' curse). To turn completely around and curse her with servitude to the man who had blamed her and God for his sin and failed to step in while she was being tempted, would be to say God rewards poor leadership and passing blame, even to the point of blaming God. Adam had proven himself disqualified to lead and unworthy of God's blessing with rulership over the one he failed to lead and protect.

Nothing is said about future generations in this passage except the woman's future seed crushing the serpent's future seed. What God said to Adam and Eve, he said directly to them. There are no statements to the effect of putting all men over all women, or all husbands over all wives, for all future generations. Any theories about how God's words here affected future generations are only conjecture and anecdotal evidence. We can fill in some blanks in hindsight, but the passage itself says nothing about the future of all humanity.

Now God turns to Adam and makes a deliberate statement: <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203:17-19;&version=72</ref> the ground would be cursed, producing thorns and thistles, he would eat the plants of the field (before they were only told to eat fruit), and he would return to the dust from which he was taken. Note that Adam was not cursed directly; there is nothing said about his spirit or Eve's, or their future offspring. Finally, Adam is driven out <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203:22-24;&version=50</ref> of the garden to prevent his eating from the Tree of Life. The Hebrew states that only "the man" was barred from the Tree of Life and banished from the garden. Why only Adam? The text doesn't say. It tells us Eve would turn to him, but it doesn't say why. All we know is that God predicted Eve would go with Adam, and then he would rule over her.

(Note: some English translations, even the TNIV <ref>http://www.tniv.info/</ref>, translate "him" as "them" without explanation; compare also with the use of "had formed" for the animals in chapter 2 which in the Hebrew is only "formed". In these instances the KJV <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/index.php?action=getVersionInfo&vid=50&lang=2</ref> is accurate. Also note the order of events in chapter 2 <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%202%20;&version=72</ref>: God says he will make a helper for Adam, then brings him animals to name, then makes Eve. Why is the account of making/naming animals put between God's announcement of his intention to make Eve and his actually making her, if the making/naming of animals had happened before? Even if the animals were made earlier, which the Hebrew <ref>http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/c.pl?book=Gen&chapter=2&verse=19&version=KJV#19</ref> and LXX <ref>http://www.searchgodsword.org/isb/bible.cgi?query=formed&section=1&it=kjv&ot=lxx&nt=na&Enter=Perform+Search</ref> do not support, and Adam only named them here, we still have to ask the significance of the timing. We cannot lightly dismiss the argument that God brought animals to Adam for the purpose of preparing him for Eve. In addition, we see that only Adam is told he would "return to dust"; it is his fate alone. But since Eve chose to follow him out of the garden, we know in [[hindsight]] that she and all her descendants would also share in Adam's fate.)

What we see in Genesis 1-3 is most striking for what it ''does not'' say. We can add more through the NT teachings and references, but before we do that we must know what's actually stated. The context includes considering what it meant at the time it was written.

==Remainder of the OT==

Although God only spoke of Adam ruling Eve, the pattern of male domination continued through all generations, even extending to some men ruling over other men. But rather than this historical pattern indicating God's expressed will or natural order, as complementarianism argues, it shows the fulfillment of God's prediction of the consequences of sin, and we see as we go through the OT some notable exceptions.

In Genesis 16 <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2016%20;&version=72</ref> (also 21 <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2021%20;&version=72</ref>) God orders Abraham to listen to his wife. And when she tells him to send Hagar and Ishmael away, God talks directly to Hagar and makes a promise to her. Note that Hagar names God (16:13); here we have direct evidence that God does not consider the one giving names to be superior. Along with that, there are many instances where God is the "helper"<ref>[http://www.godswordtowomen.org/studies/word%20study/ezerkenegdo.htm word study], [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=23&chapter=10&verse=14&version=72&context=verse Ps. 10:14], [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=23&chapter=27&verse=9&version=72&context=verse Ps. 27:9]</ref>, showing that helpers can be superior.

There are of course other notable women in the OT. Abigail saved her people from slaughter when her "foolish" husband set himself against David. Queen Ester took her life in her hands to save the Jews from genocide, something she was not forced to do. Ruth, a Moabite and ancestor of Jesus, was so selfless as to be completely dedicated to her mother-in-law Naomi, and boldly approached Boaz about his duty as a Jewish kinsman. Their child was called a son of Naomi rather than of Ruth's dead husband or even Boaz. But what about leaders of men? Did God ever choose a woman for that?

Miriam, sister of Moses, was called a prophet (Ex. 15:20). In Judges 4 we see Deborah, another prophet, who was leading Israel and held court in a public place. She settled disputes and even summoned a man, Barak, to give him orders from the Lord. There is nothing in the context to indicate anything inferior about her leadership; were this a man, nobody would question it. And because Barak wouldn't go to battle without her, the honor of killing his enemy Sisera was given to another woman, Jael. Huldah was yet another prophet, who said "Thus saith the Lord" like any male prophet would. It is claimed <ref>http://www.midcry.org/minofwom.htm</ref> by complementarianism that God was only "scraping the bottom of the barrel" in using these women for leadership and prophecy, but the Bible does not support this at all; there is nothing in any of the passages to give us that option.

So the pages of the OT, rather than dictating male supremacy, show how God sometimes circumvents the norm and gives honor and promises of greatness to women. Yet technically, this is all after the entrance of sin and before the Cross. It really cannot be used to apply over the NT in general or the church in particular, because as we will see in studying the NT, Jesus ("the last Adam") would come to undo what Adam had done and bring us back to the pre-sin environment. At the very least, we can say the OT does not portray these "exceptional" women as God's last resort or punishment for lazy or disobedient men.

=The New Testament=

==The Gospels and Acts==

In reading the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus, we see some radical departures from societal norms. He said things like "The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath" and "Among the gentiles, people rule over other people, but it must not be that way among you". He internalized religion instead of the tradition of outward performance. But he also treated women as equal with men in every way.

An example is the account of Mary and Martha <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2010:38-42&version=72</ref>. To sit at the feet of a rabbi was an exclusively male right, yet Jesus defended Mary for doing so. And then there is the account of Jesus being anointed at Bethany <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2026:6-13;&version=72</ref>, his being touched by the "sinful woman" of Luke 7:38 <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%207:38;&version=72</ref>, and the Samaritan woman <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=50&chapter=4&version=72&context=chapter</ref> with whom he spoke publicly. And of course the first witnesses of Jesus' resurrection were women <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2028:1-10;&version=72</ref>. Women were also among his traveling companions <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%208:1-3;&version=72</ref>, another scandal at the time.

In Acts we see that on the Day of Pentecost, both men and women were given the Spirit and spoke in other languages, in at least partial fulfillment of Joel's prophecy (Acts 2:17-18). Note that women too would prophesy, that is, speak to the crowds of men and women publicly about God. There is no indication that female prophets were of a lesser rank than male prophets, or that female prophets only ever spoke to women or only in private. We can add the teaching ministry of Priscilla and Aquila, and the fact that Ananias and Sapphira were each held accountable for their own sins. There are no instances where these passages in any way discount the ministry, worth, or roles of women in the church. The Jerusalem Council <ref>http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=51&chapter=15&version=72&context=chapter</ref> did not make any long list of rules about who could do what, beyond asking for sensitivity to Jewish customs, and even then only restricting the new church from eating the blood of animals or being sexually immoral.

It is often pointed out that all Jesus' inner group of disciples were men. Yet this precedes the church and is still tied at least symbolically to the 12 tribes of Israel. They had to be witnesses to the Jews, something that would never have been accepted from women. Another claim is that since Jesus was physically a male, then all church leaders must also be male. But of course Jesus was more than just male; he was also Jewish and single.One cannot only choose one quality as a necessary representation of Jesus.

==Letters to Believers==

In 1 Peter 3 we see the Greek word ''[http://www.studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=5293 hupotasso]'', which when applied to non-military situations, referred to a voluntary giving-in, of carrying a burden. Wives are to cooperate with their husbands, and for a [http://www.geocities.com/about_biblical_equality/1stPeter31-7.htm purpose]: to win unbelieving husbands to the Lord. He goes on to urge wives to develop character, the inner person, as did the godly women of old. This same attitude is commanded of husbands toward wives, and husbands are warned that failure to honor their wives as spiritual equals in spite of how society viewed them would prevent their prayers from being answered. He then goes on to urge mutual kindness and support among all believers. The passage in chapter 5 about church leaders expressly states that "lording it over" is wrong by anyone, but that the weak should respect and trust the strong who protect them until they too are strong.

In several places Paul gives lists of spiritual gifts, but never specifies gender as a criterion. Such gifts, ''not'' "offices", include pastor, teacher, and prophet.

In Romans Paul writes much about sin, and it is in [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=rom%205&version=72 ch. 5] that he clearly states the fact that Adam's sin brought death into the world. His sin, breaking a command (v. 14), is contrasted with people who did not sin as he did, but simply have experienced death as a consequence of the curse caused by Adam. In that whole chapter, it is only Adam who is charged with the sin that brought death into the world; Eve is not mentioned at all. When we remember from Genesis the difference between Adam's sin and Eve's, we have the answer as to why only Adam's sin is cited as the first. Adam sinned deliberately, while Eve was completely fooled into it.

At the end of his letter to the Romans, we see mention of one [http://www.geocities.com/about_biblical_equality/Phoebesleadershiprole.htm Phoebe], who is called a deacon. The word here is the same as in all other instances (see [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=61&chapter=3&version=72&context=chapter 1 Tim. 3]). Neither is there any excuse to translate it differently here as when the person is a male elsewhere, and for them it is typically translated "deacon" or "minister". Phoebe is also called a ''[http://www.studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=4368 prostatis]'' which was a presiding officer or protector of many. And there is no contextual support for treating Paul's terminology here as metaphorical.

And then there is [http://www.geocities.com/about_biblical_equality/TheJuniaControversy.htm Junia]. Complementarianism has three ways to interpret this:

# Junia is really a man, Junias
# She is not an apostle herself but known to them
# She is not an "authoritative" apostle

There is much [http://www.bookschristian.com/sys/product.php?PRODUCT=277764 textual attestation] for arguing that Junia is in fact a woman, numbered among the apostles and counted as outstanding, and has the same authority as any male apostle. There is [http://www.christian-thinktank.com/fem08.html none at all for the male form "Junias"] until long after the NT canon was completed.

[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor.%2011&version=72 1 Cor. 11] (see also [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Eph.%205:21-24;&version=72; Eph. 5:21-24]) is where we see the term "head" as something that describes how Christ relates to the church and how men relate to women (not just husbands to wives). But the Greek word ''[http://godswordtowomen.org/studies/articles/boss.htm kephale]'' translated "head" did not mean "boss"<ref>See also [http://www.searchingtogether.org/kephale.htm] and [http://www.geocities.com/about_biblical_equality/Ephesians523.htm]</ref>. It could mean the literal physical head of a body, a headdress, the source of something (ex. a river), a person's life, or the conclusion or pinnacle of something. The head and the body are "one flesh" and not separate from each other; they are interdependent. By speaking of Christ as the "head" of the church, the scriptures are speaking of his being one with us and we with him, just as Jesus prayed before his death.

Certainly no one would deny that Christ has authority over the church, but the context here is not about that aspect of Christ. Paul is prefacing what he is about to say concerning head coverings, and so is using a play on words with "head". He goes on to talk about whether men or women should wear head coverings in the meetings, and only uses the word "authority" (Gk. ''[http://www.htmlbible.com/sacrednamebiblecom/kjvstrongs/FRMSTRGRK18.htm exousia]'') when he talks about a woman's right to choose for herself whether or not to cover her own head. The words "a sign of" are not in the Greek at all.

Paul speaks of man being the "image and glory" of God. If something is the 'crowning glory' of another, that in no way implies authority, but just honor. And as Paul states elsewhere, we in the body of believers are to show "special honor" to the "weaker parts". Woman is portrayed as the "crowning glory" of man, not his servant or footstool. She is to be honored, not enslaved. Jesus honors his body by serving it, not by "lording over" it or hiding it.

In addition, Paul reminds the people that although the first woman came from the first man, every other person has come from a woman. More importantly, everything comes from God. So there is no room for boasting or pride over one's origins. Man and woman are "one flesh" they are equals, of the same substance.
Moving on to chapter 14, we see in verses [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20cor%2014:34-38;&version=72; 34-38] what surely is the most misunderstood passage of scripture. Everyone agrees that Paul has been writing to answer questions and deal with problems in the church at Corinth, and sometimes quoted them before issuing his rebuttal or answer. But Greek has no quote marks as such; quotes have to be determined from context. One indicator is the practice of beginning the sentence following a quoted text with the Greek word ''He'' (eta with rough breathing mark), typically translated "Or". We see it twice in vs. 36: "Or has the word of God come only to you, or has it reached only you?" This comes across weakly in English. Instead, Paul is using great force to rebut what he has just quoted, which came from the Corinthians: "Nonsense! Has the word of God come only to you? Nonsense! Has it reached only you?"

