What a great weekend! There is absolutely nothing like a long weekend with your entire family. And now that we're older, my brothers and I are able to actually get along the whole time, and it makes things that much more fun.
More on our trip later, though. Right now I want to touch on both a recent and a not-so-recent letter from the Pope. Last week Pope Benedict XVI put out Caritas in Veritate. While I've read/listened to several commentaries on it, I haven't read it myself, so I don't know that I could give any insightful comments here. Instead, I'll just link to the great editorial Alison shared in her comment on my last post: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/opinion/13douthat.html?_r=1
One papel encyclical that I am reading, however, is Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women). It was written by Pope John Paul II in 1988. Why the heck did I decide to read this twenty year old document? After all, what could a celibate old man know about the rights of women?
Plenty, apparently! Among other things, Pope John Paul II called for a "New Feminism" which recognizes the strengths of women and their complementariness with men. I'm really interested in this, so I thought I'd go straight to the horse's mouth, if you will.
An event about two months ago further spurred my interest in this. I had to de-friend (un-friend?) a person on facebook. I just couldn't handle reading her rants against "the man"/society/homophobes/etc every time I logged on. The last straw wasn't her on a rant, though. It was simply her touting that with a new haircut, she was completely gender-indistinguishable. She was proud that a person looking at her wouldn't know if she was a man or a woman.
This was just too much for me. Men and women are different! And by cutting her hair short and never wearing pink, this gal was not becoming "gender-neutral" - she was becoming more like a man. And that's what really gets me - I'm all for equality, but equality is not the same as becoming a man. Something is wrong when feminists, in misguided grasping at "power," reject their femininity and attempt to become masculine. By doing that, they're really just demeaning womanhood themselves.
The late pope puts it much more eloquently:
Consequently, even the rightful opposition of women to what is expressed in the biblical words "He shall rule over you" (Gen 3:16) must not under any condition lead to the "masculinization" of women. In the name of liberation from male "domination," women must not appropriate to themselves male characteristics contrary to their own feminine "originality." There is a well-founded fear that if they take this path, women will not "reach fulfillment," but instead will deform and lose what constitutes their essential richness. It is indeed an enormous richness.
I can't wait to read more. In the meantime, what do you think? Have we as women lost sight of our own strengths in an attempt to be viewed as strong as men? Is it a good thing to attempt "gender neutrality" or just a lost cause?