What is Soft Chauvinism

How do we as Christians discriminate against women on a consistent basis in the name of trying to treat women well? Sadly, I think we have fallen into a time when we commit something I call soft chauvinism. So I'm going to steal from an old post of mine at thingsabove.us from July 31st, 2018, a post titled Soft Chauvinism. So here are three ways that I think we actually demean women under the guise of kindness or sensitivity.

On the surface, we think we're being compassionate and understanding. But if we look deeper, we can see that somewhere our sinful pride and tendency towards self-preservation prevents us from simply saying what ought to be said. I think that we actually treat women like they're stupid or that they're simply creatures who lack self-control to honor God with their actions when we exercise these forms of chauvinism the first way that we exercise chauvinism towards women is when we treat them as uncontrolled animals I think we can all agree that women are emotional creatures They express their emotions oftentimes.

And I think that it's a stereotypical understanding that women express those emotions sometimes more readily than men and oftentimes appear to be more controlled by those emotions than men are. That's an arguable point. I think it manifests differently. but in regards to women when they express themselves because of the way their hormones or emotions are affecting them and we excuse sinful behavior because of that I think we're actually discriminating against them Jude tells us in verse 10 but these people blaspheme all that they do not understand and they are destroyed by all that they like unreasoning animals understand instinctively when we treat women as if they cannot control themselves because of emotions because of hormonal changes because of a menstrual cycle because of difficulties as the result of pregnancy we actually treat them as if they're animals and not humans made in the image of God so for women have you allowed the up and down swings of your emotions possibly even natural physical ones to become the driving force behind the decisions you make do you allow things like your menstrual cycle to be an excuse to be irritable which is sin and for for christian men do you cowardly give in to your wife or daughter excusing sinfulness in them Women are not animals.

They're intelligent, thoughtful, rational beings who need to be exhorted to properly interpret their emotions in light of God's objective truth. When you treat a woman as if she cannot do this, you actually discriminate against her, assuming she is more like an animal than a rational human being. the second way we seriously discriminate against women and are chauvinistic toward them is when we feel like we have to market and exalt dirty jobs psalms 84 10 the psalmist says i'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my god than dwell in tents of wickedness so there's a sense in the bible that every job we do for the lord jesus christ should fill us with joy and significance because of who he is and this is true But if we honest the reason we need that motivation is that some jobs are not as fun or exciting as others. The psalmist doesn't say, I'd rather be a popular speaker in the house of my God, or I'd rather be the head of a household.

He says, I'd rather be a doorkeeper. So he picks a lowly job that people wouldn't aspire to necessarily. The point is, is that for many of us, and women included, the tasks that lie before you are just not fun. They're self-abasing, humble tasks, similar to washing the disciples' feet, something Jesus did. Yet, we have developed a way of presenting women with their natural God-given duties as if we're trying to market for God.

There's very little that's exciting about being a stay-at-home mom, cleaning up diarrhea, wiping snot, spanking butts, trying to keep a house clean while doing all those things, having dinner on the table, having the laundry done, and trying to look nice for when your husband gets home. These are not glorious tasks. These aren't things that people aspire to necessarily.

Mature women, mature Christian women will grow to appreciate that difficult life they might leave. They lead. But no one chooses these things because they're glamorous or exciting or fulfilling in and of themselves. These are only tasks that we undertake because God has told us to do them. And it's not because we sell it to them. There's a reason Paul had to advise Corinthians against coveting one another's gifts.

It's because some gifts are more fun and more exciting to exercise. Don't get me wrong, all the gifts are important, but they aren't all equally desired. God chooses doorkeepers. No one aspires to that naturally. So I believe we're softly chauvinistic when we try to convince women that teaching children is as exciting as preaching to big rooms of men and women.

We insult women's intelligence when we tell them things like doing the laundry is as great as any number of other things that people can do out in the workforce. Inventing things, discovering things, solving big problems, making money. The fact of the matter is that most of the jobs that a stay-at-home mom ought to do are things that can be easily hired out for someone else to do.

These are things that aren't hard tasks, making a meal. They're things that people survive with when they don't have a wife at home. They're things that single people do on their own. These are things that aren't in and of themselves extremely difficult. I'll agree that the organization of it all can be something that is very difficult and that some women will be more skilled at that than others, but every woman is called to do these things if they're a stay-at-home mom.

And I don't think we have to make it seem glamorous. I don't think we have to make it seem like this is as hard and as exciting and takes as much brain power as if you were a surgeon. I don't think we have to try to sell it to them in that way. They're not our marketing audience. They're simply people who we need to call to obedience to wherever God has placed them.

