Women's Liberation

I thought that this was a good story on npr on womens liberaton.
Check out:
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94240375

Although it kind of begs the question for me as to whether it is "feminist" or not to enjoy partaking in our beauty culture. If I enjoy wearing make-up, I shave my legs and I am conscious of the clothing that I wear at what point am I perpetuating this culture that was deemed oppressive to women and when am I just doing this for my own decisons?I not think that this is where my value is as a women even though I find myself enjoying some parts of this beauty culture. Although I must admit that talking about such things quite abit can be dull to me: I would rather discuss theology than fashion, exchange ideas instead of recipies, imagine the ways that I can enjoy the world as a single woman instead of trying to live up to some desirable mold for a man. However I do enjoy things that are considered very feminine as well too. I think it is more that I do not want to be defined by my sex as much as my ability to live well in this world. In many regards I have reaped the benefits of this movement as I am now a seminary student.

Not too long ago in order to support myself I would have needed to be in nursing or education as the acceptable careers for a woman. I may have also talked myself into a marriage and child rearing because that is just what women did. I think that women married into the professions that they wanted more until recently by being, in my case, the pastors wife. Yet this does not mean now that I have been liberated to pursue this as a career that I would want to be with someone whose life and/or work conflicted with my ministry. I enjoy being a woman.

We still have a long way to go though too. I think frequently as a woman in ministry I am expected to enjoy kids quite a bit. While I do enjoy kids, I do not jump up and down about being around a lot of them either. I think frequently as a woman in ministry I am expected to be more on the emotional ends of things instead of on the intellectual. I am expected to enjoy conversations about shopping, dating, children and food. Those of you who know me well know that I hate small talk and gossip. In my mind, conversations about such things are relegated to small talk and gossip. I actually only enjoy such conversations with women who have intellectualism a part of their life. And women still arent encouraged to be intellectual if they want to be considered on the track for being a wife or a mother. I think that as a woman in ministry sometimes I am halfway expected to be curious about things like children and recipies. As a single woman in ministry I am expected to be a model of celibacy for other women but then if I find a husband without acting seductively I would be applauded. I do not know how to even get people to understand that I would liketo be married if I met someone compatable to me but that I am fine with the idea of not having kids so that I could go out and go to a show or actually have the time to cook a good meal or read a good book. I think that some of my problems with being a woman in ministry is that some of the things expected of me are not disimilar from the underlying societal expectations for someone who would be a wife or a mother. And even if a woman is in these roles I do not think that it is healthy to encourage these kinds of traits over other things. Do we really want a stepford version of church that is almost underlying this church basement lady image? What about women who have gifts for things that are not related to these sort of things, and while my cooking does tend to get applauded, I do not think that I am anywhere near what is expected for me as a woman entering the ministry.

So I am thankful to womens liberation that I am in seminary today as it obviously begun to effect the shape of the church. However I am not sure if I fit into this feminization of religion that has occurred in my favoring intellect. So we still have a long way to go!