The text of vs. 34-35 comes from a teaching in the Talmud<ref>Talmud, Berachot 24a [http://www.davening.net/tznius.html Basics of Tznius]</ref>, not the scriptures. No such "law" is found anywhere in the Bible. So even without the "''He''", we can tell that these two verses are nothing Paul would promote, especially since he spent so much effort combating the legalists. In other words, if he strongly opposed the imposition of the OT laws on the church in all his other writings, why would he do the opposite here and appeal to it, even if this quote were an actual OT law? So this is saying ''exactly the opposite'' of what complementarianism claims. Paul '''strongly opposed''' the silencing of women in the churches. This view is also consistent with his other statements about the prophesying of women in the congregation. Complementarianism must interpret Paul's rebuttal as being aimed at an ''anticipated'' objection to v. 34-35 instead of a quote from the Corinthians. But there is nothing in the rebuttal to indicate this, no such words as "someone will object". Paul did use such phrases elsewhere, but as rhetorical questions, not necessarily anticipated objections.

In Galatians 3:28 we see Paul's overturning of an old rabbinical prayer/boast: "Thank God that I was not born a Gentile, a slave, or a woman!"<ref>Talmud, Menahoth 43b-44a [http://groups.msn.com/Mishpocha/thetalmudpart4.msnw Mishpocha]</ref>. Instead, this once-proud Pharisee writes, "There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; you are all one in Christ Jesus." This comes in the middle of a discussion about our freedom in Christ, our equality, and our adoption and spiritual baptism. Paul is writing passionately against the very same legalistic mentality that would have silenced the women at Corinth. If Paul only means that we are all equally saved, then why can we not also say that there are still restricted roles for gentiles and slaves? All three are listed in the same sentence, so we can't put restrictions on women without also putting them on gentiles and slaves.

[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Eph.%205:21-32;&version=72; Eph. 5:21-22] reads as follows:
#"Be filled with the Spirit, '''while you are devoted to''' one another out of respect for the Anointed One, wives, to your own husbands, as to the Lord. (Confirmed even by complementarians; see [http://www.preceptaustin.org/ephesians_521-22.htm This Link]: ''The Greek is literally “The wives to their own husbands as to the Lord.” Then Paul adds “as the church is subject (hupotasso) to Christ, so also the wives [ought to] ('''not in the Greek but added by translators''') be to their husbands in everything.”'')
Typical English translations, even the [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=eph%205:21-22&version=72 TNIV], have this:
#"'''Submit''' to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord."
This cuts into the middle of a sentence to put the second half with the text that follows instead of the text that preceded. So the meaning is "wives, be devoted to your own husbands as to the Lord". This is very likely to refer to the practice common at the time, wherein a father retained ownership of his daughter even after marriage<ref>From [http://www.directionjournal.org/article/?653; This Article]: Abuse of wives was a common practice. In fact, wife abuse was such a problem that in the early first century A.D., the Emperor Augustus devised a system called “marriage without hand” (''sine manu'') to protect women from husband abuse. The law provided that the woman and her dowry remained under the jurisdiction of her father’s family. A woman could be taken back by her family and married to another man if the husband mistreated her too severely. The law was intended to reduce the divorce rate and stabilize family life, but in fact only contributed to further instability in marriage. An historian of the first century claimed that “the only enduring relationship a married woman had was the one with her blood relatives;” not her husband... Marriage instructions were directed almost exclusively to the wife. She is to defer to the wishes of her husband, to worship his gods, to have no friends of her own, to understand and forgive his sexual relations with courtesans and men.</ref>. This resulted in the father having power over his son-in-law with the threat of taking back his daughter should he ever displease him. So Paul is saying that instead of this arrangement (the marriage "without hand"), the woman is to be devoted to her own husband, instead of her father. This makes the most sense of why did Paul only told husbands to love and wives to support: because he told wives to be devoted to their husbands instead of their fathers. He needed to say the former because he said the latter. The whole message was, "Since you wives are not to go back to your fathers, you husbands must be careful to love your wives and not beat them."

We can summarize the passage like this:
# Everyone must be devoted to to each other.
# Wives, be devoted to your own husbands, because the woman comes from the man, just as the Assembly comes from Christ.
# Husbands, love your wives, because Christ loved the church and gave up everything for her. She is your own body, your "flesh and bones". You joined to her because of the scripture "A man leaves his parents to join to his wife", making the two of you one flesh. This illustrates the mystery of how Christ joined to us in our humanity.
# To summarize, each husband must love his wife and each wife must be devoted to her husband instead of her father.

There is nothing about authority, rule, hierarchy, or importance in the entire passage, but only unity and mutual dependence. The idea that one can submit while being in authority is derived from the idea that Paul, after making the mutual submission statement, is now defining how husbands and wives carry it out, but with an inaccurate definition for "head"; this view equates submission with "head/rule over". But the official complementarian view is that [http://www.soulcare.org/Counseling/MythofSubmission.html mutual submission is impossible]. They presume that "head" must mean authority and "submission" must always be to an authority.

Now to [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Timothy%202:11-15;&version=72; 1 Timothy 2:10-15]. Verses 11-12 read like this: "A woman must learn, with a humble and quiet demeanor. Yet neither am I permitting her to continue doing damage to a man but to be still." Note Paul's shift here from "women" who teach to "a woman" who learns; he is now referring to a specific unnamed woman who is not qualified to be a teacher. The references to "a woman" and "a man" suggest that this is a married couple, and that the wife is teaching her husband the Jewish law in ignorance (earlier Paul mentioned teachers of the law who didn't know what they were talking about).

The word typically translated "have authority over" is ''authentein'', and it is only used this one time in all the New Testament. There are other, more common words for "have authority over" but Paul instead chose this unique word. Notice that he did use "authority" (''epitrepo'') concerning not allowing this false teaching to go on. The word [http://www.geocities.com/about_biblical_equality/1stTimothy212.htm authenteo] is even rare in classical literature, and can mean "murderer, perpetrator, or author". In English, we use the word "author" to mean the person who originates a writing. And since Paul ties this in with the fact that Adam was created prior to Eve, it is clear that it is [http://www.geocities.com/about_biblical_equality/1stTimothy21314.htm chronological order] that Paul is concerned with, not any kind of pecking order or hierarchy. Further weight is given for this meaning due to Paul's statement about deception. What, we must ask, does the order of creation have to do with deception? This is where we refer back to the fact that Eve never saw God create anything; she was a "newcomer", inexperienced. Paul is saying that this woman is a newcomer to the faith who has been completely fooled by the legalists into believing Christians must be under the Law, and is teaching this to her husband. This is beginning to damage his faith and lead him back to bondage under the Law.

Next is one of the most debated verses in the NT, vs. 14: "And she will be saved through the childbearing if they continue...". "She" cannot be Eve because of the future tense and the fact that this person is '''still in error''' as the verb in Greek indicates. Neither can ''she'' refer to all women or even all Christian women because of the singular pronoun. "... will be saved if they" cannot refer to spiritual salvation because from other clear scriptures we know that no person's salvation can depend upon the faithfulness of others. The word for "the childbearing", like ''authentein'', is never used anywhere else in scripture and rarely in other literature of the time. It is always used to refer to either physical childbirth or the proper raising of children. And salvation is never related to Jesus' birth, but only to his death and resurrection.

This leads us to conclude that the falsehood-teaching woman needs to be raised properly in the faith, which makes sense of the conditional statement that involves proper behavior both for her and her husband. Both of them need to learn the truth, and she, the deceived one, needs her husband's help in this spiritual growth. In contrast, taking "the childbearing" to mean spiritual salvation from eternal wrath makes salvation only for this woman into a salvation by works. Notice also that the couple are to '''continue''' in this work; this would make no sense if initial saving faith were in view.

Another possible meaning of ''authentein'' is "to usurp authority". It refers to an unlawful or improper taking of authority that a person is not qualified or permitted to have, not any and all authority. And it comes in the context of Paul's rules for handling false teachers, not those who are teaching truth.

In Chapter 5 Paul writes that a woman is to be the "[http://www.geocities.com/about_biblical_equality/1stTimothy514.htm despot]" of her home. The Greek word there meant exactly the same as our current English understanding, so Paul declares that the woman of the house is it's "despot" or unquestionable ruler. The husband is never given this strong title of rule over his wife and family.

Now to Paul's letter to Titus. In chapter 1 Paul gives qualifications for "elders" (Gk. ''presbuterous''). The phrase translated "the husband of one wife" (''mias gunaikos andra'') means "a one-woman man" or "one-man woman", that is, a faithful spouse<ref>From [http://claymore.50megs.com/RDIVORCE.HTML This Article]: Paul's instruction includes only three words, "mias gunaikos andra," as one of several requirements for being an elder (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1;6) or a deacon (1 Tim. 3:12, where the pl. "andres" is used). "Gune" refers to any adult female, including wives and widows. The King James Version translates it "woman" 129 times and "wife" 92 times. The noun "gunaikos" is in the genitive and therefore deals with attribution. It may refer to relationship or quality, for "the genitive defines by attributing a quality or relationship to the noun which it modifies." Dana and Mantey define the genitive as "the case which specifies with reference to class or kind." The genitive here is used to define or describe the noun "aner." This should not be considered a possessive genitive, for that would mean that the word in the genitive indicates one who owns or possesses the noun it modifies. In that case the translation would be "a man owned by one woman." Nor can this be considered as a genitive of relationship ("a man who has [possesses] one wife") for there is no indication within the phrase or context that that relationship is implied. It is best to understand this "gunaikos" as being a genitive of quality, that is, giving a characteristic to the noun it modifies. The noun being modified is "andra," accusative singular of "aner." "Aner" is translated "man" 156 times in the King James version and "husband" only 50 times (including the passage under discussion). This accusative functions here as an object of the main verb "be" along with a long list of other accusative nouns and participles. Stated simply, the clause is "Therefore . . . an elder must be . . . a man . . ." The words "one woman" modify "man" to explain what kind, or to qualify the noun by attributing to him this character, Robertson adds that the genitive of quality (also called attributive genitive). "expresses quality like an adjective indeed, but with more sharpness and distinctness." He also points out that usually the genitive follows the limiting substantive, "but the genitive comes first if it is emphatic," is the case here. Since the other qualification in 1 Timothy 3 deal with the man's character and since the grammatical structure is more naturally consistent with this emphasis, it seems best to understand the phrase as meaning that he is a one-woman type of man.</ref>. Paul is referring to the quality of the person, and he goes on to talk about the importance of such qualities in the culture of Crete at that time.

In chapter 2 Paul adds to the qualifications for elders, both male and female. The Greek word here is one from which we get "presbyter". It is the very same word as in chapter one; "presbyters" were to be appointed in every town. So when many translations use "older men" and "older women" here, they are being inconsistent at best. These are the appointees of chapter one, not all elderly people, since age is not a matter of appointment. Similarly, the Greek word typically rendered "young" is one from which we get the prefix "neo" meaning "new", not necessarily "young". So Paul is saying that male and female elders are to train new believers in appropriate doctrine and behavior.

Why the specific address to male and female elders? It would of course be appropriate for the men to teach men and women to teach women, but if women can '''only''' teach women, then men can '''only''' teach men. And if this verse cannot be used to say men can only teach men, then neither can it be used to say women can only teach women.

Paul says "teach slaves to be subject to their masters", but can we say he's promoting slavery? No, only the proper behavior of believers in every situation. Slavery was a fact of life, and rather than promoting revolt and thus maligning the name of Christ, Paul taught (consistently with Rom. 14 for example) that believers should always have the highest standards of behavior. Likewise, when he says women should do various things, he is not endorsing the suppression of all females but simply appealing to us all to avoid bringing reproach on the name of Jesus.

=Conclusion=

The egalitarian view of women in the church and home seems consistent with proper exegetical methods and does not require heavy reliance upon inference or tradition or translation. The Bible simply doesn't say many of the things claimed for it, especially concerning women. At the very least, there is certainly room for disagreement with male supremacism even in its mildest forms. Jesus came to bring life and freedom from oppression for all-- and that includes women.

