Who is really holding us down?

I know that feminism and Christianity make for uncomfortable bedfellows in most circles. Feminism brings with it the idea of girl power and this frightens the church who often seems to confuse submissiveness with worthlessness. In His ministry, Jesus made it very clear that women have value to God outside of the kitchen, but in some ways I think that the church has a difficult time reconciling the full value of women with the traditional idea of a woman's role. So instead of attempting such a reconciliation, some Christians gasp at the mention of the word feminism and focus only on a woman's role as mother and wife. As a Christian, I don't think that feminism has to be a dirty word to the church because I don't see feminism as being about this frightful female domination movement so much as I see it being about women claiming their full worth and walking in that worth. Without delving any further into feminism and the church today (that will take another post), I do need to say that as a woman I am appalled by some of the events that I have heard about and recent headlines that I have seen in the so-called news. In fact, I am so appalled by what these events and headlines say about our society that I just can't keep quiet about it.

Earlier this week I ran into a female acquaintance who told me about a sexual harrassment case that she recently filed at work. I had heard about this case from one of the males who works in her department whom I talk to on a regular basis. From his perspective, the woman is too sensitive and can't take a joke. When I heard her story and learned what these "jokes" were and how since filing the case she has been ostracized by both the men and the women in her department, I was outraged. The things that were said to her offended me when she was retelling them, and I would have probably reacted the same as she did if these comments were made to my face. I would think that most women would, but apparently her female colleagues were unaffected and unable to see how it involves them. By allowing sexual harrassment to continue around us and by dismissing it as boys being boys (which is what my acquaintance's female supervisor did), women are condoning our own objectification when we should be raging against it.

I know that American Idol is last week's news, but I have been infuriated that more of the headlines that I have seen since Jordin Sparks won the title have been about her weight rather than her vocal talent. All of this apparently started when one woman, MeMe Roth of the National Action Against Obesity, declard Jordin obese on a national news show. In the aftermath of Roth's comments, one website geared towards contemporary women created a poll to rate whether or not other women also find Jordin to be obese. (Of course, this is the same website where women can vote on all kinds of superficial aspects of famous females such as hairstyle and fashion sense which only adds to my point). To me it is completely ridiculous that we women find the need to perpetuate the myth that we have nothing more to offer the world that a nice figure and a pretty face. We should be building each other up instead of tearing each other down. In Jordin's case, we should be celebrating her talent and her inner light that shines so brightly on her face rather than rating her weight.

Just this afternoon, I saw a video clip online of has-been celebrity Danny Bonaduce calling women "bitches" and giving one a disgusting lap dance and then lifting her over his head, basically proving that she's nothing more than dead weight to him. Not suprisingly, Adam Corolla of the exceptionally degrading Man Show was cheering him on from the background. Adam Corolla and Jimmy Kimmel (the co-host of the former Man Show) have offended me so much that I shudder even to hear their names because their treatment of women is the stuff of the dark ages. But what offends me even more is the women who willingly and actively participate in their own degredation at the hands of these men. In the video I saw with Bonaduce, for instance, the women were laughing and smiling as if they truly did measure all of their self-worth on the fact that these chauvanists find their scantily clad bodies enticing, just like the "juggies" on the Man Show who willingly bounced around on a trampoline and accepted such a degrading job title.

If we want the world to take us seriously and honor us for our substance, then we need to start taking ourselves seriously and honoring each other for substantial reasons rather than superficial ones. We complain about the glass ceiling and other double standards, but even if we blame the men for putting these double standards in place, women are the ones keeping them active every time we turn around and cattily bad mouth one of our sisters. We want men to respect our worth, but first we must respect our own worth. We cannot and will not be anything more than objects to some people until we as a unified whole demand to be more. Yes, I can certainly acknowledge that women have come a long way over the past several decades in the US, but with everything I have seen and heard this past week alone, I will not sit back and deny that we still have a long way to go.

Posted by Kim at June 1, 2007 05:15 PM