Not Overlooking the Obvious

HT: Brain Pickings, noticed here



[from The Jubilee Project]

The Boob Tube: The problematic new ad from Rethink Breast Cancer

[via ABOUT-FACE-blog]

Making an Impact

When you see a title "My Favorite Story About My Mom" there are certain expectations. Images of hugging and flowers come to mind. Perhaps the smell of your favorite home-cooked meal, or knowing that mom will always be there for you. Yes, these are tender memories. Yet, they have nothing to do with my favorite, now iconic, story about my mom....{continue...}

[via Stacy from Louisville]

Susan Boyle and Invisible Women

[via Faith Dance]

As Christ Also Loved...

[via Emotional Abuse And Your Faith, from this post]

Complexity of Valentine's Day

With all the attention given today to the bicentennial birthdays of Darwin and Lincoln, it's easy to forget that this is also Valentine's Weekend. In today's edition of Sightings Wendy Doniger of the University of Chicago writes about the complexities of Valentines Day in India -- and it's effect on women. Of course, western expressions of sexuality and religion have, over the years, effected views there. So, take a read: {continue...}

[via Ponderings on a Faith Journey]

Flesh, Blood and Soul

There is a raging new interest in vampires this weekend, at least for those inclined to go see the new movie, Twilight, Stephenie Meyer's story that in book form sold 1.3 million. These 'paranormal romances' or 'urban fantasies' spin around human females falling in love with supernatural beings (vampires, gods, fairies, werewolves) .

I have not seen the movie, but I'd like to point out that a common theme exists in these vampire romances. The heroine is captivated by the perfect man: lovely body, rich, well-dressed and someone better than her, a man both strong and consuming. This is a formula the Bronte sisters introduced in the characters of Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights) and Mr. Rochester (Jane Eyre). Men who were passionate, gifted in lifting their beloved into irrational, but sumptuous heights of erotic love. Men who were powerful, rich, darkly handsome, mysterious, even controlling sometimes cruel, but so dang sexy. They were irrisistible....

Deep down I believe most women struggle with a desire to be exalted by a man mysterious and otherworldly (be it Lydia's Wickham, Jasmine's Alladin or Bella's Edward in Twilight), a man worthy of joining, uniting to, a man stronger, better than us. The female captivation with men who are "out of our league" tells me more about the state of women's souls, than the reality of the number of good men on planet earth. It tells me that we're more in love with our version of romance, than we're in love with a real man of flesh and blood and soul.

My concern, here, is that these longings are not worthy of the image-bearers of God that we are. We cannot dream of a romance between "unequals", and then expect a marriage of mutual love and respect, of partnership, unity, sexual satisfaction and enduring warmth. If we expect that a man with the prowess of a Mr. Rochester or a vampire-powered Edward will appear in our lives, we can safely assume that 20 years into our marriage we will find ourselves much more like Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice than Mrs. Elizabeth Darcy.

[via Jonalyn Grace Fincher]

Unexpected Possibility of Power

This twisting of feminist history and rhetoric to protect a champion of anti-feminist causes, traditionalism and sex-kitten objectification, is particularly unnerving for exactly the reasons that Palin's biggest supporters claim it is: for its elevation of antifeminist "real women" as icons of rebellion against a supposedly powerful and elite feminist status quo (however depressing it is to begin untangling that premise)....

That Esther's biblical fame is actually due to her subversion of that submissive role — using her beauty in order to save her people from genocide — seems fitting for the sort of adulation conservative Christians have for Palin in hailing her as the right woman for the times. They linger on her victimization at the hands of a cruel media — with Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America demanding that the media "Stop Bullying Sarah!" and offering Palin, post Charlie Gibson-interview, comforting words against Washington, D.C. "data robots" who know nothing of heartland values — while at the same time crowing about the hidden power that Palin will tap into. As Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition declares, trying his hand at coining demographic catch phrases, arguing that Palin has energized a groundswell of "Faith Moms."

..."Faith moms," "hockey moms" or "real women," the formula for the campaign is the same, yet another twist on the Esther story: the conservative argument that not only can traditional submissive wifehood hold unexpected possibilities of power, but a step further to the coercive promise that women's return to more traditional roles is the only avenue through which they will find power.

[via Religion Dispatches, HT: Benediction Blogs On]

Sense of Manliness

And this comes from the Church for Men blog (catchy blog name). This blogger, David Murrow, knows Sarah Palin personally and also is writer of Why Men Hate Going to Church. The post is innocuous banter about personal experience notwithstanding the final graph....

