As we celebrate all we have to be grateful for this week, women need to take a step back. With all the talk of a “War on Women,” the constant emphasis on women’s rights, and the rampant spouting off about feminism, we seem to have thrown good men under the bus.
Yes, there are horrible jerks out there; it’s true. (Though it’s true to a much higher degree in places where women are really oppressed – like under Sharia law, for instance.) We could go on and even wax eloquent about all the guys who fail their wives and children, all the men who shirk responsibility, and all the guys who force women to have abortions or who pay for them.
But. But, but, but.
Feminism – and yes, I’m a proud, pro-life feminist – all-too-often ignores the great men out there.
I’m incredible thankful to be the daughter of a man who worked himself to the bone so his children could have a stay-at-home mom, so we could be homeschooled, so we could live in safe neighborhoods, and so we could have a whole host of wonderful experiences. I’m more grateful than I could express that he loved me before I was born, took my baby self out on the couch to sleep so my mom could have a break, brought me to work with him, taught me about politics and the world, prayed for me consistently, and still, to this day, treats me like his valuable little girl.
When I want to have a deep, political discussion, my dad is one of the first people who comes to my mind. He’s always given weight to my opinions and was one of the main people who believed in me when I was the spokesperson for a pro-life campaign at the age of nineteen. My dad’s a great guy for more reasons than I could name.
My husband, too, is a great man (and my favorite) that I’m thankful for every day. Our children absolutely adore him and chant his name throughout the day. He encourages me to be my best, inspires me to exercise my talents, and he never stops listening to me (though many have probably wondered why). He has never once believed that the fact that I’m a woman makes me any less valuable or capable than him. I appreciate that he celebrates my uniqueness, doesn’t feel challenged by me, is always ready and willing to protect and care for me, and that I feel, every day, how much he loves me. I am surrounded, every moment, by the love of a great man.
Instead of rejecting men, condemning them, belittling them, and devaluing them, women need to wake up. We do, in fact, need men. And men need us. It’s part of this thing called life. We were designed to need each other, no matter what society tells us.
We are no less a woman to admit that we need the protection of a man or to concede that men are usually stronger than us. Men and women complement each other, and it is, in fact, very difficult to stand alone.
I believe there is a reason that, back in the Garden of Eden, there was a man and a woman. Neither was enough all alone. Each needed the other – even in a perfect world.
So, women, yes, we should absolutely stand up for ourselves and our gender when needed. But we are no more feminist and no more women when we reject and overly-criticize men. We are not better than them. We need the good men out there, and we should be incredibly grateful for the men who work hard to be upstanding, respectful, strong, and protective.
Empowering women is not accomplished by dissing and laughing at men. We are not stronger when we try to make them weak and unnecessary. First, we won’t succeed. But secondly, humanity was created to be much more than one gender. We were created to be a family – together – with equal value placed on men, women and children of all ages.
That, my friends, is the truly pro-life, pro-woman, and pro-family view we ought to adopt. So join me – all year long – in expressing our thanks for the good men in our lives and all around us.
