Jibin Vallanattu CST
Introduction
Returning from my uncle’s house in the train one evening, I overheard a conversation between a mother and her daughter that left me shaken about the condition of gender discrimination in India.
The woman said, “Girls don’t go for play they take care of the house.
”Why, brother also plays”, the daughter whispered.
“But he is a boy, isn’t he”, replied the mother.
A rather simple and common conversation is this. That notwithstanding, my heart was filled with anguish for the girl’s mother who herself was a woman and at the same time, I felt pity for the little soul who was too young to understand the reason why a girl and boy are treated differently. Gender inequality still exists in India within the households, workplaces and in larger society. In certain developing nations like India, gender inequality starts manifesting itself very early, a girl child starts facing discrimination right from the womb and it ends in female feticide. Female child is treated inferior to male child and this is deeply engraved in the mind of the female child.
This is more predominant in India as well as other lesser developed countries. A male child is considered a blessing and his birth is celebrated as opposed to a female child where her birth is not celebrated and is considered more of a burden. Educating a boy is seen as an investment as they are expected to earn and provide for their ageing parents. Whereas, an educated girl will have a higher dowry expense because they need an educated partner. It is also believed to be a waste of resources to educate a girl child as she will eventually get married and be a homemaker. If a family cannot afford to educate all their children, the male child will get preference. Still I couldn’t forget the conversation happened in that evening, “But he is a boy, isn’t he” this words kept echoing in my ears even the next morning. That particular incident really haunted me with a lot of questions in the sea of thought. What gender discrimination in India means for the society? What young generation thinks about gender discrimination? Does it really exist in the modern society where government and society are doing lots of work to bridge this gap between male and female? So, just to lighten my heart and yours as well, I would like to work on this topic of the seminar paper.
1.1 Creation- the handiwork of God.
God created man in his own image as is said so and is widely accepted. However man does not play this role in the same manner as the other forms of life do so. Man is the best of God’s creation since he is blessed with a brain with which he can think and plan to do various things unlike the other creations of God which live only for a specific purpose and nothing beyond that. Is the Bible divided on the issue of gender? Many highly respected evangelical scholars believe there is a tension in the Bible between affirmations of gender equality and gender roles[1]. From creation to new creation, the Bible’s message about gender in the church and marriage consistently affirms the equal standing of man and woman. Genesis presents gender equality, rather than male leadership, as humanity’s created state.[2] It teaches that man and woman are created equally in the image of God and together have dominion over the earth (Gen 1:26–27). Their equality is not limited to spiritual standing before God, but applies to their dominion over the earth. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Gen 1: 28).
The structure of the creation narrative climaxes in the creation of woman, fulfilling man’s need for a partner corresponding to him (Gen 2:18, 20). The text describes woman being created to be the man’s strength. Almost always we describe God as our rescuer, strength, or might, likewise woman is also considered here as the partner strength of man. Nothing in the context of any of these passages call for that, either God or woman is subordinate to man.[3] It highlights her strength to be an equal partner with man, rescuing him from being alone. She is his counterpart: his companion and friend who complement him in exercising dominion over the earth. She fulfills him so that together they can be fruitful and care for the earth. Likewise, nothing in the Genesis account of creation grants man priority in status or authority over woman, but throughout it emphasizes their equality. [4]
God makes woman from the man’s rib, and the man recognizes, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (2:23), because they share the same substance (2:21–23). Father and mother are identified without hierarchical distinction. In marriage, they are united and one flesh. Both are naked and feel no shame; they share moral innocence. Together, they face temptation and disobey God’s command. They both realize they are naked and sew coverings. Both hide from God, showing they were both ashamed that they had disobeyed God. Both pass the blame. God speaks directly to both, announcing specific consequences of their sin. Both are responsible for their own acts. Thus, Gen 2–3 portrays gender equality, not an order of creation that grants men authority over women.
