Today, I am wondering about more than the typical Advent thoughts and reflections. I am wondering about the whole sexual harrassment/abuse kerfuffle. There is nothing new to any of this. It has been possible for all time. And the fact that it is still going on, is still possible, says something unfortunate about the human condition and the condition of the American society.
Centuries ago, in tribal cultures all over the world, and in feudal societies, and in recent American history, women have been viewed as less than men, lesser citizens, or even lower, as property, chattel, possessions. Women were long ago deemed more vulnerable, the “weaker” sex, objects of satisfaction and the producers of offspring and the continuance of the species, or the community. Women were put in a certain place, not of honor, but a place in which they could be/can be controlled and subjugated by men.
Today, there are still places in this world where this control and subjugation continues in overt ways. Little girls are still genitally mutilated to prevent them from ever experiencing sexual pleasure, with the ridiculous justification that doing this to them will control their desire to be promiscuous. Young women are still bartered with through arranged marriages. passed from father to husband in a cultural exchange of property. Women are not allowed to have drivers’ licenses or make decisions without the “consent” of the male-in-charge-of-them in their families. Women are required to wear coverings in the presence of non-familial men, in public, etc., purportedly for modesty, but in reality because they are still viewed as property…to be kept pure, to be controlled, to be treated as lesser entities. Women in these cultures are still forced and brain-washed to accept the control and power of men over them.
But lest the West feel good about the strides that have been allowed women, there are still vestiges of this societal control in our world, too. We cannot point our fingers at the Muslim hijab and say, “Oh, those poor women.” We still have those veils in our Western culture, too, albeit invisible ones. In the Christian Church, we still give away our daughters at the altar during wedding ceremonies. It is a vestige of days gone by when the great property exchange between fathers and husbands took place. Today, our girls think it is a wonderful tradition because THEY HAVE NOT BEEN TAUGHT from where the custom originates. Women still struggle in the sphere of employment, making less than men, unable to rise on the company ladder due to very subtle control measures placed there as time has passed. Women are still ogled, objectified, kept down, and treated as second-class citizens in our world, too. We have made great strides, but the fact that we have to “STRIVE” to move forward shows the world that the power structure still favors men.
And now, we have the very public and distasteful sexual harrassment/abuse debacle unfolding before us. Men in power exercising that power over their “underlings” with impunity…still abound in our Western culture. It is equal in nature to what happens to women in other cultures when they are raped. The women are put on trial, punished and sometimes killed because the women have somehow shamed their families by allowing themselves to be victimized. That same thing is happening in public opinion today. Trump, the less than-illustrious human occupying our Presidency became president even though 14 or more women came forward accusing him of sexual harrassment/abuse. Now, Roy Moore is running for the senate of Alabama despite being accused of pedophilia (sexual assault of a 14-year-old). Of course, both these men have skirted the issue by simply denying the accusations…and because they are men, and on top of the food chain in our culture, they can walk away from the accusations with impunity. Other congressmen, Franken and Conyers, can just wait on ethics committees run by men to decide if they should step down from their honored positions…No rush. No foul. They are men in power. They have the edge. They have the genitalia that allow them to sail through life without remorse, without fear of punishment for how they treat the lowly women they encounter. After all, those young girls, those women in the office, are there for their delight and pleasure, for their locker room talk, for their coarse and crass behavior. No consequences necessary. They are, after all, men.
So women, who have made such strides and have been swimming against the currents for years, are not much further along than our sisters in other parts of the world. The behavior of men is rarely challenged, rarely changes, and is rarely subject to any natural law of consequence.
And, there is a sub-set of women in our culture who still believe that women are responsible for the behavior of the men in our lives. If a woman is raped, “What did she have on?” “Why was she on that street?” “Why did she go to that club?” In other words, “It must be her fault.” If a woman is sexually harrassed, “Well, what signals was she sending?” “How short was her skirt?” “Why did she allow it to happen?” In other words, it must be her fault. My own mother has uttered words to that effect, without realizing how low she has pushed those women in these moments of suffering and subjugation. We still have women in our culture who claim that a woman’s place is in the home, tending the children, serving the man of the house. We still have churches teaching very archain views of a woman’s place, based on scriptural teachings written in historical ages in which women were property, chattel and persons without personal power, personal ownership, or any hint of citizenship or equality. We still use “Father” language for God…’Father’ language that developed in cultures in which the Father had ownership over the home, ownership of all the children and certainly all the women. We still frame marriage in the language of the Greco-Roman home, where the “Father” was the one in control, who owned everyone. We aren’t as far along as we’d like to think.
I think our American culture needs to begin an ongoing conversation about the “place” of women in our culture. Are we really going to move toward complete equality, or continue to give it weak lip-service, without any power or change at all. Are we going to continue to pretend that women are equal, or just mosey along willy-nilly and allow a culture where sexual harrassment/abuse is not only possible but tolerated?
The truth is obvious, but the path is not so defined. Where will we go with all of this? Will we move toward a better society, or limp along like we have been? And worse yet, will we allow ourselves to slip back into a culture where women are still second class citizens who can expect no justice and must put up with the men in the world who still view us as receptacles for their urges and toys with which to delight themselves?