Communicator (communicator) wrote,
Communicator
communicator

Religion and feminism

Brief thought on the Vatican's advice to women. Contrary to their argument, the distinguishing feature of feminism is not 'there are no significant dfferences between men and women'. Some feminist believe that. Some believe the opposite. So do non-feminists and anti-feminists. There is a wide range of opinions on the matter (biological essentialism, social constructionism, deconstructionism, pragmatism, humanism etc) and they are quite independent of how 'feminist' someone is.

The distinguishing feature of all feminism is a belief that women's suffering is as important as men's. It sounds simple but once you espouse that belief, everything else unravels. For instance the Vatican complains that

a certain type of feminist rhetoric makes demands 'for ourselves'

But women must be allowed to make demands for ourselves. We can not be entirely passive and silent. If not now, when? If we do not speak for ourselves, who will speak for us?

They complain that:

Faced with the abuse of power, the [feminist] answer for women is to seek power. This process leads to opposition between men and women... leading to harmful confusion regarding the human person

But I think it is quite right for any person, faced with abuse, to seek the power to resist that abuse. This applies whether a man or a woman is abused, or of course a child.
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