gender & soc/theology

• JP2’s Meuliers dignitatum argument 1 “on the dignity of women” is written to argue that the church is not sexist.
• Motherhood is considered a woman's telos.
• Motherhood is needed for psychological development, specifically in terms of compassion and self-giving.
• Men and women are different but equal, suited for different roles due to god’s design.
• Genesis: after the fall, women have pain in childbirth and adam has to work the land for food, emphasising the different gender roles that JP2 is arguing are innate.
• Feminists like simone de bouvoir (existentialist) argue that telos doesn’t exist, we create our own purpose.
• Men like JP II have just unconsciously made this idea about telos up because they want to justify and perpetuate patriarchy.
• Gender roles are quite universal, found in all different cultures.
• Men tend to work in the world in a more active role, women tend to have more of home-maker responsibilities.
• The fact that these gender roles are universal suggests that JP2 is right ot think they are innate and therefore justified.
• Beauvoir was influenced by marx, who noted that all systems of domination and power create “ideology” - belief systems which justified itself as natural and good.
• Men are typically not conscious of this, they sumply have a preference for the idea that their role is being active in the world and that women’s role is to support them, because that benefits them.
• All human beings like ideas which suit their interests and they typically believe them as true without being aware of holding them merely due to self interest.
• As hume said, reason is a slave of the passions.
• Oakley also pointed out that there are vast differences in gender roles in different cultures which suggests there must be.
• JP2’s Mueliers dignatatum argument 2: the church cant be sexist because there are as many people that it likes, respects, and even canonises- Like the virgin mary and Joan of arc.
• Mary Daly: Jesus’ mother mary was a rape victim- god forced her to be pregnant.
• Daly is saying that putting mary on a pedestal is pushing the idea that what makes a woman good is their submissive acceptance of being the sexual property of men.
• This corroborates de beauvoir’s claim that women are forced to sacrifice their life goals to bring up their childeren which seems unfair- why is it not equally the responsibility of the man?
• Radical feminists are criticized for being too negative towards motherhood.
• Oakley and Beauvoir seem wrong to think gender is completely 100% socially constructed.
• O’brien thought de beauvoir devalued motherhood.
• Oakley also discovered many women found it frustrating to be stay-at-home mother.
• Mary O’brien - naturalistic feminist who argued that motherhood can be a positive thing if women are in control of their choice to become a mother.
• Daly argues that JP2 only likes Mary because she submitted and accepted being the sexual property of a male God.
• Radical feminists claim they want women to have a choice- but are unhappy when women choose motherhood.
• Simone de bouvoir (secular feminist) argues that gender differences between men and women are completely socially constructed.
• S.Pinker (counters oakley): testosterone could make men more competitive and aggressive than women.
• Oakley found that those women tended to have been neglected themselves- suggests they werent taught how to be a mother.
• Beauvoir points out that girls are raised “Obsessed” with marriage- whereas boys are raised to be obsessed with their career.
• Some radical feminists seem to think that any woman who chooses to be a mother is suffering from “internalised misogyny” (brainwashed by patriarchal society).
• She believes there are no innate mental differences between men and women.
• Everyone should be free to do whatever they want with their lives- we should not subject boys and girls to gender expectations.
• Girls are given toy prams (training future role as property of men) boys are given “action men” ( trained to be active in the world).
• Alternative explanation of oakey’s data: It could be that childhood neglect creates traumas which interfere with maternal instinct.
• Debeauvoir was happy for women to choose motherhood and being a house wife- so long as it was a genuine choice, not influenced by gender expectations.
• Ann Oakley (sociologist who interviewed women about motherhood) concluded that the so called “maternal instict” comes from culture rather than biology.
• Daly accepts that mary wasn’t raped in the physical sense- but nonetheless thinks it still pushes the idea that woman are saintly if they accept being sexual property of men.
• Daly is saying the church likes Mary in the same way slave owners like their obedient slaves.
• Mary Daly: Christianity is essentially/irredeemably sexist due to the maleness of God and Holy Trinity.