==References==
<small><references/></small>
[[Category:Bible Study]]

Women

2012-01-18T14:06:15Z

Andycjp: /* New Testament statements on the role of women */ link

'''Women''' are the female of the [[human]] [[species]], with the biological role of bearing offspring ([[pregnancy]] and [[childbirth]]). In preparation for this role, women's [[breasts]] begin to grow at puberty, forming the most obvious physical difference between women and men other than the reproductive organs. Other differences include a layer of subcutaneous [[fat]] under the skin which hides the underlying musculature, and a wider pelvis to facilitate carrying the [[baby]] and allowing it to be born. Women also have a greater proportion of fine vellus hair over certain areas of their skin (such as their face and legs) than the coarse terminal hair which appears on men. {{fact}}

Men have typically two times more upper body strength than women, and around 50% more leg strength. <ref>College women have 50 to 60 percent of the arm and shoulder strength and 70 percent of the leg strength of their male counterparts. [http://www.humankinetics.com/products/showexcerpt.cfm?excerpt_id=4171 Human Kinetics] </ref> Women have slightly longer average lifespans than men, which results in women overtaking men in population by middle age despite a 1.05:1 boy to girl ratio at birth in the United States. This rate varies among countries. {{fact}}

== Women in history ==
Compared to men, fewer women have had impact on history as leaders in diverse fields, but large numbers of women have still had enormous impact. Historians usually attribute this lack of impact to the centuries-old oppression women faced.{{fact}}

Such examples include
*Queen [[Ferdinand and Isabella|Isabella I]] of [[Spain]]
*[[French]] heroine St. [[Joan of Arc]]
*[[Queen Esther]]
*[[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Mary of Gailele]]
*[[Mary Magdelene]]
*Judge [[Deborah]]
*[[Judith]]
*[[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] [[Margaret Thatcher]]
*[[Queen]] [[Elizabeth I]] of [[England]]
*Warrior Celtic Queen [[Boudicca]] of the Iceni tribe
*Empress Tsarina [[Catherine the Great]] of [[Russia]]
*Pharoah [[Cleopatra]] of [[Egypt]]
*[[Nobel Pize]]-winning physicist and chemist [[Marie Curie]]
*[[Prime Minister of Pakistan]] [[Benazir Bhutto]], the first woman to lead an [[Islam|Islamic state]]
*[[Prime Minister of Israel]] [[Golda Meir]]
*[[Prime Minister of India]] [[Indira Gandhi]]
*United States [[women's rights]] activist [[Lucretia Mott]]
*United States [[women's rights]] activist [[Susan B. Anthony]]
*[[Nobel Peace Prize]] winner, activist and Prime Minister-elect [[Aung San Suu Kyi]] of Burma
*[[Mother Theresa]]
*[[United States Supreme Court Justice]] [[Sandra Day O'Connor]]
*United States Supreme Court Justice [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]]
*Queen [[Catherine de Medici]] of France
*Queen [[Olympias]] of Greece
*[[Queen Gorgo of Sparta]]
*[[Condoleezza Rice]], [[United States Secretary of State]]
*[[Madonna (entertainer )|Madonna Ciccone]], entertainer
*[[Madeleine Albright|Madeleine Korbel Albright]], U.S. Secretary of State
*[[Eleanor Roosevelt]], United Nations Representative, [[First Lady]], and human rights, civil rights, women's right, and equal rights activist
*[[Harriet Tubman]], [[Underground Railroad]] conductor
*[[Eva Peron]], [[Argentina|Argentine]] leader
*[[Sarah Palin]], [[Alaska]] [[governor]]

== Women in the Bible ==

=== Genesis ===
The Bible says that women, like men, were created by God on the 6th day of [[Creation]], as told in The Book of [[Genesis]]:
{{Bible quote|So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.|book=Genesis|chap=1|verses=27|version=KJV}}
{{Bible quote|But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.|book=Mark|chap=10|verses=6|version=KJV}}
[[Genesis]] further elaborates that [[God]] took a [[rib cage|rib]] from [[Adam]], the first man, and from it created [[Eve]], the first woman, as a helper for [[Adam]] when the [[animal]]s, which had been created for that purpose, proved unsuitable:
{{Bible quote|And the LORD God said, [It is] not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought [them] unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that [was] the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.|book=Genesis|chap=2|verses=18-22|version=KJV}}
According to some biblical literalists, Eve caused sin and suffering to come into the world when she convinced Adam to eat from The Tree of Knowledge, an act directly forbidden by God Himself. As punishment for this, God declared that women shall experience great pain in childbirth.<ref>Genesis 3:16</ref>

=== New Testament statements on the role of women ===
Saint Paul also has much to say on the status of women in society, most memorably that women should submit to their husbands just as the church submits to Christ.
<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ephesians%205:22-24&version=9 Ephesians 5:22-24 ]</ref>
<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20Corinthians%2011:8-9;&version=9; I Corinthians 11:8-9]</ref>
<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20Corinthians%2011:4-7;&version=9; I Corinthians 11:4-7]</ref>
<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20Corinthians%2014:34-35;&version=9; I Corinthians 14:34-35]</ref> Most of these things are not believed by even the [[Biblical inerrancy|strictest Christians]], and such views are considered extreme by even the most conservative Christians.

The [[New Testament]] contains several instructions regarding the role of women:
# Women are to dress modestly and not wear "broided hair, or [[gold]], or [[pearl]]s, or costly array."<ref>1 Timothy 2:9</ref><ref>Peter 3:2-6</ref>
# Women may learn in silence, but may not be permitted to teach men<ref>1 Timothy 2:11-12</ref>. Some interpretations limit this rule to the teaching of doctrine.
# Women are not permitted to speak in church.<ref>1 Corinthians 14:34-37></ref>
# Women are to be subservient to and follow the instructions of their husbands.<ref>Ephesians 5:22-24</ref><ref>Colossians 3:18</ref><ref>Titus 2:4-5</ref><ref>1 Peter 3:1-7</ref>
# Women "shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety."<ref>I Timothy 2:15</ref>

These viewpoints are not widely accepted in secular, first-world nations, although some believers still adhere to them. However, Christians do not always agree on how literal or universal these directives are intended to be. For example, dressing modestly is interpreted by some [[Anabaptist]]s to mean that women should only wear black or dull colors and that dresses should cover the entire arms and legs, whereas most non-Anabaptist Christians consider the directive to modesty as simply meaning that garments should not be wrongly provocative. The directive that women should not speak in church is regarded by some as being literal for all situations, but due to other New Testament passages which indicate that women were allowed to publicly testify in the early church<ref>1 Corinthians 11:5></ref>, the most common Christian interpretation{{fact}} of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 is that women in the Corinthian church were in the habit of conversing casually and gossiping during the church service, and that the apostle Paul was telling them not to do that. However, that interpretation is at odds with the following Scripture passage:

{{Bible quote|Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.|book=1Timothy|chap=2|verses=11-15|version=KJV}}

Another interpretation sees the silence of women being limited to the immediate context of the passage, namely the authoritative judgment of prophecy.

{{Bible quote|Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.|book=1Corinthians|chap=14|verses=29|version=KJV}}

Some Protestants believe these verses can be taken out of context and applied too legalistically. They believe that the church can conform legitimately to modern [[egalitarian]] ideals without sacrificing the literal meaning of these passages.

===Strong and important women in the Bible===

Among the Bible's several strong and empowered women are [[Deborah]], the only female judge and ruler of [[Israel]]; [[Judith]]; and [[Queen Esther]], heroine of the [[Book of Esther]]. In the New Testemant, [[Mary Magdalene]] and other women are disciples of Christ with whom He seems to have close friendships. The [[Virgin Mary]] is heavily revered in the [[Roman Catholicism|Catholic]] and [[Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] churches.

=== Old Testament statements on women ===

The [[Old Testament]] law states that if a man sells his daughter into slavery there are specific conditions protecting her status.<ref>Exodus 21:7-11</ref>

==References==
<references />

== Related Topics ==
*[[Men]]
*[[Egalitarian]] and [[complementarian]] theology

[[Category: Human Beings]]

Women

2012-01-18T14:05:14Z

Andycjp: /* New Testament statements on the role of women */

'''Women''' are the female of the [[human]] [[species]], with the biological role of bearing offspring ([[pregnancy]] and [[childbirth]]). In preparation for this role, women's [[breasts]] begin to grow at puberty, forming the most obvious physical difference between women and men other than the reproductive organs. Other differences include a layer of subcutaneous [[fat]] under the skin which hides the underlying musculature, and a wider pelvis to facilitate carrying the [[baby]] and allowing it to be born. Women also have a greater proportion of fine vellus hair over certain areas of their skin (such as their face and legs) than the coarse terminal hair which appears on men. {{fact}}

Men have typically two times more upper body strength than women, and around 50% more leg strength. <ref>College women have 50 to 60 percent of the arm and shoulder strength and 70 percent of the leg strength of their male counterparts. [http://www.humankinetics.com/products/showexcerpt.cfm?excerpt_id=4171 Human Kinetics] </ref> Women have slightly longer average lifespans than men, which results in women overtaking men in population by middle age despite a 1.05:1 boy to girl ratio at birth in the United States. This rate varies among countries. {{fact}}

== Women in history ==
Compared to men, fewer women have had impact on history as leaders in diverse fields, but large numbers of women have still had enormous impact. Historians usually attribute this lack of impact to the centuries-old oppression women faced.{{fact}}

Such examples include
*Queen [[Ferdinand and Isabella|Isabella I]] of [[Spain]]
*[[French]] heroine St. [[Joan of Arc]]
*[[Queen Esther]]
*[[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Mary of Gailele]]
*[[Mary Magdelene]]
*Judge [[Deborah]]
*[[Judith]]
*[[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] [[Margaret Thatcher]]
*[[Queen]] [[Elizabeth I]] of [[England]]
*Warrior Celtic Queen [[Boudicca]] of the Iceni tribe
*Empress Tsarina [[Catherine the Great]] of [[Russia]]
*Pharoah [[Cleopatra]] of [[Egypt]]
*[[Nobel Pize]]-winning physicist and chemist [[Marie Curie]]
*[[Prime Minister of Pakistan]] [[Benazir Bhutto]], the first woman to lead an [[Islam|Islamic state]]
*[[Prime Minister of Israel]] [[Golda Meir]]
*[[Prime Minister of India]] [[Indira Gandhi]]
*United States [[women's rights]] activist [[Lucretia Mott]]
*United States [[women's rights]] activist [[Susan B. Anthony]]
*[[Nobel Peace Prize]] winner, activist and Prime Minister-elect [[Aung San Suu Kyi]] of Burma
*[[Mother Theresa]]
*[[United States Supreme Court Justice]] [[Sandra Day O'Connor]]
*United States Supreme Court Justice [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]]
*Queen [[Catherine de Medici]] of France
*Queen [[Olympias]] of Greece
*[[Queen Gorgo of Sparta]]
*[[Condoleezza Rice]], [[United States Secretary of State]]
*[[Madonna (entertainer )|Madonna Ciccone]], entertainer
*[[Madeleine Albright|Madeleine Korbel Albright]], U.S. Secretary of State
*[[Eleanor Roosevelt]], United Nations Representative, [[First Lady]], and human rights, civil rights, women's right, and equal rights activist
*[[Harriet Tubman]], [[Underground Railroad]] conductor
*[[Eva Peron]], [[Argentina|Argentine]] leader
*[[Sarah Palin]], [[Alaska]] [[governor]]

== Women in the Bible ==

=== Genesis ===
The Bible says that women, like men, were created by God on the 6th day of [[Creation]], as told in The Book of [[Genesis]]:
{{Bible quote|So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.|book=Genesis|chap=1|verses=27|version=KJV}}
{{Bible quote|But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.|book=Mark|chap=10|verses=6|version=KJV}}
[[Genesis]] further elaborates that [[God]] took a [[rib cage|rib]] from [[Adam]], the first man, and from it created [[Eve]], the first woman, as a helper for [[Adam]] when the [[animal]]s, which had been created for that purpose, proved unsuitable:
{{Bible quote|And the LORD God said, [It is] not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought [them] unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that [was] the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.|book=Genesis|chap=2|verses=18-22|version=KJV}}
According to some biblical literalists, Eve caused sin and suffering to come into the world when she convinced Adam to eat from The Tree of Knowledge, an act directly forbidden by God Himself. As punishment for this, God declared that women shall experience great pain in childbirth.<ref>Genesis 3:16</ref>

=== New Testament statements on the role of women ===
Saint Paul also has much to say on the status of women in society, most memorably that women should submit to their husbands just as the church submits to Christ.
<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ephesians%205:22-24&version=9 Ephesians 5:22-24 ]</ref>
<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20Corinthians%2011:8-9;&version=9; I Corinthians 11:8-9]</ref>
<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20Corinthians%2011:4-7;&version=9; I Corinthians 11:4-7]</ref>
<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20Corinthians%2014:34-35;&version=9; I Corinthians 14:34-35]</ref> Most of these things are not believed by even the [[Biblical inerrancy|strictest Christians]], and such views are considered extreme by even the most conservative Christians.

The [[New Testament]] contains several instructions regarding the role of women:
# Women are to dress modestly and not wear "broided hair, or [[gold]], or [[pearl]]s, or costly array."<ref>1 Timothy 2:9</ref><ref>Peter 3:2-6</ref>
# Women may learn in silence, but may not be permitted to teach men<ref>1 Timothy 2:11-12</ref>. Some interpretations limit this rule to the teaching of doctrine.
# Women are not permitted to speak in church.<ref>1 Corinthians 14:34-37></ref>
# Women are to be subservient to and follow the instructions of their husbands.<ref>Ephesians 5:22-24</ref><ref>Colossians 3:18</ref><ref>Titus 2:4-5</ref><ref>1 Peter 3:1-7</ref>
# Women "shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety."<ref>I Timothy 2:15</ref>

These viewpoints are not widely accepted in secular, first-world nations, although some believers still adhere to them. However, Christians do not always agree on how literal or universal these directives are intended to be. For example, dressing modestly is interpreted by some [[Anabaptist]]s to mean that women should only wear black or dull colors and that dresses should cover the entire arms and legs, whereas most non-Anabaptist Christians consider the directive to modesty as simply meaning that garments should not be wrongly provocative. The directive that women should not speak in church is regarded by some as being literal for all situations, but due to other New Testament passages which indicate that women were allowed to publicly testify in the early church<ref>1 Corinthians 11:5></ref>, the most common Christian interpretation{{fact}} of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 is that women in the Corinthian church were in the habit of conversing casually and gossiping during the church service, and that the apostle Paul was telling them not to do that. However, that interpretation is at odds with the following Scripture passage:

{{Bible quote|Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.|book=1Timothy|chap=2|verses=11-15|version=KJV}}

Another interpretation sees the silence of women being limited to the immediate context of the passage, namely the authoritative judgment of prophecy.

{{Bible quote|Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.|book=1Corinthians|chap=14|verses=29|version=KJV}}

Some Protestants believe these verses can be taken out of context and applied too legalistically. They believe that the church can conform legitimately to modern egalitarian ideals without sacrificing the literal meaning of these passages.

