Why does God hate women?

A must read, from The Observer:

There is plenty to criticise in Islam's view of women. Last year, the Observer told the story of a  man in Basra who stamped on, suffocated and then stabbed to death his 17-year-old daughter for becoming infatuated with a British soldier. The relationship apparently amounted to a few conversations, but her father learnt she had been seen in public talking to the soldier. When the Observer talked to Abdel-Qader Ali two weeks later, he said: "Death was the least she deserved. I don't regret it. I had the support of all my friends who are fathers, like me, and know what she did was unacceptable to any Muslim that honours his religion."

This was clearly extreme, but the truth is that the God many people believe in - whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish - hates women. Take America's Southern Baptist Convention, which declares in its faith and mission statement: "A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband." That's fair enough, isn't it? After all, he's probably stronger than she is.

Or there's the Catholic church. The Pope put things more suavely in an address in 2008: "Faced with cultural and political trends that seek to eliminate, or at least cloud and confuse, the sexual differences inscribed in human nature, considering them a cultural construct, it is necessary to recall God's design that created the human being masculine and feminine, with a unity and at the same time an original difference." The insistence on difference is the necessary first step to insisting on inequality and subordination and it is a step that popes have been taking at regular intervals for decades.

<SNIP>

So why is it so often women who fill the pews? Is it a form of Stockholm syndrome? Religions do a good job of training people to be obedient and loyal to the authorities and women in particular are raised to be both devout and submissive. Religions are sticky: they are hard to abandon and that is doubly true for women, given that subordination and unshakable fidelity are their chief duties.

The fact that women are defined as different from men ("complementary" is the religious euphemism) and confined to narrower, more monotonous lives as a result, means that they have more need of the excitements and passions of religion. For women, religion often is the heart of a heartless world. All they have to give up in exchange is their right to shape their own lives; as long as they behave themselves, all will go swimmingly.

I never understood why my YiaYia (grandmother), a young widow who single-handedly brought up 11 kids during the Great Depression, was highly literate, and who kicked major ass, accepted Greek Orthodox dogma about women being second class humans.

Maybe it's because she came from long ago and far away, a small town high in the mountains of a Greek island.

More likely because the church was the port in so many storms for her.

That's her in the middle, my Mom on the right.

H/T Twitter friend @GreenJay

Comments

[Joyce Arthur]

I think the main reason women "accept" their oppression is because they have children to take care of. Fighting for freedom is just a luxury when you have many mouths to feed.

[...pat.]

Some guy made a statement about religion being the opiate of the people... Maybe it was more the women than the men, but I suddenly recall that Jewishness is matrilineal, isn't it? I don't know why. Is there something hardwired in a woman's brain that makes us more empathetic, which means that we also connect more with the stories of tribulation in the various holy works? Have we managed to breed ourselves over upteen generations of accepting men who don't abide by the rules, but rejecting women who are not compliant?

Antonia, I'd hate if you were right (and yet, wouldn't be too surprised) if part of it is this willingness to go along with things, maybe for the betterment of the group/settlement/etc. than for oneself. Is it genetic? I find the thought repugnant, yet also recognize the socializations within myself (and wonder how much is nature/nurture).
Hmmmmmm.

[The Stygian and his Shemitish Dogs]

Pat Pet,

"Is there something hardwired in a woman's brain that makes us more empathetic, which means that we also connect more with the stories of tribulation in the various holy works?"

Isn't a positive answer to that question the whole point of feminism?
And the main reason cited for having more women in politics and management?

[Dafe Oputu]

I will speak for Christianity, as I know most about it being "technically" Roman Catholic. Catholicism claims that men and women are different but makes a clear point of saying they are equal. Men and women are different, we can all see this. It is not misogyny to say that because there are clearly physical and even minor social differences. This isn't to say physically or socially inferior, just different. It also says a man must care for and treat his wife as equal. Don't think that all differences are inferior, in fact a tendency to assume derision is intended when it isn't indicates an irrational delusion. You see sexism when none is intended. Try me, I'm ready to combat any insane comebacks you have ready. You're move Antonia...