The Problem with Feminism

I know what you're thinking, "Oh goodness, another conservative blog is going to rail against feminism." That's partly true. I have a bone to pick. It is also true that the basic truth of feminism, that men and women are equals, is a truth more basic than the truth that the earth is round. My problem with feminism is a problem with particular instances of feminism, and it is a philosophical problem. I dislike feminism because it is so often Cartesian.

Rene Descartes, the French father of modern philosophy, is famous for his substance dualism. He thought that the material world, including our bodies, was one sort of substance, while our minds were another sort, an odd, ghostly thing that controls the meat bag that is our body. This sort of sentiment is exemplified by Yoda when he says "luminous beings we are, not this crude matter."

Feminism seems to take it a doctrine that we are not only luminous beings, but sexless luminous beings put into bodies, some of us with the misfortune of being put into female bodies. It says that we must use all of our technical and cultural might in order to destroy or ignore all of the "disadvantages" of those stuck in female bodies. These "disadvantages" tend to be related to female fertility. While this sort of feminism may make us all equal, it degrades femininity.

We cannot have any sort of true respect for the female if we do not respect the female body. Men and women are truly equal, but not in the sense of being the same thing unequally stuck in different things, but in the truly cosmic sense of being made in the image of God. A true respect for the feminine includes a respect for the feminine body, for the person is not a "luminous being" with a body, but a psychosomatic union of body and soul. Our bodies do not contain us, we are our bodies.

Of Dogma and the Rock

"Every one therefore that hears these my words, and does them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that hears these my words and does them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof." -Matthew 7:24-27

This famous quote from Matthew refers of course, to the rock of Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount. A man who lives his life according to Jesus' words is building himself up on good foundations, while the man who ignores his words is, well, not. Something of a parallel situation occurs regarding dogmas and prejudices. "Some people,” Chesterton reminds us, “do not like the word ‘dogma.’ Fortunately they are free, and there is an alternative for them. There are two things, and two things only, for the human mind, a dogma and a prejudice.” 

Prejudices are what Chesterton said pervaded his culture at the time. They are like building your house on sand, for they are nothing but tendencies, they blow with the wind. The puritan always wants less sensuality, the consumerist always more things, the spiritualist always less material things. You put them in a different era, a different culture, and they will still be arguing for more of this or less of that. Those that hold on to prejudices never have a place to stand, they never have balance. A dogma is like building your house on a rock. It provides one with clear, concise definitions and boundaries. It gives a man a place to stand. It is possible to navigate, and even to understand, the constantly shifting sands of culture and public opinion, so long as you have dogma to stand on. 

Dogma allows a man to wade through that sea of puritans, or sexual liberationists, or materials, or spiritualists, or militarists, or pacifists, and be able to appreciate their points, while also finding where they go wrong. It is a huge advantage over those stuck to a certain prejudice, as they cannot see the point of the opposite side, and cannot engage with them. For all interested, you should read this whole excerpt  by GK Chesterton.