===Strong and important women in the Bible===

Among the Bible's several strong and empowered women are [[Deborah]], the only female judge and ruler of [[Israel]]; [[Judith]]; and [[Queen Esther]], heroine of the [[Book of Esther]]. In the New Testemant, [[Mary Magdalene]] and other women are disciples of Christ with whom He seems to have close friendships. The [[Virgin Mary]] is heavily revered in the [[Roman Catholicism|Catholic]] and [[Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] churches.

=== Old Testament statements on women ===

The [[Old Testament]] law states that if a man sells his daughter into slavery there are specific conditions protecting her status.<ref>Exodus 21:7-11</ref>

==References==
<references />

== Related Topics ==
*[[Men]]
*[[Egalitarian]] and [[complementarian]] theology

[[Category: Human Beings]]

Feminist style

2012-01-18T14:03:33Z

Andycjp:

A radical [[feminist]] typically has the following characteristics:

* avoids using the word "girl" to refer to a grown [[woman]]
* in fiction movies, portrays nearly all the women as flawless and strong, and nearly all the men as flawed and weak
* in movies based on fact, distorts the facts to remove the villainous women and/or flaws in the women portrayed, and distorts the role of men
* insists on [[censorship]] of opposing speakers, writers, or presentations, often done on the eve of an event without consideration of the disruption
* expresses extreme offense at modest expressions of disagreement
* exhibits seething hatred for women who do not toe the feminist line, such as [[Ann Coulter]]
* lacks a sense of humor
* displays contempt for women who serve in traditional family roles, such as housewives
* lacks recognition of achievements, such as inventions, made possible by traditional family structures
* believes that single mothers are as capable of raising well-adjusted children without the influence of a stable father figure as are traditional families
* insists that the lifestyle, attitudes, and customs of women should mirror exactly those of men and vice versa
* regards all men as potential rapists<ref>French, M. cited in Morrow, L. [http://books.google.com/books?id=DeiRZA2SaDEC&lpg=PA306&dq=%22all%20men%20are%20rapists%22&pg=PA306#v=onepage&q=%22all%20men%20are%20rapists%22&f=false ''Second Drafts of History: Essays'']; Basic Books; Cambridge. Page 306, (2007)</ref>
* rarely or never defers to the majority, or concedes defeat<ref>Over 25 years after the [[Equal Rights Amendment]] failed and its deadline passed, [[feminists]] are still trying to pass it.</ref>
* seeks to alter language to reinforce feminist ideology.
* encourage stereotypes to justify their intolerance
(more)

==References==

<References/>

== See also ==

*[[Feminist Bible]]
[[Category:Feminism]]

Feminism

2012-01-18T13:51:38Z

Andycjp:

[[Image:Braque woman 400pix.jpg|thumb|200px|''Woman with a guitar'' by [[Georges Braque]], 1913.]]
'''Feminism''' originally was an expression used by [[suffragettes]] -who were predominantly [[pro-life]]<ref>[http://www.godlessprolifers.org/library/wallace4.html ''Susan B. Anthony opposed abortion'']</ref><ref>''"There is no question that she deplored the practice of abortion, as did every one of her colleagues in the suffrage movement."'' [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/opinion/13schiff.html?_r=1&oref=slogin ''Desperately Seeking Susan''] [[New York Times]] (13 October 2006)</ref><ref>[http://www.feministsforlife.org/history/foremoth.htm ''Voices of our Feminist Foremothers''] Feminists for Life</ref>- to obtain the right for women to vote in the early 1900s in the [[United States]] and the [[United Kingdom]]. By the 1970s, however, [[liberals]] had changed the meaning to represent people who favored [[abortion]] and identical roles or quotas for women in the military and in society as a whole.

Specifically, a modern feminist denies or downplays differences between men and women, opposes the encouragement of homemaking and child-rearing for women, and seeks to participate in predominantly male activities, including, but not limited to, sexual intercourse with women. Modern feminists:

* never wanted gender equality; they want power for the female left<ref> [http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2011/feb11/11-02-11.html Phyllis Schlafly, "Feminism Has Become a Hot Topic"]</ref>
* in movies, portray the men as inherently evil, dumb or incompetent, and the women as inherently good, smart or competent (note that this conflicts with gender equality)
* pretend that there are no meaningful differences between men and women when that advances [[liberal]] causes (e.g., women and men equally in military combat, to weaken the U.S. military), but reject equality when that results in more money to women (e.g., [[VAWA]] funding of women's groups)
* oppose [[chivalry]] and even feign insult at harmless displays of it (see battle between the sexes)
* view traditional [[marriage]] as unacceptably patriarchal
* belittle and mock other women who desire to have children or raise a family<ref>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/clinton/etc/03261992.html</ref><ref> "Being a [[housewife]] is an illegitimate profession... The choice to serve and be protected and plan towards being a family-maker is a choice that shouldn't be. The heart of [[radical feminism]] is to change that." - Vivian Gornick, University of Illinois, "The Daily Illini," April 25, 1981. [http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com/artman/publish/LAF_Theme_Articles_13/You_Don_t_Know_Feminism_744100744.shtml "You Don't Know Feminism"] </ref>
* shirk traditional gender activities, like baking<ref>"But sometime between the Ides of March and Canada Day, I remembered that I'd given up baking cookies as a political act in 1975. ... No self-respecting feminist could be found in the company of cookie dough." [http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/arts/story.html?k=60432&id=3b3c71f6-0d7d-4e1a-b8fb-cf8d5b1af478]</ref>
* support [[affirmative action]] for women
* prefer that women wear pants rather than dresses, presumably because men do<ref>"[T]he wearing of pantsuits is often a useful feminism signifier, depending on the culture of the law firm." [http://feministlawprofs.law.sc.edu/?p=2640]</ref><ref>"I was part of a growing tribe of pesky women called feminists by friends and enemies alike. We women stormed out the door in our imitation men's suits ...." [http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/arts/story.html?k=60432&id=3b3c71f6-0d7d-4e1a-b8fb-cf8d5b1af478]</ref>
* seek [[women in combat]] in the military just like men, and coed submarines
* refuse to take her husband's last name when marrying<ref>"(Almost half the married women in the Harvard-Radcliffe class of 1990 kept or hyphenated their names.) If you read the New York Times wedding pages, and shut up, you do, the phrase 'the bride, who is keeping her name' seems like the norm, unless his name is Rockefeller. http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2003/10/16/names/index.html]</ref>
* believe marriage implies female servitude when it is in fact a mutual bond
* distort historical focus onto female figures, often overshadowing important events (Eg: Henry VIII's wives take precedence in common knowledge to his actual reign.)
* often condemn the God-Given order of gender roles, as laid out in the Holy [[Bible]]
* object to being addressed as "ma'am," or feminine nicknames such as "sweetheart" or "honey";<ref>http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-talk-boxer-maamjun19,0,5804401.story</ref> object to other female-only names, such as "temptress"
* take offense at grammatical rules of the English language, like using the pronoun "he" when referring to a hypothetical/anonymous person, or phrases like 'fireman' and 'stewardess.'
* support of the [[homosexual agenda]]

==History==
Roots of the movement in the United States and the United Kingdom include the [[suffrage|Women's Suffrage]] movement of the early 1900s and the Women's Liberation (or "Second Wave Feminist") movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

The [[Equal Rights Amendment]], which proponents claimed would address the inadequacies of the [[Fourteenth Amendment]] concerning women and citizenship, was proposed in the US in 1923. The amendment passed Congress in 1972 but was ultimately defeated, falling just three states short of the required [[three-quarters majority]] on June 30, 1982. Some conservatives, particularly [[Phyllis Schlafly]], felt that its passage would entail adverse consequences, including making girls subject to the [[military draft]], requiring taxpayer-funded [[abortion]] the end of [[single-sex schools]] and classes, requiring the issuance of [[homosexual marriage]] licenses, and the revocation of laws that protect women in dangerous jobs, such as factory or mining work. Indeed, in states that passed their own state versions of ERA, several of these results were subsequently ordered by courts.<ref>For example, the [[Hawaii]] and [[Massachusetts]] Supreme Courts ordered the issuance of homosexual marriage licenses based in part on their on their state ERAs, and the [[New Mexico]] Supreme Court ordered taxpayer-funded [[abortion]] based on its state ERA.</ref>

The feminist movement in the West evolved in the 1980s with the rise of so-called [[Post-Feminism]] (also called "[[Third-Wave]]" feminism), which stresses that women have many rights that go unrecognized, often by women themselves, in everyday life, and in the American legal structure. Most members of the feminist movement support reproductive rights currently guaranteed by American law, including the legal right to [[abortion]]. This stance is opposed by many conservatives, leading political commentator [[Rush Limbaugh]] to coin the term "Femi-nazis" to refer to extreme feminist activists.

One of the major features of feminism prior to the 1990s was opposition to women being treated as [[sex objects]]. However, feminists today support women being sex objects, viewing it as a means of empowerment over the traditional [[Judeo-Christian]] family structure and [[conservative values]]. Continuing this same promotion of [[liberalism]] and [[anti-Christian]] values, feminists today treat [[Women's rights and Islam|Islam's cruel treatment of women]] as a matter of "personal choice".

During the administration of [[Bill Clinton]], feminism made a partial resurgence, although feminist leadership was criticized{{who}} for largely failing to criticize President Clinton's [[sexist]] behavior toward female employees as both Arkansas Governor and U.S. President.<ref>Odone, Christina [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article528875.ece ''Left-wing misogyny is alive and well: The party’s feminist agenda allows Labour men to get away with sexist behaviour''] (2 June 2005) [[The Times]]</ref><ref>Jackson, Candice E. ''"Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine"'' (World Ahead Publishing; 2005) ISBN 0-9746-7013-8</ref>

Dr. [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]], a staunch advocate of [[civil rights]] and [[non-violence]] said, "When a mother has to work she does violence to motherhood by depriving her children of her loving guidance and protection." <ref>''Stride Toward Freedom : The Montgomery Story'', Martin Luther King, Jr., Harper and Rowe, New York, 1958, p. 203.</ref>

Larrey Anderson, philosopher, writer and submissions editor for American Thinker, links feminism to Marxism, and concludes, "Feminism by grounding itself in the philosophy of Hegel and Marx, is condemning women to a new servitude: slavery to the state."<ref>Larrey Anderson, ''The Feminine Mistake'', American Thinker], November 29, 2009</ref>

==Quotations==

===[[Robin Morgan]]===

*"I feel that 'man-hating' is an honourable and viable political act, that the [[oppressed]] have a right to [[class-hatred]] against the class that is oppressing them."<ref>[http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/LGB.asp From] "Sisterhood is Powerful"(1970)</ref>

*"I haven't the faintest notion what possible revolutionary role white hetero-sexual men could fulfill, since they are the very embodiment of reactionary-vested-interest-power. But then, I have great difficulty examining what men in general could possibly do about all this. In addition to doing the sh*twork that women have been doing for generations, possibly not exist? No, I really don't mean that. Yes, I really do."<ref>[http://circuitous.org/scraps/combahee.html From] her introduction to "Sisterhood is Powerful"</ref><ref>http://www.feministcampus.org/network/chat/morgan04232003.asp</ref>

*"We can't destroy the inequities between men and women until we destroy marriage."<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_/ai_n9357217 From] "Sisterhood is Powerful"</ref>

*"I claim that rape exists any time sexual intercourse occurs when it has not been initiated by the woman, out of her own genuine affection and desire."<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_199903/ai_n8831317 From] "Theory and Practice: Pornography and Rape"</ref>

===[[Andrea Dworkin]]===

*"Marriage as an institution developed from rape as a practice."<ref name="LfaWZ">[http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/LGB.asp From] her book "Letters from a War Zone"</ref>

*"Heterosexual intercourse is the pure, formalized expression of contempt for women's bodies."<ref name="LfaWZ"/>

*"In my own life, I don't have intercourse. That is my choice."<ref>Andrea Dworkin: [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4024585,00.html "'They took my body from me and used it'"] (Guardian Unlimited)</ref>

*Q: People think you are very hostile to men. A: "I am."<ref>[http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/WarZoneChaptIID.html "Nervous Interview"], 1978 (Background: "Norman Mailer managed to publish lots of interviews with himself, none of which made much sense, all of which were taken seriously by literati of various stripes. So this is half parody of him and his chosen form and half parody of myself and my chosen movement.")</ref>

*"Men use the night to erase us."<ref name="TNaD">[http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/WarZoneChaptIb.html The Night and Danger]</ref>

*"The annihilation of a woman's personality, individuality, will, character, is prerequisite to male sexuality."<ref name="TNaD"/>

===[[Marilyn French]]===
[[Image:Marilyn French.gif|left]]
*"As long as some men use physical force to subjugate females, all men need not. The knowledge that some men do suffices to threaten all women. He can beat or kill the woman he claims to love; he can rape women ... he can sexually molest his daughters ... THE VAST MAJORITY OF MEN IN THE WORLD DO ONE OR MORE OF THE ABOVE" - ''The War Against Women'', p. 182 (her emphasis)<ref>http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/034538248X/ref=sib_dp_pt#</ref>

*"All patriarchists exalt the home and family as sacred, demanding it remain inviolate from prying eyes. Men want privacy for their violations of women ... All women learn in childhood that women as a sex are men's prey" - ''The War Against Women'', p. 186 <ref>http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/034538248X/ref=sib_dp_pt#</ref>

*"The media treat male assaults on women like rape, beating, and murder of wives and female lovers, or male incest with children, as individual aberrations ... obscuring the fact that all male violence toward women is part of a concerted campaign" - ''The War Against Women'', p. 21 <ref>http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/034538248X/ref=sib_dp_pt#</ref>

