.. Selflessness or Self-Obsession?
.. Today's Feminist Quandaries
Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President
Mark Earley.
Radical feminists have got to be at their wits' end. First, they helped spur
the so-called sexual revolution to "empower" women. So what do we see
today? Pornography has been mainstreamed. The youngest of girls wear
the tawdriest of clothing. Female co-eds settle for meaningless physical
"hook-ups" with male students. In essence, the culture has come full
circle, where women willingly objectify themselves in the name of so-
called "empowerment."
And then there's that other goal: breaking the so-called glass ceiling.
Women could have everything they wanted, feminists said, a successful
career and whatever marriage and family situation they chose.
Now, in many ways, that ceiling is breaking. Today, we have one woman
who has a real chance of becoming the next president; another is the
Secretary of State; and yet another is Speaker of the House. Yet our
culture obsesses over the tragic lifestyles of hotel-heiress Paris Hilton,
actress Lindsay Lohan, and pop-star Britney Spears, to name just a few.
What's going on?
Author Naomi Wolf addressed this phenomenon recently in the
Washington Post. She says that while the "true situation of American
women" today reflects "high levels of competence, idealism, and all-
around effectiveness," the media focuses on Paris Hilton wailing in a
police car as she's being dragged off to jail. Even Larry King scrambled
to have Hilton on his show as soon as she was released.
While women "are surprising themselves and the culture every day by not
falling apart as they take on" new challenges, Wolf continues, "the culture
seems increasingly obsessed with showcasing images of glamorous young
women who are falling apart."
Wolf offers a provocative theory as to why this is: "In the past decade
feminists such as Gloria Steinem joked that women could 'have it all' but
might also have to 'do it all'"-meaning "do paid labor as well as the
lion's share of child care and housework." "Maybe," Wolf concludes,
"that's what leads to our fascination with glamorized images of women
who apparently can't do any of it."
Contrast those images with that of the late Ruth Bell Graham. Here was a
woman who "found a way to be a supportive wife, a good mother, and
her own person all at the same time," as Gina Dalfonzo put it at our
weblog The Point. She was positively countercultural. "What might seem
to many like oppression," wrote Laura Sessions Stepp in the Washington
Post, "in fact set her free to shape a life that included, but by no means
was limited to, a man she deeply loved." And Billy Graham is the better
man for it, in part, writes Stepp, because Ruth kept him from making
many decisions that would have negatively shaped the course of his life
and the culture he influenced.
As Gina Dalfonzo noted at The Point, Bell "had a deep and rare
understanding of what it means to be a Christian servant." She did not
define achievement in terms of what she could obtain for herself, but in
terms of what she could give in love to others. Glamorous? No.
Powerful? Absolutely! But not in a way that most people can understand
these days.
I for one can only hope that the culture awakens to the strength found in
the selflessness of truly liberated women like Ruth Bell Graham.
By Mark Earley
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chuck Colson, God and Government (Zondervan, 2007).
For Further Reading and Information
Naomi Wolf, "The Image of Helplessness," Washington Post, 17 June
2007, B1.
Gina Dalfonzo, "Backlash," The Point, 26 June 2007.
"Bad Girls on the Way Out," Herald Sun (Australia), 22 June 2007.
Gina Dalfonzo, "The Greatness of Humility," The Point, 18 June 2007.
Laura Sessions Stepp, "Ruth Bell Graham, the Soul Mate of the
Preacher," Washington Post, 16 June 2007, C01.
Katherine Doublet, "Role Models Gone Wild: Young Girls Should Learn
From Celebrities What NOT To Do," Long Island Press, 21 June 2007.
"Fifty Years Later, Friedan Survey Finds Women's Roles Changed,
Frustrations Remain," Ascribe: The Public Interest Newswire, 20 June
2007.
Breakpoint Commentary No. 070615, "Wasteland: An 'Unhooked'
Culture."
.
|
