Choice

To Love and OBEY

/ girlswhostareatwalls / 16 Comments

femmewed

Throughout the course I have given a great deal of thought to the experiences of other women in regards to Christianity. As a woman who was raised Catholic but for all intents and purposes does not practice, how to navigate as a woman and feminist in a patriarchal religious institution, while interesting to me, hasn’t felt personally applicable for the most part. However, this week’s assigned readings got me thinking…and googling. I thought a lot about the ways I have engaged with the Church, particularly when I was a child, and the ways in which I might engage with the Church in the future despite my current state of disinterest. A variety of differently worded google searches led me to an article that touched on the sexist language and traditions used in Christian wedding ceremonies. Feminism and marriage has been a popular topic of discussion on many platforms including our own blog. My interest is specifically with the ceremony itself. Like many women I am at odds with my own opinions on if I will or even want to get married, but I certainly know my parents’ opinions on the matter. Additionally, I know my they would want me to be married in a church like they were “the right way” (a whole other discussion!). So let’s work through a hypothetical. Someone- you or someone you care about- is getting married and plans to have a traditional Christian ceremony. Quasi-feminist theologians that we are, will there be any issues with the following traditions? Continue reading →

Religiously Challenged in Training?

/ stillwaters11 / 3 Comments

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I am a religiously challenged woman that can’t decide if I’d rather conquer the world or bake a cake. Growing up I had the pleasure of being raised in both traditional and non-traditional environments. I was so young when my parents got divorced that I don’t remember them ever being together and can’t even imagine what their relationship was like. Five days a week I stayed with my mother; a strong, independent woman who always taught me and my sisters that we don’t need a man or anyone else to live our lives. Her strongest lesson is “I qualify to do what I need to do to get where I want to be in life”. This was ingrained so deeply in the 4 of us that we each have a tattoo that says “I qualify”. Two days a week, however, I stayed with my father and stepmother who believe in traditional gender roles. As the man of the house my father pays all the bills and sits at the head of the table while my stepmother does all the cooking, cleaning, and waits on the family hand and foot. To this day, I have never had to wash a dish or do a load of laundry in their house. Continue reading →

Finding God Beyond Religion

/ paeonialactiflora / 6 Comments

I have grown up not having a strong religious faith, but it was always there in some way. I would go to church occasionally, but then it turned into only Christmas and Easter. When first starting Loyola University, I knew very little about the Christian faith. However, I have learned a lot about Christianity just from being at this school. Learning about Christianity and specifically women in Christianity has made be think about my own values. Continue reading →

Catholic Confusion and Curiosity

/ itsraytay / 4 Comments

Hi, I’m Rachel and I’m a Catholic (sort of — but we’ll get to that). Growing up, I was highly encouraged to attend mass, get involved in the Church, and generally do my best to be a good person. As a very active child, I found sitting in pews for an hour to be quite difficult and was often too busy squirming in my seat to really focus on the word of the Lord. Granted, it’s difficult to get any pre-school-age child to stay in one place for more than ten minutes, but this kind of set a precedent for church as a place where I would sit silently for an hour brooding about how much I wanted to be playing at home and really only paying attention when it was time to sing hymns and shake hands. Continue reading →

When I Grow Up

/ rlubischer / 3 Comments

When I grow up, I want to be a mother.

Historically, marriage and motherhood was the assumed future of women my age, in addition to the possibility of joining the religious life. Inside the Christian religion, this limitation of opportunities was perpetuated by interpretations of the Bible that placed women as subordinate to men and social systems that placed men in positions of power over women.

Now, thanks to the feminist movement present both inside and out of the Church, I feel that I am the only one in a position of power over my future. The sky is the limit.

At age 19, family and friends seem to constantly be asking me about what I want my life to be like. After all, now is the time to make important decisions that will shape my future, decisions that I am fortunate enough to have. I tell them that I want to be a social worker, but I also think “mother”. Every time. Continue reading →

A Feminist and a Romantic

/ shannalynnjohnson / 1 Comment

tumblr_lz5dysEroL1r7c99bo1_1280I am a hopeless romantic and I always have been. I love romantic comedies of all kinds, I fantasize about the perfect relationship and am always trying to get my friends together who I think are the perfect match. At the tender age of 13, I even started writing love letters to my future husband and I would continue writing letters and short vignettes on love throughout the rest of my life.  Continue reading →

Feminist Issues Are Present Almost Everywhere

/ smehmedi / 6 Comments

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Before taking this class, I thought feminism was just women wanting equal rights. After the first class, I decided to Google “feminist and contemporary issues” to see what would show up. I came across an article that stated the biggest feminist issues of 2015. At first, I was hesitant to look into the article because I believed it would be filled with the same stuff repeated in a different manner. Two ideas that specifically stood out in the list were violence against women and women in technology. Continue reading →

Am I a feminist?

/ notablogger1 / 16 Comments

Feminism

It’s all over the media now-a-days. Feminist culture is larger now than it was ever before in history. However, the media only seems to cover very extreme ends of the spectrum that tend to make some women hesitant to associate themselves with that label. Stereotypes such as “feminists HATE men” and “feminists devalue feminine women” seem too aggressive of an approach to appeal to many women, although they have nothing to do with feminism and everything to do with the way feminism is portrayed. There are also public figures who identify as feminists, such as Miley Cyrus, who consider themselves “gender neutral”, as well as other feminist figures that bash women who wear heels saying that they “are nothing more than pretty, pretty evidence of your status as a quisling to your sex?”. Upon leaving class the very first day of lecture, I asked myself, “Am I a Feminist?” I don’t particularly know the answer to that question yet. Now before you form your own opinion of me, let me explain my reasoning. Continue reading →

My Experience With the “God Gene”

/ hannahyabram / 13 Comments

I have always wondered why my adoptive sister and I have such starkly different religious and spiritual thoughts and beliefs when we were raised in the exact same environment. When we were assigned Fingerprints of God for class, a lot of what I read really resonated with me and I could see in my family situation, even if the possibility of a “god gene” is highly unlikely. Continue reading →

Following Blindly

/ eldk13 / 12 Comments

Last week in class, we read an Article called “Feminism and Sharing the Faith.” In this article, we were initially introduced to the story of a woman who was taking classes called RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) in order to be brought into the Catholic Church. However, upon learning through RCIA about the treatment of women within the church and within its spiritual writings, she decided that she did not want to join the Catholic institution after all. Continue reading →