I find the comparison to Teddy Roosevelt quite odd--but maybe not. In Murrow's world, where church has to "restore the masculine spirit" perhaps his comparison of Palin to Roosevelt fits his perceived worldview quite nicely. Roosevelt was a president quite consumed with his own masculinity; one blogger even recently referred to him as the "manliest creature to have ever existed."

But in this world where the church has been robbed of its masculinity, has adopted the "Jesus is my boyfriend" persona, and church is tailored for women, Murrow advocates that a "strong shot of testosterone" needs to be injected into the church. This blurring of the lines in these people's theology is making my head hurt. In this world where feminism has bought Palin this opportunity to be John McCain's running mate (though not even a backward glance will be made toward feminsim, though she will enjoy the benefits), many men cannot be comfortable with Palin simply as a woman running for VP. So, we must liken her to manly Teddy Roosevelt and it takes a woman to bring this sense of manliness to the White House.{from this post}

[via The Rambling Prophet 2]

Assailed or Idealized

CNN’s John Roberts has recently mused about Sarah Palin’s relationship with her youngest child. He is quoted as saying, “Children with Down syndrome require an awful lot of attention. The role of vice president, it seems to me, would take up an awful lot of her time, and it raises the issue of how much time will she have to dedicate to her newborn child?”

Why oh why oh why are those questions not asked of fathers? Has anyone questioned Barack Obama about how he plans to balance being the president and not miss out on important years of his young daughters’ lives? Of course they don’t, because they assume Michelle Obama will take care of things....

While the skeptical words from people like John Roberts bother me, I am getting equally perplexed by how others want to play up the allure of Palin’s “supermom” status. Since when does being a supermom equate to having the credentials to be Vice-President of the United States? Why is there so much focus on her role as a mother? While it is understandable to show appreciation for Palin’s role as a mother, what we should be talking about are issues like her position on global warming, health care, the war in Iraq, and the economy, not her baby or her daughter’s pregnancy. What a grande distraction from the real issues! These concerns would not be the focus if Palin was a man.

Even in the midst of all the Palin adoration at the Republic National Convention, I still sense she is not being treated as an equal at all, but as a token woman being used to rally emotions. And that frustrates me as much as the outright misogyny and pejorative language that assailed Hillary Rhodham Clinton. Michelle Obama, too, has had to contend with sexism – and racism as well....

Whether a woman is being assailed or idealized on the basis of her sex, there really is little difference. In neither case is she being treated equally to a male candidate, who is not being evaluated based on his gender, how well he fits a gender role, or how well he parents. So, while the sexism at play with Hillary Rodhman Clinton might look completely different than the adoration given Palin by some enthusiastic voters, I would argue that there really is little difference at all.

[via 72-27]

Of His Kind

It's strange that two robots could illustrate something about humans, but these did. Wall-E, a robot designed to be an (as his acronym explains)"Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth Class" works all day long compacting human trash. When he goes home he's got a robotic cockroach buddy (that he regularly accidentally runs over).

Wall-E is alone on earth (all humans have left because the trash and pollution have made earth unliveable), but even his cockroach pal doesn't help his loneliness. Wall-E is the only one left, alive, of his kind. And he longs for someone like him. It made me think of Genesis after Man is done naming all the animals, how he realizes he's sort of a lonely guy, no one around like him (Gen 2:20). Wall-E's so lonely that he practices holding hands with himself and watched "Hello Dolly" ceaselessly. There is no companion for Wall-E either.

Until EVE arrives....EVE makes Wall-E stronger. And Wall-E changes EVE, too. {the rest}

[via Jonalyn Grace Fincher]

Why Christian Men Abuse their Wives

[via The World According To Bruce, HT: Suzanne's Bookshelf]

Cherish Grace: An Easter Meditation

[via Radical Womanhood]

Our Own Indifference

What has happened to these women that they can say “my voice is worthless, I want to throw it away and give up any chance of using it for good in this world”? I understand fighting for the right to have a voice and overcoming the fear of using one’s voice, but to actively campaign to deny other women a voice is incomprehensible to me. Oh, I know all the intellectual arguments, it’s the basic assumption that women are inferior that I truly don’t get....

On days like today I want to celebrate and encourage women. I want to help women use their voice - for their own sake and for the sake of others. I wish this day could just be a universal celebration alongside women, not tainted with the reminder that our voices are still silenced by some. But for many women there still is a long way to go. That’s why we still need to make a big deal about having a voice - to use our voice and to empower others to use theirs - lest our voices be taken for granted and silenced by our own indifference.