1.2 Simone de Beauvoir: Religion and the Second Sex
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”. This, the opening line of Book II, is de Beauvoir’s most famous statement. Her argument is that femininity does not arise from differences in biology, psychology, or intellect. Rather, femininity is a construction of civilization, a reflection not of “essential” differences in men and women but of differences in their situation. Situation determines character, not the other way around. Woman is not born fully formed; she is gradually shaped by her upbringing. Biology does not determine what makes a woman a woman; a woman learns her role from man and others in society. Woman is not born passive, secondary, and nonessential, but all the forces in the external world have conspired to make her so. Every individual self, regardless of gender, is entitled to subjectivity; it is only the outside forces that have combined to rob woman of this right.
The Second Sex is one of the earliest attempts to confront human history from a feminist perspective. Today, many regard this massive and meticulously researched masterwork as not only as pillar of feminist thought but of twentieth-century philosophy in general.[5] De Beauvoir’s primary thesis is that men fundamentally oppress women by characterizing them, on every level, Man occupies the role of the self, or subject; woman is the object, the other. He is essential, absolute, and transcendent. She is inessential, incomplete, and mutilated. He extends out into the world to impose his will on it, whereas woman is doomed to immanence, or inwardness. He creates, acts, invents; she waits for him to save her. This distinction is the basis of all de Beauvoir’s later arguments. Simone de Beauvoir theorized that religion oppresses women in much the same way as it oppresses the proletariat in Marxist theory. According to de Beauvoir, religion is used by men to oppress women and to compensate for them for the second-class status.[6] De Beauvoir argued that historically, men, who have traditionally controlled most institutions in society, also control religion. It is men who control religious beliefs, and they use God to justify their control of society. She states in her theses that in modern societies, religion is more of a tool of deception than of direct control. Religion deceives women into thinking that are equal to, or even better than men, despite their inferior status in reality.
For example, the role of mother is given divine status in most religions, and thus encourages women to accept the role of ‘mother’ in society. Religion also provides psychological rewards for women who content themselves with being ‘good mothers’: simply being a ‘good mother’ is ‘divine’, and this effectively carries its own psychological and status rewards for women who accept this role. However, according to radical feminist theory more generally, the motherhood role is one of the most oppressive for women: it means that women become financially dependent on men and end up doing a lot more work in society, especially in reproducing the next generation.[7] In fact, de Beauvoir says that those women who accept faithfully their sanctioned roles as mother actually benefit religious institutions. This is because they socialize them into religious belief. Finally she declared that women are as capable of choice as men, and thus can choose to elevate themselves, moving beyond the “immanence” to which they were previously resigned and reaching “transcendence”, a position in which one takes responsibility for oneself and the world, where one chooses one’s freedom.[8]
1.3 Why The Church In Paradise Lost?
Paradise Lost is an epic poem of the XVII century, written by John Milton, published in 1667. The poem concerns the biblical story of the fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton’s political ideals are expressed by the outright freedom of a person; his distrust of institutions was followed by his assumption that power truly corrupts human beings, humans become greedy and is driven by lust and desire.[9] Milton presents the insight of his religious position, that each individual Christian should follow his own values and faith, regardless the society’s attempts of corrupting one’s soul. Milton’s highly individual view of Christianity makes Paradise Lost both specific and extensive. In his later years, Milton understood that the Christian churches were an obstacle to true faith.[10] Milton supported that any individual’s conscience was a much more powerful asset in defining the Word of God than the example set by the church. Throughout Paradise Lost, Milton expresses that Adam and Eve’s fall from grace was actually fortunate, as it gives every human the opportunity to absolve themselves by true emancipation and faith and by understanding that their actions might come with consequences and can lead to horrible disasters.[11] Nonetheless, the poem does not present a cohesive theory of the Christian doctrine, neither attempt to identify nonbelievers. Instead, Milton’s epic stand as a remarkable presentation of biblical stories that were meant to recruit Christian readers and help them become better Christians with a bigger faith in God and his subjects.
