Maureen Dowd

In Maureen Dowd’s call to arms for the next generation of feminist, “"What's a Modern Girl to Do", she finds the feminist movement in real muddle. Poor Maureen, who does not have a beau. is disturbed that the woman of today are compromising their feminist credentials in order to attract a fellow. Her followers have let their eyes stray from the cold lonely life of the barren career woman to the portrait of Apollo on the other side of the chasm.

The faults of today’s woman include

• Letting guys pick up the first check
• Desiring men to admire them for their beauty.
• Being temporarily submissive in order to be more attractive.

These steps by American woman to increase their attractiveness by acting more vulnerable seems very sensible compared to what I experienced in high school during the 80’s. At my high school, Whippany Park, our woman’s field hockey team was ranked in the state top 10. The woman were ferocious and stalked the corridors of our school with their curved sticks, sporting tattoos. Maureen would probably approve of the feminist ideal being lived by these woman but few guys wanted to date them. The women of today understand this fact better.

"I can bring home the bacon . . . fry it up in a pan . . . and never, ever let you forget you're a man . . . 'Cause I'm a WOMAN . . . with Enjoli." 1978

Many of today’s young women understand that you can’t have it all unlike the fictional ‘70’s Enjoli woman. The feminists, like the communists of the last century have seen their ideology hit the wall of human nature. Today’s women have witnessed many a personal train wreck among their mothers. Even Ivy league woman who could have been counted on to refill the thinning ranks of Maureen’s Amazons are planning in advance to stop working when they get married and have children.

Any movement that is looking to change the roles of the sexes has to sell its reforms to both women and men. The Feminists were successful in selling their reforms to women and more importantly the business community. The business community saw the working woman as a well educated economic resource and a new market. Men have only been able to express their unspoken opinion about the Feminist agenda by the way they treat the marriage estate; either avoiding or disrespecting it. The fact that guys don’t desire Feminists is the point that has created a backlash among women that drives Maureen crazy.

The reason is simple. Guys understand that Feminism is at its core anti-male. You can see this clearly in Sweden where a new Feminist political party called F! has been launched. Among its many reforms, F! has proposed the abolition of marriage and a tax on males to pay for the societal costs of domestic violence. The more extreme HBT (homosexual, bisexual and transgender) wing of F! led by a lesbian professor named Tiina Rosenbergeven, advocates the reading of the SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) Manifesto. You talk about a date killing subject!

In the Bible, God calls both sexes to mutual submission to His will. God further describes the specific duties of a woman. A married woman’s chief earthly duty in the marriage is to submit to her husband’s will (Ephesians 5:22). God knows the nature of all of our hearts is to sin. A woman is no different. Her sinful nature leads her to be rebellious against her husband. This is not a 20th or 21st century phenomenon. This is a fact of history. She is a picture of God’s church in her unfaithfulness to the Lord. A Christian woman must do more than give mere mental assent to this fact. She must actively seek the Holy Spirit to do that which is against her very nature.

On to the husband, here is a verse that really fills me as a husband with fear.

For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. (Ephesians 5:23)

Three things to note in this verse. 1) The husband is in the position of responsibility as Christ is over the church. The husband’s authority is in the same way complete. 2) He is to emulate Christ in his leadership. May God help all of us poor husbands trying to strive to follow this example of leadership! 3) The husband is to be the savior of his family. He is to be sacrificial in his leadership which means loving his wife more than himself. Only in the idealistic world of the perfect husband do these rules not present us any problem.

What happens when a husband falls dreadfully short of these responsibilities? Feminism is a secular response to the failure of men to live up to God’s standard. The Feminist solution is the advocacy of total rebellion to God’s model of submission. This course of action, far from solving the underlying problems, only further divides men and women. In 1970, only 20% of adults were unmarried. By 1996,unmarried adults accounted for 40% of the adult population. The number of divorced people have more than quadrupled from 4.3 million to 18.3 million in the US during the same time. These statistics are available on line at the US Census. Instead of solving the faults of men, the feminist response has led men to be further alienated from women, have no desire to take responsibility for a family and no desire to truly love a woman.

With a sinful heart it is no surprise that Men do not measure up either. With this in mind, God provides the following command to women.

Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; (1 Peter 3:1)

In other word, if a husband is not obedient to God’s command to lead and love his wife and family, a woman with God’s help can change her husband. The Feminist portray traditional wives as simpletons under the dictatorial power of her husband. God shows that the real way to positively affect a man’s heart is through submission not confrontation. In this way a faithful wife is not just an observer of her husband, but directly affects his ability to execute his responsibilities as head of the household. Women who live in marriages where they refuse to be submissive can never have this type of deep impact on their husband’s life. At a team living out the specific roles intended by God, women and men add up to much more than they do separately.

Unfortunately, many Christian women have grown up in homes where their mother was not an example of Biblical submission and the church did not teach submission either in theory or practice (to learn more on the feminization of the church please read “Minister in Skirts” by Douglas Jones). Since most women will not be under churches who are helpful in this regard, a wife will only succeed in her work of submission by carefully noting her own behavior, seeking her husband’s counsel, observing examples in the Bible, repenting of her sin and seeking the fellowship of kindred spirits. Women who seek to be submissive will face public ridicule from pagans and Christians alike. Be encouraged this is the same persecution faced by true Christians in all ages.

And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 15:20)