what does christian feminism look like?
Posted on October 16, 2007 by Geoff Matheson
Filed Under Emerging Questions
The title already implies a point that I’m not really trying to make. It sounds from the implication of the title that I’m having trouble reconciling Christianity with feminism. The truth, I’m afraid is that I’m far more ignorant than that. I just don’t have a solid grasp on a) what feminism really means in the here and now, and b) how that interplays with people’s faith.
Basically, I’ve run into a few people (both in the blogging world and the real world) who self-identify as feminists, and I’m not really sure what that means for them. And to tell you the truth, I’m partially interested because I’m not sure that I wouldn’t identify as a feminist myself - if only I knew what that really meant.
So the question is out there: what does it mean to be a feminist in 2007? How about a Christian feminist? How does your faith interplay with your thinking around these issues? And finally, as someone who is at least interested in exploring feminist ideas: are there any books/blogs/whatever that people could recommend.
About Geoff Matheson
Geoff is a 23 year old database administrator who has birthed amateurtheology.org from some crazy thoughts he had early one Monday morning. Geoff does his best to sound lots smarter than he actually is. He also runs some youth stuff at Yarra Valley Vineyard, and he is married to the very lovely Rebecca.
Geoff's site: http://www.geoffreport.com/wp/
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15 Responses to “what does christian feminism look like?”
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I used to identify as a feminist. I stopped using the label when I realized that most of the women (that I was familiar with) who were calling themselves feminists were actually just man haters. They weren’t interested in equality, they were interested in ‘restoring the matriarchy.’
In all fairness I don’t think the word feminism should be given up by those who can identify with it without the baggage. After all, I haven’t given up the word ‘Christian.’ Perhaps one day I shall feel ok about calling myself feminist the way I do with calling myself Christian.
Julie, at onehandclapping, is a feminist and a Christian. I highly recommend reading her blog. She certainly puts it better than I can.
I should clarify that although I don’t use the word feminist, I certainly qualify as one. I believe Jesus showed, by the way he was surrounded by and by the way he treated women, that women are equal in God’s sight.
I’m going to respond in a separate post on my blog because my comment was way too long hehe.
If people want to see Makeesha’s reply you can find it
at her blog here
I would suggest feministsforlife.com, which provides a rich history of American feminism in the context of being pro-life and a feminist in today’t time. I think you’d find lots of useful information there.
Geoff, it’s posts like this that get me excited, but in the same breath make me feel awfully tired at the thought of sitting down and putting in the effort needed to write about feminism. It takes a lot of effort… it’s complex.
Makeesha’s post is brilliant btw!
At the start of last year some of the units I took in my Midwifery degree required us to keep a reflective journal on various womens issues: feminism, sexuality, body image, sexual/physical abuse, the double shift, pornography, aging, female genital mutilation, the list goes on.
We were asked to answer the question, “Would you describe yourself as a feminist?”
My answer turned out to be yes, but it took a lot of digging to come to that answer. Feminism is made up of so many different branches and streams many of which disagree with each other (sounds like the church hey!). ‘Feminist’ is not an easy label to pick up and give ones self on a whim. Baggage comes with it, baggage to be dealt with.
So I sat down and out lined all the streams of feminism I could find so I could identify what I agreed with in each and what I didn’t (I’m sure I’ve got it some where on my computer and I’ll send it to you, Geoff, when I find it).I came to the conclusion there was no way I could not call myself a feminist.
Being a feminist to me means that I’m concerned about gender inequalities and discrimination against women, and oppression of women. I think that women are oppressed by a society built on patriarchy, but that the solution does not present itself in the form of matriarchy. We are people, it’s a human problem, a sin problem not solely a gender problem.
Patriarchal influence and dominance affects women’s psyche, and life experiences. I’m very concerned about this in the health sector (being a midwife I’m highly passionate about this stuff). I’m also very concerned about heavy patriarchal influences on the Christian faith. How we see God, defines our experience of God.
A year ago I realized I thought of God as being a certain gender: God was a ‘He’. Actually God is beyond gender. Yet gendered language gives us clues about the character of God and the role God has in our lives. We are created in the image of God, male and female. As a feminist I’m concerned about the language we use to describe God. I am happy to call God, ‘Father’, but in the same breath I also happily call God, ‘Mother’.
In seeking out the feminine part of God (which I believe is only perfect because God is also perfectly masculine) I think our relationship with God changes drastically. Earlier I felt a male God could only ever understand my life experience as a woman by playing a distant role that had some how created women. When I see God in a female capacity I realize my experiences as a woman, physical and otherwise, are actually a small reflection pointing to the larger more amazing nature of God.
Complex is really the only way to put it… reading back over these last few paragraphs, I know some feminists would take issue with my use of the word gender. Which just goes to show you feminists don’t even agree amongst themselves.
Perhaps I’ve run down a little bit of an alternative tangent, but at the moment this is how feminism is affecting my walk with God.
