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Shortest summary of feminism ever
I was preparing to speak with some ministry trainees a few weeks ago about men and women in ministry, 1 Timothy 2, and other simple subjects like that, when it occurred to me that we couldn’t really discuss these questions without dealing with …
Well, I was going to say ‘the elephant in the room’, but it’s more like the wallpaper, the carpet, the table, the chairs and the air conditioning in the room. It’s a set of settled and pervasive ideas that form the environment in which any discussion of men and women takes place these days—without us being really conscious of their existence.
I speak, of course, of feminism.
Feminism is hard to identify and even harder to critique. It’s hard to identify not only because we barely even notice it any more (such is its social pervasiveness), but because everybody has their own version of feminism that are in favour of (at least in some way)—usually while having very little idea of what feminism has actually taught and done over the past 50+ years.
The variety of feminisms makes it a hard movement to understand and critique, but so does its status as one of the moral orthodoxies of our time. To resist genuflecting to feminism, or at least nodding appreciatively in its general direction, is to risk nutcase or pariah status in our culture. It’s like criticising air, or Jacinta Ardern.
So to help my trainees think about men and women, 1 Timothy 2 and complementarianism, I figured I had to make the core assumptions of feminism visible, and to show how they related to the Bible’s view of men and women.
Hence this shortest summary of feminism ever.
Lets start with the biblical worldview:
Men and women are equally created in the image of God, and yet are not uniform. The created differences between men and women are a reality and are good.
Complementary, ordered relationships between men and women (e.g. in marriage and in church life) are also a good created reality.
Sin and the fall make the conduct of these ordered relationships difficult, but men and women experience a satisfying, productive unity in their difference, as they pursue God’s purposes together in the world.
2nd Wave Feminism (the bra-burning, women’s lib feminism of Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer, dominant from the 60s to the 80s):
There is no material difference between men and women; we are all just people. Every woman can and should be able to do anything a man does; sex difference should be radically de-emphasized.
There is therefore no ordered relationship between men and women. Any attempt at ordered relationship is repressive, because it denies the total equality of persons (i.e. equality = sameness).
The goal is not unity (which implies difference) but uniformity—the dissolving of difference so that all individuals can pursue personal freedom and self-actualisation in the same way (a way, ironically defined in terms of the various things men do and achieve).
3rd/4th Wave feminism (a variegated set of movements from the 90s to now, partly a reaction against the failure of 2nd wave feminism to deliver the nirvana of equality it promised; encompassing various kinds of ‘difference feminism’, and the intersectional/identity politics feminism of the current moment; mostly dismissive or openly hostile towards 2nd wave feminists):
A renewed emphasis on the uniqueness or difference of women, whether in the feisty ‘grrrl power’ feminism of the 90s or the more recent emphasis on women as an oppressed identity group (a class identity you can choose to identify as, regardless of biological gender). In this view, men are different, but not in a good way. Masculinity is toxic, and leads only to violence, rape and the oppression of women.
There is an ordered relationship between men and women—it is a power relation of oppression and violence in which men are the perpetrators and women the victims.
There can be no unity between men and women—only a social and political struggle in which the power and dominance of men is finally overthrown.
What all feminisms have in common:
They reject any concept of good created difference between men and women (there is either no difference, or the difference is oppression);
There is a corresponding rejection of the possibility of complementary ordered relations between men and women that are liberating and good (any ordered relation either denies equality or is oppression);
They foster an ongoing disunity between men and women—either because men chauvinistically resist the call to dissolve all distinctions, or because men are an oppressive power group that need to be cast down.
Feminism as it actually operates today rarely presents us with such a simple presentation of its ideas. In fact, the competing claims of 2nd and 3rd/4th wave feminism often result in confusing and contradictory cultural messages—for example, on the one hand that women are smart, strong, capable and powerful, and don’t need any man to explain to them, to protect them or provide for them (2nd wave assumptions); and on the other hand, that women are oppressed victims of the sexualised violence of men, constantly suffering micro-aggressions of language and attitude, and needing safe spaces to survive (4th wave identity politics feminism).
Even so, if my summary is even broadly correct, we need to break our polite silence about feminism. Like all rebellions against God and his good created order, feminism is a terrible idea, and leads to bad consequences. It denies reality, and the result has been calamitous (ironically) not only for women themselves, but for men, for marriages, for children, for our broader culture, and for our churches.
We need to understand feminism more clearly, and be unafraid to teach against its errors.
Hence my attempt at a nutshell. Can you help me improve it?
PS
The simplest way to help me improve this summary is either to leave a comment on the website (if you’re reading this online), or to just hit ‘Reply’ if you’re reading this as an email. Either way, it would be great to hear from you.
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Shortest summary of feminism ever