Tuesday, October 18, 2011

30 Days of Books, Day 26: A book that changed your opinion about something

I can't really cite one book that's changed my mind on one issue. But we'll go with this one, as it shuttled me down the road to where I currently am now.

[Yes, the Bible is a massive one for me, but that's changed many aspects rather than one.]

I, to a certain degree, consider myself a feminist.
I am not one of those who aims for a matriarchal society, I am not one of those who believe that 'testosterone is a rare poison'. I am, essentially, just a woman living in Western society and I believe that God sees me on par with men ("There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus," says Galatians 3:28), and ideally, society should as well. I look for equality rather than dominance of either gender. As soon as that begins happening, we're regressing.


When I was a few years younger, I agreed with Germaine's ideas more than I do now. I thought, from what I'd read of her essays on the internet, that she had some decent ideas with how to get society functioning as it ought. Once I moved to Brisbane with access to a decent public library, I immediately checked out The Female Eunuch, expecting to have my beliefs reconfirmed. 


They weren't, and I began to wonder. With some of the statements Greer makes, I wondered how I'd misplaced my goals for the world. Why dominance in any respect? Surely that would make us as oppressive as the men we, as true followers of a Greer-brand feminism, enjoy dismissing. As I read on further, I noticed that I was disagreeing with an awful lot of what Germaine said.


Don't get me wrong - what Germaine Greer and other feminists of her era have done for society is great, and I know that in order to make the smallest step of progress, you need to want to move the furthest. And my desires for the world could only come about in Paradise. But for books that changed my mind, it was this. Progress for the sake of progress, at the risk of hurting others, isn't progress. 

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