The Results of Unloving Feminism

I just read, "Have you turned your man into a hermaphrodite?"

Quote: "Many of us are so focused, decisive and assertive, that the only role left for our husbands is one where they comply and let us take charge – traditionally feminine traits. But the irony is, we don't actually want men like that, and we end up eventually resenting them for not being more dominant and fearless."

I am a big fan of feminism wherever it does not perfunctorily vitiate Truth, Love and Beauty, Justice and thus and such, and I write this not only because I have a daughter and wish to see her grow in a culture that does not inadvertently impair her potential to grow as a fully feminine child of God. I pray that my daughter, Charlotte Ashley, will continue in the same vein she has traveled this past decade, and maintain feminine virtue, contrite towards God, empathetic to every living creature, loving towards her family and friends, beautifully concerned with the emotional and aesthetic aspects of her surroundings, to a degree greater than any of her four boisterous brothers.

I have always loved feminism (and being an inveterate bibliophile, dutifully collected a formidable array of classic books on the topic, from the early years, when, really, the movement was most interesting) because it purports a concern for that which is feminine, or should, at any rate. Unloving feminism is a sad substitute for the responsible love of the feminine.

The truth, as in all things, is that an intimate understanding of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is an essential prerequisite to any social works or movements that may be hoped to achieve their fullest, most enduring value. Without this, you are shortchanged not only in love (For God is love.), but as well, in your ability to apperceive moral value.

This hasn't changed recently. It is not a new concept, but it is one which eludes too many young writers who would try to build something of lasting social value. I am pleased with my daughter's growth in Christ. She takes her turn reading the Bible at night and joins gladly in our prayers. I aim to enable her to become like the Virtuous Woman of Proverbs 31:

¹⁶She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

¹⁷She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.

¹⁸She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.

¹⁹She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.

As such, I have worked to help Ashley become good at pull-ups, to where she is a formidable arm wrestler for her age and size. Too, she can beat me at pah-dook, considered by some to be the most challenging cognitive game. Baduk is great for the mind, I believe, and given that we have lived here in South Korea without access to English based schooling, coupled with the fact that my children lack sufficient Korean language skills to profitably engage the formal learning process of public schools here (and avoid ridicule and bullying, which are ubiquitous among the common populace), I have elected to supplement their elementary education with a variety of skills which I deemed high quality vis-a-vis their pedagogical import, and at the same time, relatively cheap and accessible in respect to the quite divergent skills which I confidently expect should be more readily available -- so much that we might verily say, "be at their beck and call" -- in the public educational outlets in our little nook of America, once we move there in February of 2011. In this, I have tried to coordinate the straddling of two cultures, and pluck the best value of each for my children's education, under trying conditions where both my wife and I have striven to provide for the material needs in our first culture, while beefing up our educational qualifications for our prospective, second culture, that and properly raising our burgeoning brood of Ashley plus four rambunctious boys.

Not to make an abject tobacco spitting tomboy of her, yes, I have guided her with assisted pull-ups and consistent encouragement to develop the strength of her body. Nonetheless, concurrently, for her emotional development and potential for anything approximating a heavenly marriage, I have consistently impressed upon my daughter the importance of "being submissive to her husband in all things," (Ephesians 5:24) without which, it goes without saying, she could scarcely ever fulfill her destiny to become a fully mature female, to manifest the feminine potential seeded by God within her.

Love, Nathaniel