MEN AND WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT, LET'S FACE IT, BUT THEY ARE CREATED FOR THE SAME PURPOSE

I have just engaged a Facebook friend (well, that now remains to be seen) on the overly contemptuous subject of women being seen over the centuries as the weaker sex and having to walk through storms to become strong. I have never liked or believed that statement because in truth we are not comparing apples with apples.

To begin with the reference to women being the “weaker sex” comes from a Biblical interpretation. It is a variation on the words of 1 Peter 3:7: “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them [your wives] with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel…”

Note the term, vessel, not sex or gender. Some scholars say that when Peter uses the term vessel (in Greek, skeuei) he meant just that, a vessel or a jar or container of some sort.

And if that’s case, what Peter’s saying isn’t that men should take care of their weaker wives, but that they should treat them as one would a piece of pottery that warrants special care, like a family heirloom.

It’s also worth noting that the whole passage that precedes it is about how newly converted Christians of the day should treat their unbelieving spouses. So, it seems clear that Peter was saying that men should treat their still-pagan wives with special care. Rather than lording their new-found religion over them, they ought to woo their wives into the faith by affording them special dignity.

This makes sense because he has just told Christian wives to win over their unbelieving husbands in the same way. (3:1-6).

Now to the subject of strength

It might be true that men have a higher percentage of lean muscle mass than women, but that definitely doesn’t make women the weaker sex. Not when you consider the extraordinary fortitude exhibited by women around the world.

Researchers have found that in times of famine, epidemic and hardship over the past 250 years, women have consistently outlived men. Anthropologist Adrienne Zihlman says that’s got a lot to do with women’s need to adapt to adverse circumstances.

“Women have to reproduce. That means being pregnant for nine months. They’ve got to lactate. They’ve got to carry these kids. There’s something about being a human female that was shaped by evolution. There is something about the female form, the female psyche, just the whole package, that was honed over thousands and thousands, even millions, of years to survive.”

COME ON guys and gals, this is not a competition. Men protest oppression and injustice too and they also walk through storms on this journey called "life". But there’s often something particular about female resistance. Where male protesters can be provoked into violence, women seem more able to harness their strength to remain genuinely resistant in the face of cruelty or hatred. 

I am purposely staying away from the women's movement and equal rights with this post because there is no argument in that from me and besides I do not want to complicate my thesis.

Suffice to say, I grew up respecting women (including girls my age) in the 1940s and '50s, due primarily to the way I was raised. As I told my Facebook friend, I didn't even realize that we had a problem until the 1960s when I began to read and hear about it -- and by that time I was raising two daughters of my own. Granted, I may have been more conscious of the issue sooner in life if I had been born female.

The women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s drew inspiration from the civil rights movement. It was made up mainly of members of the middle class, and thus partook of the spirit of rebellion that affected large segments of middle-class youth in the 1960s. Another factor linked to the emergence of the movement was the sexual revolution of the 1960s, which in turn was sparked by the development and marketing of the birth-control pill. Reform legislation also prompted change.

Contemporary society is just now beginning to delve into the true distinctions between men and women. Besides the obvious physiological differences, there are also differences in the way men and women think, speak, and behave.

We're created for the same purpose

In order to understand the essential nature of man and woman, we must do away with human subjectivity and look through God’s eyes. Every human being, man and woman, was created for the same purpose — to fuse body and soul in order to make themselves and their world a better and holier place. In their service of God, there is absolutely no difference between a man and a woman; the only difference is in the way that service manifests itself.

Man and woman represent two forms of divine energy; they are the male and female elements of a single soul.

God is neither masculine nor feminine, but has two forms of emanation: the masculine form, which is more aggressive, and the feminine form, which is more subtle. For a human being to lead a total life, he or she must have both forms of energy: the power of strength and the power of subtlety; the power of giving and the power of receiving. Ideally, these energies are merged seamlessly.

As I say, men are physically stronger. By nature, they are usually more aggressive and externally oriented. In contrast, a woman usually embodies the ideal of inner dignity. Some people confuse such subtlety with weakness; in truth, it is stronger than the most aggressive physical force imaginable. True human dignity does not shout; it is a strong, steady voice that speaks from within. The nature of a woman, while subtle, is not weak. And the nature of a man, while aggressive, is not brutish. For man and woman to be complete, they must each possess both energies.

The answer is not for men and women to try to be alike. All men and women must be themselves, realizing that God has given each of us unique abilities with which to pursue our goals, and that our primary responsibility is to take full advantage of those abilities and to be recognized for such by society in general.

Though feminism rightfully calls for the end of male domination and abuse, and for equal rights for women, it is vital to get to the root of the distortion — that our focus in life, as man or woman, must not be simply to satisfy our own ego or needs, but to serve God. True women’s liberation does not mean merely seeking equality within a masculine world, but liberating the divine feminine aspects of a woman’s personality and using them for the benefit of humankind.

Women do themselves a disservice when they harbor the sigma of the weaker sex. It is no longer applicable...In truth, it never was, in spite of what males of antiquity may have been led to believe and what women may have accepted as their lot in life.

After so many years of male dominance, we are standing at the threshold of a true feminine era. It is time now for woman to rise to her true prominence, when the subtle power of the feminine energy is truly allowed to nourish the overt power of the masculine energy. Both sexes have already proven that they can use strength born within them to "walk through storms" and to slay demons around us. Let us then now learn to nurture the Godliness within, even going so far as to graciously step aside when the writing is on the wall.

NOTE FROM DICK AT 2:26 A.M.: I really should not have tackled this post by adding my two cents, but perhaps it was the Devil that made me do it -- at midnight no less! At any rate this has been the way I see it, from a simplistic male perspective that will surely be subject to criticism. I've got my nerve, I know! But this is what I do -- more often than not when I should be in bed sleeping.