====In fiction authored by [[Marilyn French]]====

*My feelings about men are the result of my experience. I have little sympathy for them. Like a Jew just released from Dachau, I watch the handsome young Nazi soldier fall writhing to the ground with a bullet in his stomach and I look briefly and walk on. I don't even need to shrug. I simply don't care. What he was, as a person, I mean, what his shames and yearnings were, simply don't matter" - ''The Women's Room''

*"All men are rapists and that's all they are" - The character Mia in her novel ''The Women's Room'', p. 462<ref>http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0345353617/ref=sib_dp_pt#</ref>

===Other===

*"The nuclear family must be destroyed ... Whatever its ultimate meaning, the break-up of families now is an objectively revolutionary process" - Linda Gordon

*"Marriage has existed for the benefit of men; and has been a legally sanctioned method of control over women ... We must work to destroy it. The end of the institution of marriage is a necessary condition for the liberation of women. Therefore it is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not to live individually with men ... All of history must be re-written in terms of oppression of women. We must go back to ancient female religions like witchcraft" (from "The Declaration of Feminism" November, 1971)

*"The feminista agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a [[socialist]], anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, [[abortion|kill their children]], practice [[witchcraft]], destroy capitalism, and become [[lesbian]]s" - Pat Robertson, fundraising letter, 1992<ref>http://www.gainesvillehumanists.org/patr.htm </ref>

*"I'm furious with the Women's Liberationists. They keep getting up on soapboxes and proclaiming women are brighter than men. That's true, but it should be kept quiet or it ruins the whole racket" - Anita Loos

*"Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation, and destroy the male sex" - [[Valerie Solanas]], author of the SCUM Manifesto (Society for Cutting Up Men)

*"The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness...can be trained to do most things" - Jilly Cooper

*"Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women's movement must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage" - Sheila Cronin, the leader of the feminist organization NOW

*"The institution of sexual intercourse is anti-feminist" - Ti-Grace Atkinson

*"Feminism is the theory, lesbianism is the practice" - Ti-Grace Atkinson

*"It matters more what's in a woman's face than what's on it." - Claudette Colbert, quoted in Kindling the Spirit by Lois P. Frankel

*"Rape is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear" - Susan Brownmiller; Authoress of Against Our Will p.6

*"When a woman reaches orgasm with a man she is only collaborating with the patriarchal system, eroticizing her own oppression" - Sheila Jeffrys

*"Politically, I call it rape whenever a woman has sex and feels violated" - Catharine MacKinnon

*"All sex, even consensual sex between a married couple, is an act of violence perpetrated against a woman" - Catharine MacKinnon

*"You grow up with your father holding you down and covering your mouth so another man can make a horrible searing pain between your legs" - Catharine MacKinnon (Prominent legal feminist scholar; Universities of Michigan & Yale)

*"In a patriarchal society, all heterosexual intercourse is rape because women, as a group, are not strong enough to give meaningful consent" - Catharine MacKinnon, quoted in ''Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women's Studies''

*"The more famous and powerful I get the more power I have to hurt men" - Sharon Stone, Actress

*"Ninety-five percent of women's experiences are about being a victim. Or about being an underdog, or having to survive ... women didn't go to Vietnam and blow things up. They are not [[Rambo]]" - Jodie Foster, Actress - as quoted in The New York Times Magazine

*"The proportion of men must be reduced to and maintained at approximately 10% of the human race" - Sally Miller Gearhart, in ''The Future - If There Is One - Is Female''

*"And if the professional rapist is to be separated from the average dominant heterosexual (male), it may be mainly a quantitative difference" - Susan Griffin, Rape: The All-American Crime

*"If life is to survive on this planet, there must be a decontamination of the Earth. I think this will be accompanied by an evolutionary process that will result in a drastic reduction of the population of males" - Mary Daly, former Professor at Boston College, 2001

*"If anyone is prosecuted for filing a false report, then victims of real attacks will be less likely to report them" - David Angier

*"To use the word [rape] carefully would be to be careful for the sake of the violator, and the survivors don't care a hoot about him. … They [men unjustly accused of rape] have a lot of pain, but it is not a pain that I would necessarily have spared them. I think it ideally initiates a process of self-exploration. 'How do I see women?' 'If I didn't violate her, could I have?' 'Do I have the potential to do to her what they say I did?' Those are good questions." - Catherine Comins, assistant dean of student life at Vassar in 1991 <ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,973077-6,00.html</ref>

*"I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which man structurally does not have, does not have it because he cannot have it. He's just incapable of it" - Barbara Jordan, former congresswoman

*"Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release" - [[Germaine Greer]]

*"Man-hating is everywhere, but everywhere it is twisted and transformed, disguised, tranquilized, and qualified. It coexists, never peacefully, with the love, desire, respect, and need women also feel for men. Always man-hating is shadowed by its milder, more diplomatic and doubtful twin, ambivalence" - [[Judith Levine]], Authoress

*"I feel what they feel: man-hating, that volatile admixture of pity, contempt, disgust, envy, alienation, fear, and rage at men. It is hatred not only for the anonymous man who makes sucking noises on the street, not only for the rapist or the judge who acquits him, but for what the Greeks called philo-aphilos, 'hate in love' for the men women share their lives with - husbands, lovers, friends, fathers, brothers, sons, co-workers." - [[Judith Levine]], Authoress of My Enemy, My love

*"There are no boundaries between affectionate sex and slavery in (the male) world. Distinctions between pleasure and danger are academic; the dirty-laundrylist of 'sex acts' ... includes rape, foot binding, fellatio, intercourse, auto eroticism, incest, anal intercourse, use and production of pornography, cunnilingus, sexual harassment, and murder" - Judith Levine; summarizing comment on the WAS document (A Southern Women's Writing Collective: Women Against Sex)

*((Delaney Nickerson, of the American Coalition for ABUSE AWARENESS, refers to the False Memory Syndrome Foundation as "The F---ing Molesters Society" (Miami Herald, April 3, 1995) The ACAA is a lobbying group, which includes Ellen Bass (co-author of THE COURAGE TO HEAL), and Rene Frederickson, leading feminist psychotherapist and strong proponent of repressed memory theory))

*((At the STONE ANGELS satanic ritual abuse conference in Thunder Bay in February, 1995, the following was contained in the handouts at a conference supported financially by the Ontario Government: FMS stands for: FULL OF MOSTLY SH*T; FOR MORE SADISM; FELONS, MURDERERS, SCUMBALLS; FREQUENT MOLESTERS SOCIETY))

*"Women have their faults / men have only two: / everything they say / everything they do" {{Fact|Date=March 2008}} -- Popular Feminist Graffiti

*"I was, in reality, bred by my parents as my father's concubine... What we take for granted as the stability of family life may well depend on the sexual slavery of our children. What's more, this is a cynical arrangement our institutions have colluded to conceal" - Sylvia Fraser, Journalist

*[[Catharine MacKinnon]] maintains that "the private is a sphere of battery, marital rape and women's exploited labor." In this way, privacy and family are reduced to nothing more than aspects of the master plan, which is male domination. Democratic freedoms and the need to keep the state's nose out of our personal affairs are rendered meaningless. The real reason our society cherishes privacy is because men have invented it as an excuse to conceal their criminality. If people still insist that the traditional family is about love and mutual aid - ideals which, admittedly, are sometimes betrayed - they're "hiding from the truth" The family isn't a place where battery and marital rape sometimes happen but where little else apparently does. Sick men don't simply molest their daughters, they operate in league with their wives to "breed" them for that purpose - Donna Laframboise; The Princess at the Window (in a critical explication of the Catharine MacKinnon, [[Gloria Steinem]] et al, tenets of misandric belief)

*"If the classroom situation is very heteropatriarchal - a large beginning class of 50 to 60 students, say, with few feminist students - I am likely to define my task as largely one of recruitment ... of persuading students that women are oppressed" - Professor Joyce Trebilcot of Washington University, as quoted in Who Stole Feminism: How Women Have Betrayed Women

*"Men, as a group, tend to be abusive, either verbally, sexually or emotionally. There are always the exceptions, but they are few and far between (I am married to one of them). There are different levels of violence and abuse and individual men buy into this system by varying degrees. But the male power structure always remains intact." - Message on FEMISA, responding to a request for arguments that men are unnecessary for a child to grow into mature adulthood.

*Another posting on FEMISA: "Considering the nature and pervasiveness of men's violence, I would say that without question, children are better off being raised without the presence of men. Assaults on women and children are mostly perpetrated by men whom they are supposed to love and trust: fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers, step-fathers." (Both above quotes taken from Daphne Patai's excellent critical work, [[Heterophobia]])

*"At Brandies I discovered Feminism. And I instantly became a convert... writing brilliant papers in my Myths of Patriarchy class, in which I likened my fate as a woman to other victims throughout the ages." {{fact}} - Heather Hart 7

*Here are 10 reasons why we are concerned about feminism and the National Organisation for Women

1. "The simple fact is that every woman must be willing to be identified as a lesbian to be fully feminist" - National NOW Times, January, 1988

2. "Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women's movement must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage" - feminist leader Sheila Cronan

3. In response to a question concerning China's policy of compulsory abortion after the first child, Molly Yard responded, "I consider the Chinese government's policy among the most intelligent in the world" - Gary Bauer, "Abetting Coercion in China" The Washington Times, Oct. 10, 1989

4. "Overthrowing capitalism is too small for us. We must overthrow the whole ... patriarch!" - [[Gloria Steinem]], radical feminist leader, editor of Ms. Magazine

5. "Marriage has existed for the benefit of men; and has been a legally sanctioned method of control over women.... We must work to destroy it. The end of the institution of marriage is a necessary condition for the liberation of women. Therefore it is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not to live individually with men ... All of history must be re-written in terms of oppression of women. We must go back to ancient female religions like witchcraft" (from "The Declaration of Feminism" November, 1971)

6. "By the year 2000 we will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God" - [[Gloria Steinem]], editor of Ms. Magazine)

7. "Let's forget about the mythical Jesus and look for encouragement, solace, and inspiration from real women ... Two thousand years of patriarchal rule under the shadow of the cross ought to be enough to turn women toward the feminist 'salvation' of this world" - Annie Laurie Gaylor, "Feminist Salvation," The Humanist, p. 37, July/August 1988

8. "In order to raise children with equality, we must take them away from families and communally raise them" - Dr. Mary Jo Bane, feminist and assistant professor of education at Wellesley College, and associate director of the school's Center for Research on Woman

9. "Being a housewife is an illegitimate profession... The choice to serve and be protected and plan towards being a family- maker is a choice that shouldn't be. The heart of radical feminism is to change that" - Vivian Gornick, feminist author, University of Illinois, The Daily Illini, April 25, 1981

10. "The most merciful thing a large family can to do one of its infant members is to kill it" - Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, in "Women and the New Race" p. 67

*"Women's chains have been forged by men, not by anatomy." - Estelle R. Ramey

*"I would have girls regard themselves not as adjectives but as nouns." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "Our Girls"

*"We are, as a sex, infinitely superior to men" - [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]], from her diary of December 27, 1890, quoting a letter she wrote. <ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=CIsEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA270&lpg=PA270&dq=%22we+are+as+a+sex+infinitely+superior+to+men%22&source=web&ots=FqYVyWK-s6&sig=tnXoiGvopCcO1vFaoF7nmSvtXPM&hl=en#PPA270,M1</ref>

From 'A feminist Dictionary; ed. Kramarae and Triechler, Pandora Press, 1985:

*MALE: ... represents a variant of or deviation from the category of female. The first males were mutants ... the male sex represents a degeneration and deformity of the female

*MAN: ... an obsolete life form ... an ordinary creature who needs to be watched ...a contradictory baby-man ...

*TESTOSTERONE POISONING: ... 'Until now it has been though that the level of testosterone in men is normal simply because they have it. But if you consider how abnormal their behavior is, then you are led to the hypothesis that almost all men are suffering from "testosterone poisoning"

*Letter to editor: "Women's Turn to Dominate" "... Clearly you are not yet a free-thinking feminist but rather one of those women who bounce off the male-dominated, male-controlled social structures. Who cares how men feel or what they do or whether they suffer? They have had over 2000 years to dominate and made a complete hash of it. Now it is our turn. My only comment to men is: if you don't like it, bad luck - and if you get in my way I'll run you down" Signed: Liberated Women, Boronia Herald-Sun, Melbourne, Australia. 9 February, 1996

*“Feminism, Socialism, and Communism are one in the same, and Socialist/Communist government is the goal of feminism” - Catharine MacKinnon

*The English novelist and critic [[Rebecca West]] said <ref>http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/rebecca_west.html</ref> :

*<blockquote> "I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute." </blockquote>

==See also==
*[[Anti-Feminism]]
*[[Feminism and housewives]]
*[[Feminist style]]
*[[Gender equality]]
*[[Gender police]]
*[[Feminists for Life]]
*[[Feminism and reason]]
*[[Feminist hypocrisy]]
*[[Battered woman syndrome]]
{{liberalism}}

==References==
{{reflist|small}}

==External Links==
*[http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/ The Feminist eZine] Archive of articles about Feminist History.
*[http://www.cia-on-campus.org/surveil/steinem.html Gloria Steinem and the CIA], ''The New York Times'', February 21, 1967.
*[http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg02217.html Inside the CIA with Gloria Steinem], Nancy Borman, ''The Village Voice''.
*[http://www.american.com/archive/2008/march-april-magazine-contents/why-can2019t-a-woman-be-more-like-a-man Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man?], Christina Hoff Sommers, ''The American'' March/April 2008.

