I realized that I bashed feminists a lot last week. So, I have a confession.
I’m a feminist.
It’s true. Just…not in the popular sense.
For most people in America, woman is the same as man, except she possesses reproductive organs rendering her capable of growing a new life inside of her (see helpful illustration to the left). But is that really who a woman is?
I’m aware that’s a huge question which I can’t get into right now. But I think a beginning in answering this is focusing on one aspect of the “traditional” understanding of woman which is now disdained by our society: motherhood.
Yesterday I watched a touching story of a mother whose son was born without eyes. It was beautiful how she had completely fallen in love with a little boy who was scorned by almost everyone else. There’s truth behind the phrase “a face only a mother could love”. Mothers love the “unlovable”, they are a source of compassion and patience, tenderness and sensitivity. And despite what our society so desperately wants to believe, mothers are still vital (and I mean that in the most literal sense of the word) to the lives of others. They are hugely formative for the next generation.
But nowadays–if it must occur at all–motherhood is a burden for the uneducated and the homely while the modern career woman simply doesn’t have time for such an inconvenience. Just look at the front page of a recent issue of Time: The Childfree Life. It’s scary how popular it is to “opt out” of children.
Anyway! Yes. I’m a [true] feminist! What does this have to do with motherhood? Well, true feminism includes this as inherent to a woman’s nature. Of course, it is only one aspect, and obviously not all women must be mothers. But I want to propose that we stop defining woman as the negation or deviation from man. Why can’t she positively and uncompromisingly be her own gender, with her own complementary qualities? As we move away from the sensitive, vulnerable or emotional (such as maternity) as having a revered place in society, I fear for this country. We are losing a balance of the masculine and feminine–two aspects of humanity–and are failing to reflect the whole human person in America at large. As this progresses and we lose (or re-define) our understanding of humanity, we will leave many behind–perhaps persecute them. Is that really freedom? I think not.