Articles
Coming to a Store or School Near You
Two articles recently caught my eye, and not in a good way. The first appeared in USA TODAY online and was entitled: Gender Stereotypes Are Destroying Girls, and They’re Killing Boys. Here are some excerpts:
“‘One of the big findings is that there are still very consistent forms of patriarchy around the world,’ said Kristin Mmari, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The ideas girls and boys have about gender … form earlier in adolescence than had previously been measured. ‘There seems to be a shift as soon as girls and boys enter this stage, where their attitudes and beliefs about the opposite sex change dramatically … and they talked about how this was not so in childhood. That they could have these friends – opposite sex friends – and they were given equal amounts of freedom. They were treated the same, they thought. But once they began puberty, and their bodies developed, their worlds changed.’ ‘How you perceive girls and boys is socially driven,’ Mmari said. ‘It’s not biologically driven.’”
Now comes the scary part: “Mmari said one of the major takeaways from the study is that it’s important to challenge gender stereotypes when children are young. ‘One of the problems … is we typically look at things on an individual level. So we feel like if we just empower girls, make them feel good, then we’ll change. But the problem is they go back to their homes where they’re given messages from their parents that are contradictory. They go to the schools where they’re given messages from their teachers that are contradictory. They look at the media – it’s a whole system out there that’s transmitting these inequitable norms, and so we have to think of it more on that level’” (Alia Dastagir, 9/21/17).
In case you didn’t pick up on that, let me translate for you: Patriarchy is evil. It has no bearing in reality but is merely an arbitrary social construct. Any cultural shaping that recognizes legitimate differences between males and females, that supports males in leadership roles, that emphasizes femininity on one hand and masculinity on the other, is evil. One of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of forcing our agenda on the world is those rotten parents who disagree with us. They, along with the rest of society, keep loosening the chains we want to impose on everyone. We need to figure out a way to bypass these influences and take control of children’s minds at younger ages.
The second article was from a website called Fast Company (9/19/17). The headline: 61% of Women and 46% of Men Think Kids Should Be Raised Without Gender Stereotypes. The article got right to the point: “Brand owners should follow the lead already taken by Target in the US and John Lewis in the UK to combat gender stereotyping by degendering their products, packaging, in-store experience and other marketing communications … A worldwide shift in consumer attitude towards gender is revealed by The Future is FeMale, a new survey of more than 12,000 men and women in 32 countries.
“One of the most striking findings is the significant number of those surveyed who endorse an ‘agendered’ – or gender-neutral – approach to raising future generations: 61% of women and 46% of men believe children should be raised in as gender-neutral a way as possible to guard against rigid gender restrictions … Gender distinctions are rapidly blurring, the findings show. A majority of women (52%) and 44% of men surveyed agreed with the statement that, ‘I do not believe in set genders; gender is fluid and people can be what they feel they are … In developed markets barely half the sample (52%) believe ‘a man should be masculine,’ and just 48% believe ‘a women should be feminine.’”
While this subject deserves more discussion than we can give it in this short space, I’ll offer the following:
1. Gender-fluidity is not just some crackpot, left-wing academic ideology but is swiftly becoming mainstream. It is not merely prevalent in liberal bastions like Massachusetts or Oregon but is being implemented in public school systems from coast to coast and the Rio Grande to the Great Lakes.
2. You can’t ignore it; it is going to change the marketing of products, the way your children are educated and the way your neighbors are raising their children. It is already on sitcoms, in songs, on talk shows, in legislation. We must prepare ourselves to talk about it with our friends and co-workers.
3. The whole movement strikes me not as merely anti-Biblical but anti-reality. It is not really about whether a boy should play with a Barbie doll, or a girl should deer hunt or a man should wear a pink shirt. It is far more sinister than that. It is nothing less than a complete destruction of sexual barriers that will redefine marriage, family, child-rearing and every other meaningful interaction between men and women. It is an attempt to restructure what God has made with a particular purpose. It will do the opposite of what its proponents wish: it will further victimize women, psychologically damage children regarding their gender and undermine the very social foundations that foster stability, continuity and respect.
God purposefully created mankind male and female in a two-step process (Gn 2:18-24). Adam was created first, creating a hierarchy of male leadership that is sustained in the home and the church (1 Cor 11:3, 7-9, 11; Eph 5:22-24; 1 Pet 3:1-6). Eve was created after and for Adam. Women may have a broader role in secular endeavors, but there are still realities to be reckoned with. Generally speaking men are physically bigger and more powerful than women. They are not innately smarter, but there are areas in which men will generally excel over women. But the reverse is also true: women are more adept at certain things than men, and their complimentary role in the home and church make for progress and fruitfulness in both arenas.
Genetically, bodily and psychologically males are not females and females are not males. Gender is not chosen, and family and society should train the young to embrace their sexuality and the reality that goes with it. One fights their innate sexual orientation to their own harm. We are playing with fire but are seemingly too foolish to comprehend the outcome. The damage will not easily be undone.
