The Assault on true Womanhood

The Feminist Revolution has done everything it can to snuff out true womanhood! Maybe you think that "revolution" is too harsh a word to use--but I would disagree! I have had it on my heart to write about this since browsing in Barnes and Noble on Wed. while my boys were at the dentist. I walked by a calendar and noticed the outside had a picture of a 1950's housewife with two children playing in the background. She was dressed in her apron and heels, cooking away with a smile on her face, and the caption read, "It's okay, I didn't want a real life anyway."

I can't tell you how sad this made me--tears immediately sprang to my eyes! It made me sad because so many women have bought into this lie!! A life with children, being busy in the home, making it a place that is warm and welcoming and nice for a husband to come home to is somehow not a "real life." How differently the world and our culture look at women than the way that God looks at women! I've heard it even from Christian women that being a mom and a homemaker is just not enough. Women look everywhere they can in this world to find satisfaction for their wanderlust hearts. The sad news is that they are not going to find it out there! The feminine regime as a whole is (and has been for awhile) strapping on their uniforms--college degrees, master's degrees, work experience, and sometimes even literal uniforms of the armed forces--to set out in search of what they think "real life" should look like!

We've all been told that this started during WWII. Then men went off to war, and the women had to join the workforce to get the work done at home. Well I have a question. What happened in all the other wars? Did the work just not get done? Didn't seem to stop progress. I would argue that the problem started loooong before that!! It started back in the Garden of Eden when Eve was lured into believing the first lie ever told--that there was something better out there! She had it all--a man who adored her, beauty all around, food in abundance, a pure, uninhibited relationship with the God of the Universe!! And yet she threw it all away for the promise of something more. She was promised that she would be just like God. And right then she made a choice that would affect womankind forever. She chose her own pride--just like so many women today still choose.

You see it and hear it everywhere! Women are just the same as men. We should be treated the same--equal pay, equal time in the workforce, equal in the boardroom, equal jobs at home, equal responsibilities with the kids, etc. etc. I even had a shirt when I was in second grade that said, "Whatever boys can do, girls can do better!" (Mama, how did you ever buy for me and let me wear such a shirt??) :) I don't remember many clothes from my youth, but somehow that one sticks in my mind!! I remember it was pink with glittery writing, and I loved to wear it! Thankfully, it didn't affect my thinking too much. But it proves that from an early age, we are teaching our little girls that they can do it all! That translates into *This world expects for you to do it all.*  Girls should do just as well as boys in school and sports. Then they should master the higher education world as well. They still need to stay "pretty enough" and "thin enough" to get a good man and eventually get married--but not too early, of course. They need to live first! They need to travel, get a good job and be self sufficient first because they don't need to rely on any man to take care of them. After they have gotten married and gotten their careers off the ground, then they may think of having children--but not too many because that would mess up their plans as well. So we shove birth control at them and tell them to wait. We tell them that they need to enjoy life and each other as a couple and have enough money to be able to give their children everything they could possibly need or want. I've even heard Christian women say that they aren't going to have children at all. All of their reasons, of course, are completely selfish. In Malachi, God says that the reason for marriage is to "produce godly seed." I don't think it could be much clearer that if we marry, we are to have children! (I realize that there are some couples who are unable to have children, and my heart goes out to them!! I believe that God is sovereign over the womb, and His ways are higher than ours. I would never want to question the mind and actions of God!)

No wonder women are tired, grumpy and worn out. No wonder they yell at their children, have no patience with them and can't enjoy life. Too much is expected from them. My favorite days are the days I spend with my good friend and sister in Christ sipping tea, sitting on the couch, talking about our lives--homes, husbands, children, and really deliberating on how we can be stronger vessels and better examples for our God. After one of these days, I feel refreshed and better able to love my kids and husband. I am encouraged to fight the Christian fight. We need time to sit and relax. We need time to have fun--not always scheduled into our busy days--but just spontaneous fun that doesn't happen unless you take life a little more slowly. And I'll tell you that having babies does this!! It makes you take life more slowly! Once your kids get to the age where they are very easy to transport around and don't really need naps too often, you find yourself overcommitting again! Believe me, I know this from experience! None of us are exempt!!

In trumpeting the Feminist Movement, women have actually put more pressure on themselves than before. The reason for the movement was supposed to make women more free. We were supposed to be more free to be independent, to pursue our dreams, to make our own money, be in charge of our own destiny--without a husband or pesky children to hinder us. (That was the very idea that the 'great' feminist of the 1900's Margaret Sanger had.) And yet women can't seem to get rid of the true yearnings that were built right into their DNA. Women still yearn to be swept off their feet by Prince Charming. We still want to be pursued and fought for. We still want to wear beautiful things and make our homes beautiful. We have those maternal instincts that must be used for something!! I believe that that's why when women don't have children, they feel the need to have pets to take care of and nurture. Look no further than little girls--little girls who have been untouched by the feminist culture. I see my three little girls and how they get giddy when they have on a new "twirly" skirt--the twirlier, the better! I see how they lovingly play with their baby dolls and barbie dolls. And they are in pure heaven when they can play house with their "live" baby doll--their baby brother!!

It's the same nature that makes my boys who they are! You wouldn't catch them playing with dolls! Their natures are looking for adventure! It's this adventuresome nature that drove my (almost) 14 year old son to camp out last night and get totally soaked by the rain in the early morning hours! It's that nature that drives him to find anything he can do that crosses just over the line of dangerous! It's that nature that makes my seven year old son carry around his wooden sword and shield, light saber, or at the very least pocket knife constantly!! My oldest always tells me that he has this urge inside of him to fight! He is a Warrior! He needs something to fight for. Who knows? Maybe some lucky lady one day will win his heart and be the prize for whom he gives it all. If that's true, she will know what it means to truly feel loved--because don't we all want that? We want our man to fight for us! We want to be in that great adventure with him--to play the part of the one being won. It's ingrained in our deepest feminine nature.

So starts the battle for our souls. The world tells us we must be self sufficient to be happy. It even makes us feel silly or shallow for wanting to feel beautiful. But within us, we feel something differently. We must remember that we were made in God's image. Everything truly feminine about us was put there by him. We are no less than a man. We are not to be treated as less. We are equal in God's eyes--as we are his children! But WE ARE DIFFERENT!! Oh, are we different! And we should celebrate those differences!! Men are made to fight for a cause. Who would they fight for if there were no "causes" (women) who wanted to be fought for?

I'm not saying that everyone woman is the same. I'm not saying that a woman can't enjoy mowing the grass or playing sports or fixing a car! I'm not saying a woman should never work outside the home. And I'm certainly not saying that men shouldn't ever do the dishes or help around the house or put the kids to bed!! No way! Every family has different roles that work for them. But deep within every woman is the desire to nurture, to be loved for who we are, to be told we are beautiful, to be taken care of and to take care of others. We shouldn't shun those things as bad because they are different from a man. Embracing our talents of making a home beautiful, bringing up our children, and taking care of our husbands is a truly noble thing. It's the way we work. It's the way families really work best. And it's being trampled on more and more by society every day.

So don't be ashamed to throw off those feminist ideals that have seeped into the very fabric of living. Instead, replace them with true femininity that unabashedly proclaims "I am a woman! I love my husband. I love my children. I love my Jesus. These things make me beautiful! And, yes, these things give me a 'real' life!"