[[Category: Liberalism]]
[[Category:Feminism]]

Feminism

2012-01-18T13:50:10Z

Andycjp: we are all sinners aren't we?

[[Image:Braque woman 400pix.jpg|thumb|200px|''Woman with a guitar'' by [[Georges Braque]], 1913.]]
'''Feminism''' originally was an expression used by [[suffragettes]] -who were predominantly [[pro-life]]<ref>[http://www.godlessprolifers.org/library/wallace4.html ''Susan B. Anthony opposed abortion'']</ref><ref>''"There is no question that she deplored the practice of abortion, as did every one of her colleagues in the suffrage movement."'' [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/opinion/13schiff.html?_r=1&oref=slogin ''Desperately Seeking Susan''] [[New York Times]] (13 October 2006)</ref><ref>[http://www.feministsforlife.org/history/foremoth.htm ''Voices of our Feminist Foremothers''] Feminists for Life</ref>- to obtain the right for women to vote in the early 1900s in the [[United States]] and the [[United Kingdom]]. By the 1970s, however, [[liberals]] had changed the meaning to represent people who favored [[abortion]] and identical roles or quotas for women in the military and in society as a whole.

Specifically, a modern feminist denies or downplays differences between men and women, opposes the encouragement of homemaking and child-rearing for women, and seeks to participate in predominantly male activities, including, but not limited to, sexual intercourse with women. Modern feminists:

* never wanted gender equality; they want power for the female left<ref> [http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2011/feb11/11-02-11.html Phyllis Schlafly, "Feminism Has Become a Hot Topic"]</ref>
* in movies, portray the men as inherently evil, dumb or incompetent, and the women as inherently good, smart or competent (note that this conflicts with gender equality)
* pretend that there are no meaningful differences between men and women when that advances [[liberal]] causes (e.g., women and men equally in military combat, to weaken the U.S. military), but reject equality when that results in more money to women (e.g., [[VAWA]] funding of women's groups)
* oppose [[chivalry]] and even feign insult at harmless displays of it (see battle between the sexes)
* view traditional [[marriage]] as unacceptably patriarchal
* belittle and mock other women who desire to have children or raise a family<ref>http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/clinton/etc/03261992.html</ref><ref> "Being a [[housewife]] is an illegitimate profession... The choice to serve and be protected and plan towards being a family-maker is a choice that shouldn't be. The heart of [[radical feminism]] is to change that." - Vivian Gornick, University of Illinois, "The Daily Illini," April 25, 1981. [http://www.ladiesagainstfeminism.com/artman/publish/LAF_Theme_Articles_13/You_Don_t_Know_Feminism_744100744.shtml "You Don't Know Feminism"] </ref>
* shirk traditional gender activities, like baking<ref>"But sometime between the Ides of March and Canada Day, I remembered that I'd given up baking cookies as a political act in 1975. ... No self-respecting feminist could be found in the company of cookie dough." [http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/arts/story.html?k=60432&id=3b3c71f6-0d7d-4e1a-b8fb-cf8d5b1af478]</ref>
* support [[affirmative action]] for women
* prefer that women wear pants rather than dresses, presumably because men do<ref>"[T]he wearing of pantsuits is often a useful feminism signifier, depending on the culture of the law firm." [http://feministlawprofs.law.sc.edu/?p=2640]</ref><ref>"I was part of a growing tribe of pesky women called feminists by friends and enemies alike. We women stormed out the door in our imitation men's suits ...." [http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/arts/story.html?k=60432&id=3b3c71f6-0d7d-4e1a-b8fb-cf8d5b1af478]</ref>
* seek [[women in combat]] in the military just like men, and coed submarines
* refuse to take her husband's last name when marrying<ref>"(Almost half the married women in the Harvard-Radcliffe class of 1990 kept or hyphenated their names.) If you read the New York Times wedding pages, and shut up, you do, the phrase 'the bride, who is keeping her name' seems like the norm, unless his name is Rockefeller. http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2003/10/16/names/index.html]</ref>
* believe marriage implies female servitude when it is in fact a mutual bond
* distort historical focus onto female figures, often overshadowing important events (Eg: Henry VIII's wives take precedence in common knowledge to his actual reign.)
* often condemn the God-Given order of gender roles, as laid out in the Holy Bible
* object to being addressed as "ma'am," or feminine nicknames such as "sweetheart" or "honey";<ref>http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-talk-boxer-maamjun19,0,5804401.story</ref> object to other female-only names, such as "temptress"
* take offense at grammatical rules of the English language, like using the pronoun "he" when referring to a hypothetical/anonymous person, or phrases like 'fireman' and 'stewardess.'
* support of the [[homosexual agenda]]

==History==
Roots of the movement in the United States and the United Kingdom include the [[suffrage|Women's Suffrage]] movement of the early 1900s and the Women's Liberation (or "Second Wave Feminist") movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

The [[Equal Rights Amendment]], which proponents claimed would address the inadequacies of the [[Fourteenth Amendment]] concerning women and citizenship, was proposed in the US in 1923. The amendment passed Congress in 1972 but was ultimately defeated, falling just three states short of the required [[three-quarters majority]] on June 30, 1982. Some conservatives, particularly [[Phyllis Schlafly]], felt that its passage would entail adverse consequences, including making girls subject to the [[military draft]], requiring taxpayer-funded [[abortion]] the end of [[single-sex schools]] and classes, requiring the issuance of [[homosexual marriage]] licenses, and the revocation of laws that protect women in dangerous jobs, such as factory or mining work. Indeed, in states that passed their own state versions of ERA, several of these results were subsequently ordered by courts.<ref>For example, the [[Hawaii]] and [[Massachusetts]] Supreme Courts ordered the issuance of homosexual marriage licenses based in part on their on their state ERAs, and the [[New Mexico]] Supreme Court ordered taxpayer-funded [[abortion]] based on its state ERA.</ref>

The feminist movement in the West evolved in the 1980s with the rise of so-called [[Post-Feminism]] (also called "[[Third-Wave]]" feminism), which stresses that women have many rights that go unrecognized, often by women themselves, in everyday life, and in the American legal structure. Most members of the feminist movement support reproductive rights currently guaranteed by American law, including the legal right to [[abortion]]. This stance is opposed by many conservatives, leading political commentator [[Rush Limbaugh]] to coin the term "Femi-nazis" to refer to extreme feminist activists.

One of the major features of feminism prior to the 1990s was opposition to women being treated as [[sex objects]]. However, feminists today support women being sex objects, viewing it as a means of empowerment over the traditional [[Judeo-Christian]] family structure and [[conservative values]]. Continuing this same promotion of [[liberalism]] and [[anti-Christian]] values, feminists today treat [[Women's rights and Islam|Islam's cruel treatment of women]] as a matter of "personal choice".

During the administration of [[Bill Clinton]], feminism made a partial resurgence, although feminist leadership was criticized{{who}} for largely failing to criticize President Clinton's [[sexist]] behavior toward female employees as both Arkansas Governor and U.S. President.<ref>Odone, Christina [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article528875.ece ''Left-wing misogyny is alive and well: The party’s feminist agenda allows Labour men to get away with sexist behaviour''] (2 June 2005) [[The Times]]</ref><ref>Jackson, Candice E. ''"Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine"'' (World Ahead Publishing; 2005) ISBN 0-9746-7013-8</ref>

Dr. [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]], a staunch advocate of [[civil rights]] and [[non-violence]] said, "When a mother has to work she does violence to motherhood by depriving her children of her loving guidance and protection." <ref>''Stride Toward Freedom : The Montgomery Story'', Martin Luther King, Jr., Harper and Rowe, New York, 1958, p. 203.</ref>

Larrey Anderson, philosopher, writer and submissions editor for American Thinker, links feminism to Marxism, and concludes, "Feminism by grounding itself in the philosophy of Hegel and Marx, is condemning women to a new servitude: slavery to the state."<ref>Larrey Anderson, ''The Feminine Mistake'', American Thinker], November 29, 2009</ref>

==Quotations==

===[[Robin Morgan]]===

*"I feel that 'man-hating' is an honourable and viable political act, that the [[oppressed]] have a right to [[class-hatred]] against the class that is oppressing them."<ref>[http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/LGB.asp From] "Sisterhood is Powerful"(1970)</ref>

*"I haven't the faintest notion what possible revolutionary role white hetero-sexual men could fulfill, since they are the very embodiment of reactionary-vested-interest-power. But then, I have great difficulty examining what men in general could possibly do about all this. In addition to doing the sh*twork that women have been doing for generations, possibly not exist? No, I really don't mean that. Yes, I really do."<ref>[http://circuitous.org/scraps/combahee.html From] her introduction to "Sisterhood is Powerful"</ref><ref>http://www.feministcampus.org/network/chat/morgan04232003.asp</ref>

*"We can't destroy the inequities between men and women until we destroy marriage."<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_/ai_n9357217 From] "Sisterhood is Powerful"</ref>

*"I claim that rape exists any time sexual intercourse occurs when it has not been initiated by the woman, out of her own genuine affection and desire."<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_199903/ai_n8831317 From] "Theory and Practice: Pornography and Rape"</ref>

===[[Andrea Dworkin]]===

*"Marriage as an institution developed from rape as a practice."<ref name="LfaWZ">[http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/LGB.asp From] her book "Letters from a War Zone"</ref>

*"Heterosexual intercourse is the pure, formalized expression of contempt for women's bodies."<ref name="LfaWZ"/>

*"In my own life, I don't have intercourse. That is my choice."<ref>Andrea Dworkin: [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4024585,00.html "'They took my body from me and used it'"] (Guardian Unlimited)</ref>

*Q: People think you are very hostile to men. A: "I am."<ref>[http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/WarZoneChaptIID.html "Nervous Interview"], 1978 (Background: "Norman Mailer managed to publish lots of interviews with himself, none of which made much sense, all of which were taken seriously by literati of various stripes. So this is half parody of him and his chosen form and half parody of myself and my chosen movement.")</ref>

*"Men use the night to erase us."<ref name="TNaD">[http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/WarZoneChaptIb.html The Night and Danger]</ref>

*"The annihilation of a woman's personality, individuality, will, character, is prerequisite to male sexuality."<ref name="TNaD"/>

===[[Marilyn French]]===
[[Image:Marilyn French.gif|left]]
*"As long as some men use physical force to subjugate females, all men need not. The knowledge that some men do suffices to threaten all women. He can beat or kill the woman he claims to love; he can rape women ... he can sexually molest his daughters ... THE VAST MAJORITY OF MEN IN THE WORLD DO ONE OR MORE OF THE ABOVE" - ''The War Against Women'', p. 182 (her emphasis)<ref>http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/034538248X/ref=sib_dp_pt#</ref>

*"All patriarchists exalt the home and family as sacred, demanding it remain inviolate from prying eyes. Men want privacy for their violations of women ... All women learn in childhood that women as a sex are men's prey" - ''The War Against Women'', p. 186 <ref>http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/034538248X/ref=sib_dp_pt#</ref>

*"The media treat male assaults on women like rape, beating, and murder of wives and female lovers, or male incest with children, as individual aberrations ... obscuring the fact that all male violence toward women is part of a concerted campaign" - ''The War Against Women'', p. 21 <ref>http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/034538248X/ref=sib_dp_pt#</ref>

====In fiction authored by [[Marilyn French]]====

*My feelings about men are the result of my experience. I have little sympathy for them. Like a Jew just released from Dachau, I watch the handsome young Nazi soldier fall writhing to the ground with a bullet in his stomach and I look briefly and walk on. I don't even need to shrug. I simply don't care. What he was, as a person, I mean, what his shames and yearnings were, simply don't matter" - ''The Women's Room''

*"All men are rapists and that's all they are" - The character Mia in her novel ''The Women's Room'', p. 462<ref>http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0345353617/ref=sib_dp_pt#</ref>

===Other===

*"The nuclear family must be destroyed ... Whatever its ultimate meaning, the break-up of families now is an objectively revolutionary process" - Linda Gordon

*"Marriage has existed for the benefit of men; and has been a legally sanctioned method of control over women ... We must work to destroy it. The end of the institution of marriage is a necessary condition for the liberation of women. Therefore it is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not to live individually with men ... All of history must be re-written in terms of oppression of women. We must go back to ancient female religions like witchcraft" (from "The Declaration of Feminism" November, 1971)

*"The feminista agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a [[socialist]], anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, [[abortion|kill their children]], practice [[witchcraft]], destroy capitalism, and become [[lesbian]]s" - Pat Robertson, fundraising letter, 1992<ref>http://www.gainesvillehumanists.org/patr.htm </ref>

*"I'm furious with the Women's Liberationists. They keep getting up on soapboxes and proclaiming women are brighter than men. That's true, but it should be kept quiet or it ruins the whole racket" - Anita Loos

*"Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation, and destroy the male sex" - [[Valerie Solanas]], author of the SCUM Manifesto (Society for Cutting Up Men)

*"The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness...can be trained to do most things" - Jilly Cooper

*"Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women's movement must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage" - Sheila Cronin, the leader of the feminist organization NOW

*"The institution of sexual intercourse is anti-feminist" - Ti-Grace Atkinson

*"Feminism is the theory, lesbianism is the practice" - Ti-Grace Atkinson

*"It matters more what's in a woman's face than what's on it." - Claudette Colbert, quoted in Kindling the Spirit by Lois P. Frankel