In our world we have both good and evil. It is unavoidable, and as long as one exists, so will the other. We live in a world of opposites and we see that play out every day in politics. Peace vs. war. Love vs. hate. We must ask ourselves which side we want to fall on, and then we must act. What Paradise Lost teaches us is that it is a beautiful thing to be human and know both good and evil. As much pain as evil brings about, it also gives meaning to good. The difference between the two helps us understand what we should seek, and what we must certainly should avoid. Whether you believe that humans are innately good or evil, there is importance in remembering that we are all still human. We must remember to first be good humans, and then be good libertarians, but also remember that those two things can go hand in hand. Here I would like to get into the stream of my thought that we are all still human. Therefore excluding one (women) from that of the other activities of the society or church we too are in the church in Paradise lost. In the present competitive world the society or the church fails to treat all equally because of the power, status and prejudice, etc. whereas the paradise (God) still treats everyone equally. It is in this point and summit the present context of the church and society mislay the paradise of humanity, equity, love, equal opportunity and sameness.
Consequently the question (why the church is in paradise lost?) affirms that it is because of slaughtering of the merits and virtues in the life and hearts of the human beings.
1.4 Sexual prejudice; a sickness in the church
Prejudice is an assumption or an opinion about someone simply based on that person’s membership to a particular group. For example, people can be prejudiced against someone else of a different ethnicity, gender, or religion. Prejudice means preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. In today’s world, there are many social issues, like poverty, vandalism and unemployment. However, prejudice has become the most dramatic one. Prejudging people for their appearance is a common practice that humans perform. People are not only ridiculed for their colour, but also by their religion, sex or age.[12] Therefore, I consider that racism, ageism and sexism are the three major problems in our society and we need to cease them immediately. In the modern world, there is a direct link between prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice is defined as the unjustified negative attitudes that some people hold against others of a certain group of people.
Prejudice can include attitudes such as sexism, racism, homophobia, and religious persecution. Prejudices are pre-formed and have no reasonable basis. Discrimination includes all of the actions that people take against others they have prejudices toward. Religion is often seen as a barrier to gender parity. Stories abound of gender-based violence done in the name of religion. As a result, in many cases, the issues of religion and gender parity are often dismissed as too complicated to address. However, a critical factor overlooked in this conversation is religious freedom. Unless there is religious freedom, minority groups, including women, will not be at the table and their vital, productive and creative voices will not be heard. We have some examples of religious prejudice?
- Dismissing an employee because of their religion.
- Deciding not to hire an applicant because of their religion.
- Refusing to develop or promote an employee because of their religion.
- Paying an employee less because of their religion.
In the present context of living most of our religious communities or the institutions get into the sickness called sexual prejudice.[13] It is happening because these institutions failed to provide due importance to women. One of the reasons sketches that most of them consider women just as means not as an end in themselves. Most of the church men leaders never want women leaders to come the front stage of the society. The denial of religious freedom contributes to gender inequality throughout the world. Is it not true that Christ came not only to remove the barrier of sin between man and God but also to break down every wall separating one human being from another? But the wall between women’s and men’s participation in the life of the Church has never been broken down. We read in Galatians 3:28, “There is no such thing as Jew and Greek, slave and freeman, male and female; for you are all one person in Christ Jesus”.
1.5 From wo/men to wo=men; the ‘outsider- within’
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and that “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, birth or other status.” Gender inequality has been a crucial social issue in India for centuries. Census shows the child sex ratio among children of 0-6 years to be 918 girls for every 1000 boys in India. This statistic speaks for itself and demands urgent and efficient solutions to address the cause of gender inequality. The discrimination starts from even before the girl child is born. In many instances, she is prevented from being born. The girl child is considered a burden. She is often deprived of the basic rights and equal opportunities to lead a wholesome childhood and adult life. According to the Census 2011, from the total child population in India, girls account for 48%, many of whom are engaged in child labor, child trafficking and child marriage. The future of innumerable girls looks grim.[14]
‘wo/men’ to ‘wo=men’ these noted words speaks of inequality to equality or from outside to within. Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. Whereas today in this comparative world we put a red line (/) before women telling you should not or you are not supposed to. Hence the real freedom for women lays when they step into the lines of equity and equality from the barricades of red line that the society and other institutions draw over their life. We live in a male-dominated society, where men take all the decisions and women just have to accept everything silently. From bread earning to running the house, a man is the sole decision maker. Even in the 21st century many women still don’t have any say in decisions pertaining to themselves. From marriage to starting a family- it’s the man who dictates and the woman just follows. Thus a woman should be a solo traveler from the dark room of inequality to the world of equality, she should be able to move from outside to within the world of peace, harmony and justice.