I have never really liked that word. I dislike it almost as most of the “christian” labels that are out there.
That being said I know there is a place for a feminist in the church. I believe Jesus was the first feminist. Jesus put women at the same level as men. He treasured them.
For me that is being a feminist. Knowing that we are equal in God’s eyes and that we are treasured beings.
So I follow a link from Makeesha’s blog to find people talking about me, that’s just weird.
Feminist is a hard word because it is usually used a a negative label that is applied as a means to ridicule and dismiss. I’ve been in groups where generally open minded people actually say things like “well, I don’t think anyone here would go so far as to call themselves a feminist…” As if being a feminist is the most extreme out there thing one can be.
I do understand that there are various streams/waves of feminism and while I have serious issues with some of the (the ones that hate men or think that sexual openness means equality), I am not willing to give up the entire history of the movement because of some fringe views (kinda like I feel about Christianity). I am a feminist because I am a Christian. I believe all people are created in the image of God and are therefore worth as imagebearers. We are all called to serve God in the ways we are called (in ministry, work, the home, school…) and to say otherwise is to stifle the will of God. Since it has been women who have generally been seen as inferior, I think feminism is necessary to overcome that lie.
In many ways, I would rather be a “peopleist” and work for all people to be allowed to be the people God made them to be. Men and women should not be fit into the molds of gender stereotypes and should be respected for who they are. But I think the goals of feminism still have a long way to go to just get basic respect for women established.
[...] initially wrote this as a comment on “What Does Christian Feminism Look Like“, but I thought it deserved being highlighted as its own post - [...]
i don’t call myself a feminist but if it is about equality and chosing to not allow my position as a white male to allow me to push to the front of the queue but actively seek to invite others in front of me because that’s where they deserve to be regardless of gender, than i guess i am one in practice…
Geoff, I have just blogged on this, also. My post links to Julie’s post which is a response to yours. Thanks for asking such good questions.
Greetings! Found you through a link in the Emerging Women blog. Great questions.
Being a Christian feminist means to me:
1. Women are fully human, created in the image of God.
2. Women are justified (made right in God’s eyes) through Jesus Christ, not through marriage, childbirth or anything else pertaining to correct performance of a gender role (Timothy notwithstanding.)
3. It’s important to pay attention to the vast inequalities between women and men. Not paying attention just helps inequalities continue, which is a failure to love our neighbors as Christ has instructed us. In some ways we’ve advanced over the years (women getting the vote) and in some ways we’ve gone backwards (global poverty, media images that reduce women to being pretty bodies.)
As long as the vast majority of the world’s poor are women with dependent children, I will be a Christian feminist.
Peace, Heather
Wow Heather,
Y’know in reading this topic I hadn’t stopped to remember how important this stuff is for the third world. In the west the hardest part is over… but there’s a whole majority of the planet still suffering all kinds of oppression.
Thinking about some of those communities who have been taught old fashioned christianity throughout the world… with all its baggage and prejudice is a scary thought! I have a friend who worked with UNICEF on an island in the pacific where women were really controlled, and that as a part of the bundle of western christian world-view they recieved as “help” from missionaries.
Especially in societies that were originally matriarchal, missionaries have perpotrated gross injustice without any awareness or cultural sensitivity, for hundreds of years. Many of them are held up as old heroes in their churches in the west.
What scares me most, is that sometimes the families we ’send out’ as missionaries even now… at least in my experience in a certain nameless denomination in Australia, are the socially awkward, somewhat backward ones.
Is the Gospel really enough justification for these abuses?
I’m not saying this stuff to have a go at christianity as a whole… I might as well poke myself in the eye… but I think its important we take responsibility for learning from our past mistakes.
It has been a few months since anyone posted here. I ran across this blog posting because I’d apparently bookmarked it some time ago.
It’s refreshing and such a relief to see people actually talking about the words “Christian” and “feminist” in the same context. I live in an area that’s not friendly to the discussion.
Geoff, you originally asked about what it’s like to be a feminist in 2007, ok, 2008, and how that interplays with and informs Christian faith.
While it’s all complex to explain to someone else, it is simple in my own head: Feminism advocates the fundamental equality of men and women. I haven’t found any Christian, whether male or female, “liberal” or “conservative,” who is willing to disagree on that point. So I guess we have a lot more Christian feminists than we thought.
Where disagreements begin, of course, is on functions/roles. I observe that this is why many Christian women (and men) aren’t willing to self-identify as feminists–because they believe in traditional roles.
To me, that’s an incredibly open confession that indeed, prescribed gender roles do indicate a belief in the fundamental inequality of the sexes.
Ahhh, to clarify a point midway through my last posting above–”I haven’t found any Christian, whether male or female, ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative,’ who is willing to disagree on that point”–*that point* being the fundamental equality of women and men. I do find that conservative Christian men are eager to reassure me of their belief in the equality of the sexes.
(We probably all know fringe groups who are much more open about “no, women are not really equal to men,” but in general, I observe the above.)