*"Rape is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear" - Susan Brownmiller; Authoress of Against Our Will p.6

*"When a woman reaches orgasm with a man she is only collaborating with the patriarchal system, eroticizing her own oppression" - Sheila Jeffrys

*"Politically, I call it rape whenever a woman has sex and feels violated" - Catharine MacKinnon

*"All sex, even consensual sex between a married couple, is an act of violence perpetrated against a woman" - Catharine MacKinnon

*"You grow up with your father holding you down and covering your mouth so another man can make a horrible searing pain between your legs" - Catharine MacKinnon (Prominent legal feminist scholar; Universities of Michigan & Yale)

*"In a patriarchal society, all heterosexual intercourse is rape because women, as a group, are not strong enough to give meaningful consent" - Catharine MacKinnon, quoted in ''Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women's Studies''

*"The more famous and powerful I get the more power I have to hurt men" - Sharon Stone, Actress

*"Ninety-five percent of women's experiences are about being a victim. Or about being an underdog, or having to survive ... women didn't go to Vietnam and blow things up. They are not [[Rambo]]" - Jodie Foster, Actress - as quoted in The New York Times Magazine

*"The proportion of men must be reduced to and maintained at approximately 10% of the human race" - Sally Miller Gearhart, in ''The Future - If There Is One - Is Female''

*"And if the professional rapist is to be separated from the average dominant heterosexual (male), it may be mainly a quantitative difference" - Susan Griffin, Rape: The All-American Crime

*"If life is to survive on this planet, there must be a decontamination of the Earth. I think this will be accompanied by an evolutionary process that will result in a drastic reduction of the population of males" - Mary Daly, former Professor at Boston College, 2001

*"If anyone is prosecuted for filing a false report, then victims of real attacks will be less likely to report them" - David Angier

*"To use the word [rape] carefully would be to be careful for the sake of the violator, and the survivors don't care a hoot about him. … They [men unjustly accused of rape] have a lot of pain, but it is not a pain that I would necessarily have spared them. I think it ideally initiates a process of self-exploration. 'How do I see women?' 'If I didn't violate her, could I have?' 'Do I have the potential to do to her what they say I did?' Those are good questions." - Catherine Comins, assistant dean of student life at Vassar in 1991 <ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,973077-6,00.html</ref>

*"I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which man structurally does not have, does not have it because he cannot have it. He's just incapable of it" - Barbara Jordan, former congresswoman

*"Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release" - [[Germaine Greer]]

*"Man-hating is everywhere, but everywhere it is twisted and transformed, disguised, tranquilized, and qualified. It coexists, never peacefully, with the love, desire, respect, and need women also feel for men. Always man-hating is shadowed by its milder, more diplomatic and doubtful twin, ambivalence" - [[Judith Levine]], Authoress

*"I feel what they feel: man-hating, that volatile admixture of pity, contempt, disgust, envy, alienation, fear, and rage at men. It is hatred not only for the anonymous man who makes sucking noises on the street, not only for the rapist or the judge who acquits him, but for what the Greeks called philo-aphilos, 'hate in love' for the men women share their lives with - husbands, lovers, friends, fathers, brothers, sons, co-workers." - [[Judith Levine]], Authoress of My Enemy, My love

*"There are no boundaries between affectionate sex and slavery in (the male) world. Distinctions between pleasure and danger are academic; the dirty-laundrylist of 'sex acts' ... includes rape, foot binding, fellatio, intercourse, auto eroticism, incest, anal intercourse, use and production of pornography, cunnilingus, sexual harassment, and murder" - Judith Levine; summarizing comment on the WAS document (A Southern Women's Writing Collective: Women Against Sex)

*((Delaney Nickerson, of the American Coalition for ABUSE AWARENESS, refers to the False Memory Syndrome Foundation as "The F---ing Molesters Society" (Miami Herald, April 3, 1995) The ACAA is a lobbying group, which includes Ellen Bass (co-author of THE COURAGE TO HEAL), and Rene Frederickson, leading feminist psychotherapist and strong proponent of repressed memory theory))

*((At the STONE ANGELS satanic ritual abuse conference in Thunder Bay in February, 1995, the following was contained in the handouts at a conference supported financially by the Ontario Government: FMS stands for: FULL OF MOSTLY SH*T; FOR MORE SADISM; FELONS, MURDERERS, SCUMBALLS; FREQUENT MOLESTERS SOCIETY))

*"Women have their faults / men have only two: / everything they say / everything they do" {{Fact|Date=March 2008}} -- Popular Feminist Graffiti

*"I was, in reality, bred by my parents as my father's concubine... What we take for granted as the stability of family life may well depend on the sexual slavery of our children. What's more, this is a cynical arrangement our institutions have colluded to conceal" - Sylvia Fraser, Journalist

*[[Catharine MacKinnon]] maintains that "the private is a sphere of battery, marital rape and women's exploited labor." In this way, privacy and family are reduced to nothing more than aspects of the master plan, which is male domination. Democratic freedoms and the need to keep the state's nose out of our personal affairs are rendered meaningless. The real reason our society cherishes privacy is because men have invented it as an excuse to conceal their criminality. If people still insist that the traditional family is about love and mutual aid - ideals which, admittedly, are sometimes betrayed - they're "hiding from the truth" The family isn't a place where battery and marital rape sometimes happen but where little else apparently does. Sick men don't simply molest their daughters, they operate in league with their wives to "breed" them for that purpose - Donna Laframboise; The Princess at the Window (in a critical explication of the Catharine MacKinnon, [[Gloria Steinem]] et al, tenets of misandric belief)

*"If the classroom situation is very heteropatriarchal - a large beginning class of 50 to 60 students, say, with few feminist students - I am likely to define my task as largely one of recruitment ... of persuading students that women are oppressed" - Professor Joyce Trebilcot of Washington University, as quoted in Who Stole Feminism: How Women Have Betrayed Women

*"Men, as a group, tend to be abusive, either verbally, sexually or emotionally. There are always the exceptions, but they are few and far between (I am married to one of them). There are different levels of violence and abuse and individual men buy into this system by varying degrees. But the male power structure always remains intact." - Message on FEMISA, responding to a request for arguments that men are unnecessary for a child to grow into mature adulthood.

*Another posting on FEMISA: "Considering the nature and pervasiveness of men's violence, I would say that without question, children are better off being raised without the presence of men. Assaults on women and children are mostly perpetrated by men whom they are supposed to love and trust: fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers, step-fathers." (Both above quotes taken from Daphne Patai's excellent critical work, [[Heterophobia]])

*"At Brandies I discovered Feminism. And I instantly became a convert... writing brilliant papers in my Myths of Patriarchy class, in which I likened my fate as a woman to other victims throughout the ages." {{fact}} - Heather Hart 7

*Here are 10 reasons why we are concerned about feminism and the National Organisation for Women

1. "The simple fact is that every woman must be willing to be identified as a lesbian to be fully feminist" - National NOW Times, January, 1988

2. "Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women's movement must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage" - feminist leader Sheila Cronan

3. In response to a question concerning China's policy of compulsory abortion after the first child, Molly Yard responded, "I consider the Chinese government's policy among the most intelligent in the world" - Gary Bauer, "Abetting Coercion in China" The Washington Times, Oct. 10, 1989

4. "Overthrowing capitalism is too small for us. We must overthrow the whole ... patriarch!" - [[Gloria Steinem]], radical feminist leader, editor of Ms. Magazine

5. "Marriage has existed for the benefit of men; and has been a legally sanctioned method of control over women.... We must work to destroy it. The end of the institution of marriage is a necessary condition for the liberation of women. Therefore it is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not to live individually with men ... All of history must be re-written in terms of oppression of women. We must go back to ancient female religions like witchcraft" (from "The Declaration of Feminism" November, 1971)

6. "By the year 2000 we will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God" - [[Gloria Steinem]], editor of Ms. Magazine)

7. "Let's forget about the mythical Jesus and look for encouragement, solace, and inspiration from real women ... Two thousand years of patriarchal rule under the shadow of the cross ought to be enough to turn women toward the feminist 'salvation' of this world" - Annie Laurie Gaylor, "Feminist Salvation," The Humanist, p. 37, July/August 1988

8. "In order to raise children with equality, we must take them away from families and communally raise them" - Dr. Mary Jo Bane, feminist and assistant professor of education at Wellesley College, and associate director of the school's Center for Research on Woman

9. "Being a housewife is an illegitimate profession... The choice to serve and be protected and plan towards being a family- maker is a choice that shouldn't be. The heart of radical feminism is to change that" - Vivian Gornick, feminist author, University of Illinois, The Daily Illini, April 25, 1981

10. "The most merciful thing a large family can to do one of its infant members is to kill it" - Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, in "Women and the New Race" p. 67

*"Women's chains have been forged by men, not by anatomy." - Estelle R. Ramey

*"I would have girls regard themselves not as adjectives but as nouns." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "Our Girls"

*"We are, as a sex, infinitely superior to men" - [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]], from her diary of December 27, 1890, quoting a letter she wrote. <ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=CIsEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA270&lpg=PA270&dq=%22we+are+as+a+sex+infinitely+superior+to+men%22&source=web&ots=FqYVyWK-s6&sig=tnXoiGvopCcO1vFaoF7nmSvtXPM&hl=en#PPA270,M1</ref>

From 'A feminist Dictionary; ed. Kramarae and Triechler, Pandora Press, 1985:

*MALE: ... represents a variant of or deviation from the category of female. The first males were mutants ... the male sex represents a degeneration and deformity of the female

*MAN: ... an obsolete life form ... an ordinary creature who needs to be watched ...a contradictory baby-man ...

*TESTOSTERONE POISONING: ... 'Until now it has been though that the level of testosterone in men is normal simply because they have it. But if you consider how abnormal their behavior is, then you are led to the hypothesis that almost all men are suffering from "testosterone poisoning"

*Letter to editor: "Women's Turn to Dominate" "... Clearly you are not yet a free-thinking feminist but rather one of those women who bounce off the male-dominated, male-controlled social structures. Who cares how men feel or what they do or whether they suffer? They have had over 2000 years to dominate and made a complete hash of it. Now it is our turn. My only comment to men is: if you don't like it, bad luck - and if you get in my way I'll run you down" Signed: Liberated Women, Boronia Herald-Sun, Melbourne, Australia. 9 February, 1996

*“Feminism, Socialism, and Communism are one in the same, and Socialist/Communist government is the goal of feminism” - Catharine MacKinnon

*The English novelist and critic [[Rebecca West]] said <ref>http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/rebecca_west.html</ref> :

*<blockquote> "I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute." </blockquote>

==See also==
*[[Anti-Feminism]]
*[[Feminism and housewives]]
*[[Feminist style]]
*[[Gender equality]]
*[[Gender police]]
*[[Feminists for Life]]
*[[Feminism and reason]]
*[[Feminist hypocrisy]]
*[[Battered woman syndrome]]
{{liberalism}}

==References==
{{reflist|small}}

==External Links==
*[http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/ The Feminist eZine] Archive of articles about Feminist History.
*[http://www.cia-on-campus.org/surveil/steinem.html Gloria Steinem and the CIA], ''The New York Times'', February 21, 1967.
*[http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg02217.html Inside the CIA with Gloria Steinem], Nancy Borman, ''The Village Voice''.
*[http://www.american.com/archive/2008/march-april-magazine-contents/why-can2019t-a-woman-be-more-like-a-man Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man?], Christina Hoff Sommers, ''The American'' March/April 2008.

[[Category: Liberalism]]
[[Category:Feminism]]

Worst College Majors

2012-01-18T13:45:53Z

Andycjp: /* Majors */ link

The '''worst college majors''' are fields of study that leave the student with relatively few job opportunities and often a distorted or ultra-[[liberal]] view of the world. Students incur an average debt in excess of $25,000 for attending college, and these college majors can leave such students without the ability to pay off their loans, which are typically not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

We encourage college students and employers to improve this list over time.