1.6 Conclusion
We know that across the country, it’s not uncommon to see women sporting a small dot on their foreheads between their eyebrows. The mark is known as a Bindi. And it’s a tradition that dates to the third and fourth centuries. The Bindi is traditionally worn by women for religious purposes or to indicate that they’re married. But today the Bindi had replaced by the long red-line margin that which determines the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ of women in the society. The radical shift from red circle to the red long line margin made many women, les wanted, second class sex in the society, less privileged and unwanted ones. Quite often the red circled Bindi considered as the symbol of glowing sun. The reason is that sun provides light to all from morning till the day grows old; likewise women were also considered as the radiant sun in the home, who works hard from morning till evening. After all they are considered as a blessing to the family and to the society. Even in this modern technological world most of the women face this inequality or the long red-line margin on their forehead from womb to tomb. Many women would question- is education enough to fight the evil of gender discrimination that is so deep rooted in India. The answer is NO. Education is a start but if we really want to put an end to this evil then we need to change ourselves, our mindset and harmful beliefs that we have been living with. Advocating for education and equal opportunities for women is not enough. In fact, we need to be the channels and mediums for new reforms and campaigns for empowering the women in India. Thus let us hold our hands together and raise our voice in rhythm.
“I Want Every Girl To Know That Her Voice Can Change The World.”
– Malala Fund –
Notes:
[1]Priscilla, https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/article/priscilla-papers-academic-journal/bible-teaches-equal-standing-man-and-woman.html (accessed on 10.10.2021).
[2] Philip B. Payne, Man and Woman, One in Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 41–54, shows the weakness of attempts to read male authority into Genesis 1–3
[3] Contra Raymond C. Ortland Jr., “Male-Female Equality and Male Headship: Genesis 1–3,” in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Wheaton: Crossway, 1991), 95–112, 104
[4] Payne, Man and Woman, 41–54, critiques attempts to detect male authority in creation.
[5] Second Sex, https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/secondsex/summary.html (accessed on 10.10.2021).
[6] Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.
[7] Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.
[8]Second Sex, https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/secondsex/summary.html (accessed on 10.10.2021).
[9] Milton, John, 1608-1674. Paradise Lost. London: New York: Penguin Books, 2000.
[10] Mary Christopher Pecheux, The Second Adam and the church in Paradise lost, January, 1967.
[11] Milton, John, 1608-1674. Paradise Lost. London: New York: Penguin Books, 2000.
[12] Sister, M. Paulin; Sexual Prejudice in the church, 1968
[13] Sister, M. Paulin; Sexual Prejudice in the church, 1968
[14] Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza; Wo/men and the Catholicity of Theology, 2011, Transforming vision: Exploration in Feminist Theology
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Philip B. Payne, Man and Woman, One in Christ(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 41–54, shows the weakness of attempts to read male authority into Genesis 1–3
- ContraRaymond C. Ortland Jr., “Male-Female Equality and Male Headship: Genesis 1–3,” in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood(Wheaton: Crossway, 1991), 95–112, 104
- Payne, Man and Woman, 41–54, critiques attempts to detect male authority in creation.
- Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.
- Milton, John, 1608-1674. Paradise Lost. London ; New York :Penguin Books, 2000.
- Mary Christopher Pecheux; The Second Adam and the church in Paradise lost, January, 1967.
- Sister, M. Paulin; Sexual Prejudice in the church, 1968.
- Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza; Wo/men and the Catholicity of Theology, 2011, Transforming vision: Exploration in Feminist Theology.
- https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/article/priscilla-papers-academic-journal/bible-teaches-equal-standing-man-and-woman.
- https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/secondsex/summary/.
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