The Times has an interesting article titled When Feminism went nuts:
How did it come to this? When the lads’ weekly magazines were launched five years ago where were the voices arguing that titles with 30 pairs of breasts an issue and a harsh misogynist tone — “Win your girlfriend a boob job” — were pornography and had no place on a newsagent’s sweet counter? And why, when legislation was introduced that has permitted 300 lap-dancing clubs to set up in Britain, giving the sex industry a franchise on many high streets, did no one speak out? Judging from the commuters at Liverpool Street, and the countless drivers who beeped their approval in New Cross, I’d wager that the majority of British people are unhappy about the invasion of porn culture into our everyday lives. So why the silence? And why, above all, did feminism so spectacularly lose the plot?
The article argues that this has come about because feminism has failed to have enough of an impact – I recommend you read it all before reading my comments, to get the full flavour and context. But here’s my question – and it is a question, rather than a settled conviction or conclusion, though I suspect it is probably the case:
Could it be that the pornification of British culture is not despite feminism, but because of it? Feminism as it has impacted our society over the last few years has fundamentally confused treating women fairly with treating women identically to men. I support “feminism” in the broad and general sense of treating men and women equally fairly in law and in relationships and so on, but modern feminism has gone beyond this. Men and women are different, and true equality needs to recognise and celebrate those differences. The problem is that treating women the same as men fails to protect women from men. In trying to gain freedom and equality, feminists have tried to make women the same as men. Unfortunately, this simply allows men to remake women in their own image, and we’re now seeing the ugly effects of that. Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist for me talking about “protecting women”, I’m not saying that women are unable to protect themselves and need men to do the protecting; I’m not arguing for patriarchy. Rather, I’m saying that society (both men and women) need to protect women, because men are all too often stupid, irresponsible and cruel. A true feminism should celebrate and protect femininity as a distinct, complimentary category to masculinity. Recent feminism, in focusing on being the same as men in relationships and in the workplace, has eroded these distinctions to the detriment of women. A true feminism should promote as valid choices things like motherhood, homemaking, modesty (in the older sense of the word) and other roles and virtues that come naturally to many women but are denigrated in modern culture.Christians are sometimes perceived as “anti-women”. Sadly Christians have often treated women badly, and in some cases continue to do so. But most Christians share a concern for the issues raised in the article above, and keenly perceive the problems with our attitudes to gender, sex and relationships. Properly understood, a Christian understanding of the different roles of the sexes helps protect and nurture men and women. Perhaps Christians should be trying harder to find common ground and common cause with feminists on some of these issues, while offering a distinctive perspective and solution on our current sexual confusion?