==Majors==
# [[Feminism|Women's studies]],<ref>"Women’s studies ... is disappearing from British universities. ... Students have begun to realise, too, that women’s studies is useless for getting you a job. It’s no coincidence that the subject’s collapse coincided with the introduction of tuition fees. The moment you start paying for something is the moment you consider whether it’s really worthwhile." [http://www.theinsider.com/news/639292_The_End_Of_Women_s_Studies_And_Other_Useless_Qualifications]</ref><ref>http://www.boundless.org/2000/features/a0000225.html</ref><ref>http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/why-is-gender-studies-dominated-by-one-gender-1.289830</ref> sometimes included as part of "gender studies"<ref>http://www.whitman.edu/content/genderstudies</ref>
# [[Atheism|Secularism]]<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/us/08secular.html</ref>
#[[Homosexuality|LGBT]] studies<ref>http://www.yale.edu/lgbts/</ref><ref>http://www.lgbts.umd.edu/</ref>
# Film<ref name=georgetown>[http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/whatsitworth-complete.pdf What's It Worth?] Georgetown University, July 2011</ref>
# Puppetry
# English [[Literature]]/Literary Criticism
# Music Therapy<ref name="georgetown" />
# Dance<ref name="georgetown" />
# Interior Design<ref name="yahoolist" />
# Art History<ref name=yahoolist>[http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/110196/20-worst-paying-college-degrees-in-2010 20 Worst-Paying College Degrees in 2010] Yahoo! Finance, 08/12/2010</ref>
# Comic Book Art
# Surfing Studies
# Golf Management – University of Birmingham / Florida Gulf Coast University
# Communications
# [[Evolution|Evolutionary biology]]
# Architecture <ref>http://www.foxbusiness.com/slideshow/personal-finance/2010/06/28/worst-fields-graduates/#slide=5</ref>
# Degrees leading to careers in investment banking and corporate work<ref>http://www.foxbusiness.com/slideshow/personal-finance/2010/06/28/worst-fields-graduates/#slide=3</ref>
# Journalism <ref>http://www.foxbusiness.com/slideshow/personal-finance/2010/06/28/worst-fields-graduates/#slide=4</ref>
# Psychology<ref name="georgetown" />
# Fashion Design
# Theater<ref name="georgetown" />
# Horticulture<ref name="yahoolist" />
# Human Resources<ref name="yahoolist" />
# Photography<ref name="georgetown" />
# Video game design
# Forestry/Range Management/Wildlife Management
# Environmental Studies
# Outdoor Recreation
# Fine Art<ref>http://www.artcareer.net/faqs/job-market-outlook-for-artists-and-designers/</ref><ref name="yahoolist" />
# Astronomy
# Anthropology
# Sociology
# History of Music
# Climatology
# Creative Writing
# French Literature <ref name="doe">[http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008155 Ten Years After College: Comparing the Employment Experiences of 1992-93 Bachelor’s Degree Recipients with Academic and Career-Oriented Majors]</ref>
# Comparative Religion <ref name="doe" />
# Marine Biology <ref name="doe" />
# Philosophy <ref name="doe" />
# Asian Studies <ref name="doe" />

==Courses==
# Why Occupy Wall Street? The History and Politics of Debt and Finance - New York University <ref>[http://weaselzippers.us/2011/12/09/n-y-u-to-offer-classes-on-occupy-wall-street/ N.Y.U. To Offer Classes On Occupy Wall Street, Weasel Zippers, December 9, 2011]</ref>
# Occupy the Field: Global Finance, Inequality, Social Movement - Columbia University <ref>[http://michellemalkin.com/2012/01/02/occupy-101/ Columbia University to Offer ‘Occupy 101′ Course, January 2, 2012]</ref>
# Football Culture
# Queer Musicology – UCLA
# The Science of Harry Potter – Frostburg University <ref>CBS News: ''Harry Potter Goes To College: Professor Uses Boy Wizard To Explores Links Between Magic, Science'', by Bootie Cosgrove-Mather, Sept. 26, 2003 [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/19/national/main584456.shtml] ''...Frostburg State President Catherine R. Gira said she isn't worried that some may view a Harry Potter class as trivial. "Irrespective of the specific title of the course, the 'magic' in the fiction is being analyzed by applying concepts of physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. This honors course creatively packages scientific principles in a contemporary way that will interest today's students," Gira said.''</ref>
# Native American Feminism - University of Michigan
# Cyber Feminism - Cornell University
# Feminist New Black Man - Occidental College <ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvlL_lDk4ko Jason Mattera At CPAC, YouTube]</ref>
# Philosophy and Star Trek – Georgetown University in Washington <ref> [http://courses.georgetown.edu/index.cfm?Action=View&CourseID=PHIL-180 Georgetown University Course Listing]</ref>
# The Sociology of Hip-Hop: The Odyssey of Jay-Z – Georgetown University <ref>[http://newsbusters.org/#ixzz1fPkYhzqX Jay-Z's street rhymes a Georgetown college course]</ref>
# Emotional Literacy<ref>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1076368/Schools-councils-waste-300-000-useless-emotional-literacy-course-faraway-island-sun.html</ref>
# Media Genres, the study of zombies - University of Baltimore <ref>[http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/university-of-baltimore-pop-culture-class-focuses-on-zombies/19625044?test=latestnews College Course Preps Pupils for Zombie Apocalypse, AOL News, September 9, 2010]</ref>
# The Science of Superheroes - UC Irvine <ref>[http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/11/14/the-top-8-california-schools-that-are-like-totally-wasting-your-money/ The Top 8 California Schools that Are, Like, Totally Wasting Your Money, NewsRealBlog, November 14, 2010]</ref>
# Field Equipment Operation (tractor driving) - UC Davis
# Hip Hop: The Politics of Culture - UC San Diego
# History of Surfing - UC Santa Barbara
# Labor Studies - UM Saint Louis & UM Kansas City <ref>[http://www.thehotjoints.com/2011/04/25/video-college-course-teaches-violent-union-tactics/ Video: College Course Teaches Violent Union Tactics, The Hot Joints, April 25, 2011]</ref>
# Arguing with Judge Judy - UC Berkeley
# Self-Esteem - Cal State Fresno
# Gaga for Lady Gaga: Sex, Gender, and Identity- University of Virginia-Charlottesville<ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/10/lady-gaga-college-class_n_712540.html</ref>
# Pilot Brewery (brewmaster) - UC Davis
# Search for Extraterrestial Intelligence - UC Berkeley
# Ecology of Renewable Natural Resources - Texas Tech University <ref>[http://www.depts.ttu.edu/officialpublications/courses/NRM.php Texas Tech University Course Listing]</ref>

== External Links ==

* [http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/whatsitworth-complete.pdf What's It Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors] - Comprehensive report at [[Georgetown University]] website
* [http://learnfinancialplanning.com/best-worst-college-majors-degree/ Best and Worst College Majors]
* [http://www.toptenz.net/to-10-useless-college-classes-degrees.php Top 10 Useless College Degrees & Classes]
* [http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/10-college-majors-lowest-unemployment-rates-163049193.html College majors with lowest unemployment]
[[Category:college]]
[[Category:education]]

== References ==

<references/>

Worst College Majors

2012-01-18T13:43:15Z

Andycjp: link

The '''worst college majors''' are fields of study that leave the student with relatively few job opportunities and often a distorted or ultra-[[liberal]] view of the world. Students incur an average debt in excess of $25,000 for attending college, and these college majors can leave such students without the ability to pay off their loans, which are typically not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

We encourage college students and employers to improve this list over time.

==Majors==
# Women's studies,<ref>"Women’s studies ... is disappearing from British universities. ... Students have begun to realise, too, that women’s studies is useless for getting you a job. It’s no coincidence that the subject’s collapse coincided with the introduction of tuition fees. The moment you start paying for something is the moment you consider whether it’s really worthwhile." [http://www.theinsider.com/news/639292_The_End_Of_Women_s_Studies_And_Other_Useless_Qualifications]</ref><ref>http://www.boundless.org/2000/features/a0000225.html</ref><ref>http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/why-is-gender-studies-dominated-by-one-gender-1.289830</ref> sometimes included as part of "gender studies"<ref>http://www.whitman.edu/content/genderstudies</ref>
# [[Atheism|Secularism]]<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/us/08secular.html</ref>
#[[Homosexuality|LGBT]] studies<ref>http://www.yale.edu/lgbts/</ref><ref>http://www.lgbts.umd.edu/</ref>
# Film<ref name=georgetown>[http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/whatsitworth-complete.pdf What's It Worth?] Georgetown University, July 2011</ref>
# Puppetry
# English [[Literature]]/Literary Criticism
# Music Therapy<ref name="georgetown" />
# Dance<ref name="georgetown" />
# Interior Design<ref name="yahoolist" />
# Art History<ref name=yahoolist>[http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/110196/20-worst-paying-college-degrees-in-2010 20 Worst-Paying College Degrees in 2010] Yahoo! Finance, 08/12/2010</ref>
# Comic Book Art
# Surfing Studies
# Golf Management – University of Birmingham / Florida Gulf Coast University
# Communications
# [[Evolution|Evolutionary biology]]
# Architecture <ref>http://www.foxbusiness.com/slideshow/personal-finance/2010/06/28/worst-fields-graduates/#slide=5</ref>
# Degrees leading to careers in investment banking and corporate work<ref>http://www.foxbusiness.com/slideshow/personal-finance/2010/06/28/worst-fields-graduates/#slide=3</ref>
# Journalism <ref>http://www.foxbusiness.com/slideshow/personal-finance/2010/06/28/worst-fields-graduates/#slide=4</ref>
# Psychology<ref name="georgetown" />
# Fashion Design
# Theater<ref name="georgetown" />
# Horticulture<ref name="yahoolist" />
# Human Resources<ref name="yahoolist" />
# Photography<ref name="georgetown" />
# Video game design
# Forestry/Range Management/Wildlife Management
# Environmental Studies
# Outdoor Recreation
# Fine Art<ref>http://www.artcareer.net/faqs/job-market-outlook-for-artists-and-designers/</ref><ref name="yahoolist" />
# Astronomy
# Anthropology
# Sociology
# History of Music
# Climatology
# Creative Writing
# French Literature <ref name="doe">[http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008155 Ten Years After College: Comparing the Employment Experiences of 1992-93 Bachelor’s Degree Recipients with Academic and Career-Oriented Majors]</ref>
# Comparative Religion <ref name="doe" />
# Marine Biology <ref name="doe" />
# Philosophy <ref name="doe" />
# Asian Studies <ref name="doe" />

==Courses==
# Why Occupy Wall Street? The History and Politics of Debt and Finance - New York University <ref>[http://weaselzippers.us/2011/12/09/n-y-u-to-offer-classes-on-occupy-wall-street/ N.Y.U. To Offer Classes On Occupy Wall Street, Weasel Zippers, December 9, 2011]</ref>
# Occupy the Field: Global Finance, Inequality, Social Movement - Columbia University <ref>[http://michellemalkin.com/2012/01/02/occupy-101/ Columbia University to Offer ‘Occupy 101′ Course, January 2, 2012]</ref>
# Football Culture
# Queer Musicology – UCLA
# The Science of Harry Potter – Frostburg University <ref>CBS News: ''Harry Potter Goes To College: Professor Uses Boy Wizard To Explores Links Between Magic, Science'', by Bootie Cosgrove-Mather, Sept. 26, 2003 [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/19/national/main584456.shtml] ''...Frostburg State President Catherine R. Gira said she isn't worried that some may view a Harry Potter class as trivial. "Irrespective of the specific title of the course, the 'magic' in the fiction is being analyzed by applying concepts of physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. This honors course creatively packages scientific principles in a contemporary way that will interest today's students," Gira said.''</ref>
# Native American Feminism - University of Michigan
# Cyber Feminism - Cornell University
# Feminist New Black Man - Occidental College <ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvlL_lDk4ko Jason Mattera At CPAC, YouTube]</ref>
# Philosophy and Star Trek – Georgetown University in Washington <ref> [http://courses.georgetown.edu/index.cfm?Action=View&CourseID=PHIL-180 Georgetown University Course Listing]</ref>
# The Sociology of Hip-Hop: The Odyssey of Jay-Z – Georgetown University <ref>[http://newsbusters.org/#ixzz1fPkYhzqX Jay-Z's street rhymes a Georgetown college course]</ref>
# Emotional Literacy<ref>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1076368/Schools-councils-waste-300-000-useless-emotional-literacy-course-faraway-island-sun.html</ref>
# Media Genres, the study of zombies - University of Baltimore <ref>[http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/university-of-baltimore-pop-culture-class-focuses-on-zombies/19625044?test=latestnews College Course Preps Pupils for Zombie Apocalypse, AOL News, September 9, 2010]</ref>
# The Science of Superheroes - UC Irvine <ref>[http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/11/14/the-top-8-california-schools-that-are-like-totally-wasting-your-money/ The Top 8 California Schools that Are, Like, Totally Wasting Your Money, NewsRealBlog, November 14, 2010]</ref>
# Field Equipment Operation (tractor driving) - UC Davis
# Hip Hop: The Politics of Culture - UC San Diego
# History of Surfing - UC Santa Barbara
# Labor Studies - UM Saint Louis & UM Kansas City <ref>[http://www.thehotjoints.com/2011/04/25/video-college-course-teaches-violent-union-tactics/ Video: College Course Teaches Violent Union Tactics, The Hot Joints, April 25, 2011]</ref>
# Arguing with Judge Judy - UC Berkeley
# Self-Esteem - Cal State Fresno
# Gaga for Lady Gaga: Sex, Gender, and Identity- University of Virginia-Charlottesville<ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/10/lady-gaga-college-class_n_712540.html</ref>
# Pilot Brewery (brewmaster) - UC Davis
# Search for Extraterrestial Intelligence - UC Berkeley
# Ecology of Renewable Natural Resources - Texas Tech University <ref>[http://www.depts.ttu.edu/officialpublications/courses/NRM.php Texas Tech University Course Listing]</ref>

== External Links ==

* [http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/whatsitworth-complete.pdf What's It Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors] - Comprehensive report at [[Georgetown University]] website
* [http://learnfinancialplanning.com/best-worst-college-majors-degree/ Best and Worst College Majors]
* [http://www.toptenz.net/to-10-useless-college-classes-degrees.php Top 10 Useless College Degrees & Classes]
* [http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/10-college-majors-lowest-unemployment-rates-163049193.html College majors with lowest unemployment]
[[Category:college]]
[[Category:education]]

== References ==

<references/>

User:Andycjp

2012-01-18T13:29:07Z

Andycjp: hi

Hello.

Talk:Muse (band)

2012-01-18T13:28:20Z

Andycjp: ?

What is 'choeurs'? choirs?[[User:Andycjp|Andycjp]] 08:28, 18 January 2012 (EST)