The women’s movement is complex and multi-faceted, and in many of those spaces, I feel out of place. I do think women should be treated fairly under the law. I do think women should have property rights and voting rights and maternity leave rights. I do think martial rape is a thing. But I don’t hide abortion under the banner of “reproductive rights,” I don’t advocate free love, and I only use the term “blame the patriarchy” when it comes to fashion that denies me pockets and comfortable shoes.
I don’t think feminism
can fit into a single definition or movement. Women are fighting for their
voice and rights in various cultures and situations. They all want to be
treated like equal human beings, but they have different ideas of what victory
looks like. My ideas are based on my cultural background, my experiences, and
my faith. But often I’m treated as though I’m too Catholic to be a real
feminist or too liberal to be a real Catholic.
But it is
Catholicism that has made me more liberal and made me ponder my role in life,
which includes the fact of my womanhood. The faith has exposed me to an
understanding of the world beyond modernity. I have to live in the times I am
born, but I do not have to be a product solely of my times. Christianity raises
up the oppressed and cares for the injured, so if women are oppressed or
injured, then Christianity seeks their liberation.
Because March is
National Women’s Month, I thought it would be good to highlight my understanding
of some of the issues regarding femininity and women’s roles in the Church and
in society. Sometimes I feel trapped between two poles who refuse to see the
arguments of the other side. Mostly I just feel left out of the current climate
completely. But I am determined to participate anyway, because a feminist
fights for the right to make her voice heard and her view acknowledged.
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