Carrie Gress’ observations are always worthwhile, and in this piece she shows the feminists’ shifting attitude towards motherhood.
The early years were spent convincing everyone that men had better lives outside the home, and that women too ought to join in the fun and get out there. Women, because we aren’t men but are trying to become like them, were given instant victimhood status, which has since justified the killing of 3000 unborn children each day in the United States. “If men don’t have to have babies, we shouldn’t either,” goes the logic.
But then imitating men has been entirely unfulfilling (of course) so the new generation that is dipping its toes into maternal waters has rejected the “patriarchy” but without any solid philosophy to replace it, opting for lives that Gress notes are a mashup of new age spirituality, power-seeking ambitions, angst against societal norms (that have been coopted by the first-wave feminists noted above), and confused riffs about the Blessed Mother. This is an Instagram post in which an up and coming artist named Halsey explains her newest work:
‘This album is a concept album about the joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirth. It was very important to me that the cover art conveyed the sentiment of my journey over the past few months. The dichotomy of the Madonna and the Whore. The idea that me as a sexual being and my body as a vessel and gift to my child are two concepts that can co-exist peacefully and powerfully. My body has belonged to the world in many different ways the past few years, and this image is my means of reclaiming my autonomy and establishing my pride and strength as a life force for my human being.’
OK. Whatever that means–today. When the stool of actual virtue is kicked out from under the feet of flesh-and-blood women, they dangle precariously by the phantom threads of feelings, hormones, and theory, none of which can explain “the joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirth.” Compare that to the book of Genesis,
“The man had relations with his wife Eve [the ‘mother of the living’] and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, saying, ‘I have produced a male child with the help of the LORD’” (Gn 4,1).
Wow, pretty straightforward, and then the parents and their children are called to give thanks to God and worship Him as long as they live. And then their children are called to do likewise:
“God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it’” (Gn, 1:27-28a).
It cannot go without comment that an attack on patriarchy is an attack on the fatherhood of God, which is blasphemy. Moreover, Men Behaving Badly is NOT patriarchy, but also blasphemy, being an abuse of their strength and fatherly gifts. The patient work of women is to reintroduce proper understanding of both motherhood and fatherhood–which are not without their “joys and horrors.” Admitting that is essential to fruitful dialogue, and progress in mutual understanding will only accrue when the joys and horrors are sifted to find, first, the essence of each and, second, the corruption of the essence.
Honest love for this new generation is a prerequisite, and assessing our own struggles will plumb the wisdom therein.
Recent Comments