I think it's insulting to women to pretend that the things that they end up doing while they are stay-at-home moms are simply as exciting as some of the things that they would be able to do outside the home. I think instead we exhort them to do what the Lord has called them to do in the place where they are. And we trust that it is their love for God that will do that Now don get me wrong here the fact that we addressing women right now this doesn mean that men don have some of the same problems It doesn't mean that we don't treat men poorly in these ways, or that men also sin in some of the same ways.

We're just talking right now about how we treat women in a way that degrades them. So the first item was we treat women like animals when we don't expect them to be able to be rational and when we allow their emotions to overtake them and we excuse it. We treat women like they're just our marketing audience who have to be convinced that whatever we're asking them to do is the exciting and cool thing rather than calling them to just do what God has called them to do.

And finally, we treat women as if they're stupid when we do not call them out for immodesty and sensuality. So instead of calling women immodest or calling them immoral, we'll say things like, well, I'm sure she didn't mean to be immodest. Or we say maybe she didn't realize how those clothes looked on her. And I want to caveat this. I understand that someone can accidentally be immodest.

I understand that somebody can maybe wear something where they don't realize how it looks from a certain angle or this and that But I think sometimes in our cowardice and discrimination towards women We have turned that into the single excuse every time a woman dresses inappropriately I do not think women are stupid I think women know If their cleavage is showing if they're exposing their breasts I think they know if you can see most of their thigh I think they know if their butt cheeks hang out of their pants. I think women know when they wear yoga pants that you can see every nook and cranny on their body. I think women are utterly aware of these things.

And it's not that they are too stupid to know. It's that they're acting immorally. And when we treat them as if maybe they don't understand that those clothes exhibit for everyone who's walking by things that are meant only for her husband. When we treat them as if they don't understand those things, we actually treat them like they're stupid rather than addressing the morality of it.

I think women know if men are ogling them. And women know which outfits they wear that bring on that attention. They know which parts of their body seem to attract attention. And women know how to move their body parts to imitate sex. I'll say at least women who've been sexually active at some point. they know how to move or if they're dancing how to do things that are clearly meant to be sensual when Christian women dress in ways that are modest and we're afraid to simply call them out on it when we make the excuse that maybe they didn't realize it I think we disrespect their intelligence women are not stupid and when we act like they cannot possibly understand how a bare midriff is dishonoring the Lord we show that we actually think they're stupid along these same lines and I think the most insipid form of discrimination that we commit towards women in this soft chauvinism umbrella that I'm trying to present to you is when we treat women as if they're too stupid to know that abortion kills a baby.

When we act like women don know that the change that happening inside them is because there a living person in there When we make the arguments like well unless they know from the ultrasound that it's a baby, or they've been hearing it's a clump of cells, so therefore maybe they don't know it's a baby. I think we insult the intelligence of women everywhere when we act like they are not educated enough to know that that's a baby inside them. I think it is insulting to pretend that women are so deceived that they've had intercourse or in some cases they've been raped and the result is something that they know is called pregnancy, it's why they're seeking the abortion.

And then to pretend that she doesn't know that that's a baby because a lot of people have told her it's not, that's insulting. Women are not stupid. They are more than aware that abortion kills a baby. In fact, I think they understand it better than we men do, sometimes, we'll say experientially at least. I think what they've done is they've suppressed the truth in this unrighteousness.

So because women want to have abortions, because they hate their child and they want to kill their child for their own selfish reasons, they have used the excuse that they've been told things that make them allow themselves to appear ignorant to justify their sin. So what I'm saying is apart from science class apart from an ultrasound women know it's a baby. Before an ultrasound would show anything that looked like anything other than a clump of cells.

Women know it's a baby. I hate the phrase clump of cells anyway because the very first time an egg is conceived, it's not even a clump of cells. It's a cell, I think. Maybe it's two at the time. And it doubles and triples or doubles, quadruples. And it is.

It's literally a clump of cells. So even if we bought the argument that it's a clump of cells, that doesn't mean it's not a life. So let's stop hating women by thinking and acting as if they're incapable of self-control and rational thinking. By acting as if they're just not smart enough to see what we men see. Or understand basic biology. Let's start treating women the way Jesus treated them.

Let's love them with kindness, gentleness, humility, truth, and a command to sin no more. Thank you for listening to Be a Berean with your host, Michael Coughlin. I am a writer at thingsabove.us, and I also have a personal website, michaelcoughlin.net. you can contact me by emailing me michael at thingsabove.us I hope that you have been encouraged to search the scriptures.