A Double Take

Its been a glorious 12 weeks and I absolutely love my job as mother and housewife.

Turns out work didn't have any part-time positions to offer me so I'm quitting, especially since I know how full-time employees are pushed to work more than 40 hours. Because my husband travels so much, it gives more need to my being more available to my son. Unfortunately, I am now looking for other part time work in a really bad economy. WOOHOO!!!

Over the last 12 weeks, I've been spending some time thinking and drawing some conclusions that may seem like cop-outs, but I seriously doubt they are. There is a certain sect of feminism that I still detest and abhor with all reason and they are the ones that I so gracefully call "true" feminists by my definition of feminism: people who fight to increase the status of women at the expense of men. Since every sect of feminism drastically disagrees about their purpose and definition, I feel that I'm justified in providing my own definition.

There are those, however, who simply seek to be respected and valued as human beings. They fight to be seen as intelligent, resourceful, hard workers, and partners with a valuable voice. They don't seek to destroy manhood, or be disrespectful of men, or deny any responsibilities given them by God. Some would like to be wives and mothers, but if they can't accomplish that, they want to be Jane Austens instead - women who can provide a living for themselves and be respected for it - utilizing all the God-given talents they have at their finger-tips.

I wouldn't call them feminists. But they do. Simply because they define feminism as the idea that women are just as valuable as men. Which they are.

And I've discovered that in all my reading of certain blogs, I've started to question that. Yes, feminists that fight for abortion rights, think all men are pigs, scoff at women who shave their legs for men while ignoring that men shave their faces for women, and who think that any woman who wants to be a mother is socially conditioned to want to do that are women (and men) I strongly dislike and the devil can have them. But women are still valuable, they are still needed. Men still need us. That's why God created us. But he did give us a certain role in this mess. Not to be inferior, but to be different.

And as an aside, my parents were discussing Fireproof and they gave an entirely different perspective on that movie that I had never heard. Boundless never brought up any fault of the woman, the only thing others could talk about was the fault of the woman, but my mother said something that was completely and totally true:

You fight for marriage with all you have even when the other person is doing absolutely nothing to help and everything to justify a failed marriage.

They're right. And after 26 years of marriage, I think they are justified to hold that opinion.