[via onehandclapping]

Double Up

the world handicapped by half

[via Swinging from the Vine]

Received In Full

This is Joe Bob "The Exegete" Briggs with a special Valentine’s Day edition of our online Bible study, and we're going into one of my favorite areas—King Solomon's sex life.

One thousand women.

Please let this sink in for a minute.

One thousand legal women. Because, when you're the King of Israel, there's no such thing as jailbait, and there's no such thing as bigamy, and there's no such thing as having too many women in bed at the same time.

I like the way he puts it here: His eyes desired something, he just took it. He trusted his eyes.

Now. Any guy past the age of about, oh, 19, knows what happens when you trust your eyes. One day you wake up next to Miss Supermodel-On-The-Outside and discover that she's really Miss Demonic-Gargoyle-On-The-Inside. But the amazing thing about most of us is that we continue to go skulking around after supermodels, instead of doing the sensible thing and maybe asking a few questions, like, "Do you ever take a picture of your boyfriend, paint a pentagram around it, set it on fire, and chant 'You're a loser!' before you go to bed at night?"

One thousand women is a good solid number, though. That's about how many it takes to get to the point where you say, "Aha! We males want one thing, but maybe they want something else!" {continue...}

[via The Wittenburg Door]

Persecutor or Rescuer?

When the white knight knows so little about his damsel in distress, how does he expect to rescue her? When she turns around and tells him to call her "Ms." and to stop telling her what to do, will he be outraged at her ingratitude? When she says she's quite happy wearing a traditional outfit, thank you, but could she please get maternity leave, will he snort in disgust at his charge? When she wraps her head in a veil and stands up for her Islamic prayer, will he throw up his hands at her inability to throw off Islamic slavery? When she says why thank you for your help, but I need my husband out of Guantanamo and my son out of your Musharraf's jail, and then I'd like to open a Qur'an school for girls -- what will he say then? When she says she's got her own ways of effecting the revolution, and it doesn't involve selling out brown men to America, will he decide against trying to rescue her after all?

Muslim women are done being rescued. Muslim women are done being defined. Muslim women are done being told what they need. Muslim women could use help, doing what they think they should do.

[via Religion Dispatches]

Oh, Beautiful...

Existing beauty standards matter in the lives of those who do, and those who do not, meet them. A parent’s words are among the least frequent, least credible, and least relevant words that their adolescent children will hear, particularly when it comes to questions of beauty and social acceptance among their peers. In fact, by even focusing on the problematic standards of beauty that their children face, parents risk underscoring and strengthening the power of that standard.

The “Onslaught” video may itself have that effect by bringing into relief the current unforgiving and unrealizable standard of beauty that now dominates our culture. Thus, while the “Onslaught” video urges parents to “talk to your daughters,” it probably should add “but don’t show them this video” which all-too-clearly highlights the undernourished and oversexualized prototypes of “beauty.”....

It seems peculiar, therefore, that Dove would offer a film demonstrating the ubiquitous attack of the beauty industry that ends with the suggestion to parents that they are the ones to make a difference by simply talking to their kids. If the industry is the problem, it strikes me as odd that the parents are supposed to be the solution.

[via The Situationist]

Containing Control

Coercive Control
Coercive Control, cont.
Coercive Control : 3
Coercive Control : 4
Coercive Control : 5
[via Suzanne's Bookshelf]

Protecting Daughters From Themselves?

This afternoon I listened to the proposed omnibus bill that will deal with a number of significant changes to the criminal code. Included in this bill is the intention of the government to raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16. Now while most people might think this is good thing – I for one am pretty much against it.

Now on the one hand I readily recognize what this legislation is intended to accomplish. It seeks to give greater teeth to enforcement and the judicial system in penalizing offenders with stiffer sentences and generally greater consequences. And to be fair it will like do that. And who in their right mind wouldn't want to 'spank' offenders harder for this type of crime. In my opinion the law is not strict enough in penalizing sexual offenders but…

I'm not sure we are fully appreciating the latent or unintended function of this type of legislation. We have worked hard in our society to establish a more gender equality. We have a long way to go but many strides have been taken to help women gain more social power and relieve the oppression that they have suffered in the past. I'm not just talking about more equality in the work force but in more general ways – women today are the beneficiaries of a sense of common ground. I think this is a good thing. And while I recognize that there are still some who would argue that this equality is a negative thing and that it somehow challenges God design – I think that most people recognize that women were unfairly treated in the past and that the partial redemption of their social status is more inline with God's view of our standing in his eyes. I think that is precisely why this legislation moves in the wrong direction.

I think this legislation suggests that women/girls are actually weaker than men/boys and need to be protected. {continue...}

[via dcaffeinated pickle]