I was scrolling through Instagram the other day, and I saw an image that truly saddened my heart. It was a picture of a young girl, no older than 6, wearing a shirt that said “The Future is Female”. I was angry and sad that this young, impressionable baby girl’s mind was being so polluted with such a false idea. We are living in a day and age full cultural confusion and deception. One of the biggest lies our generation is currently facing is feminism. By definition, the word feminism means the advocacy for women’s rights on the basis of equality of the sexes. Before we really dive into this, let it be known that I am ALL FOR equality. Women should be treated with the same respect as men, and we should have the same rights as men. That is, after all, what the very definition of feminism states.

All throughout history we see the mistreatment of women. We were seen as second class citizens that needed to stick to cleaning, cooking, and baby making/raising. We were degraded and disrespected, and told that our opinions didn’t matter. Things like owning land, having a will, having a bank account, and voting were strictly off limits for women in the United States up until the 19th century when the first strong wave of feminism hit the US. That wave would continue up until 1920 when women finally gained the right to vote. The Kennedy administration in the early 1960’s used women’s rights as one of many platforms for campaigning. Unlike the first wave of feminism, the second wave would bring to light more personal topics such as sexuality, issues in the workplace, family and home life, reproductive rights and marital rape. This would be followed by a third wave that would hit in the 1990’s, which was fueled heavily by the media and pop culture. All of these movements would give way to where we are now- hot and heavy in the middle of the fourth wave of a new “feminism”. This is an unprecedented movement, the likes of which we have never seen before. It seems as if the issue of feminism is quite literally everywhere. We will find issue and offense with basically anything at this point. In this movement, feminists are still fighting for reproductive rights- the use and coverage of contraception, affordable and good quality reproductive health care, education on sexually-transmitted disease, and abortion. That is another topic for another time, but I will leave it at this- the “right” to terminate, or kill, a baby because you don’t want it… okay. They are also waging war on “wealthy, white men” and every conservative citizen in the United States because their beliefs don’t match up with their own . Now look, I get it- a lot of wealthy, white men have abused their power in horrid ways. But does that really mean that it’s necessary  for a woman to dress up as a giant vagina and march up and down the street asking for the government to use tax-payer money to cover the cost of a woman killing an unborn baby? Modern day feminists have set standards of disrespect, vulgarity, and self-glorification. This brings me to my main point- one of the main driving forces behind the feminist movement is wanting equality and respect. My question is, how on earth do you expect to ever be respected when you are offering nothing to respect? Any good that could possibly be brought about through the movement is being tarnished by the radical and obscene displays of “feminism”. Well, my friend, if being a feminist means marching around with vulgar messages on a poster board and wearing explicit costumes, I can guarantee you I will not be signing up any time soon!

Moving right along. Many of today’s women are so concerned about what their male counterparts are doing and getting, that they have been blinded to another, much larger and more harmful epidemic tearing apart the female culture… girl-on-girl hate. From the outside looking in, most people would think in this day and age that women are all pro-each other and for women rising up in the ranks, but have you ever read some of the comments of girls social media pictures? It’s absolutely cruel! Our automatic response as women when we see another woman’s success is to say, “Oh, well that’s great, BUT… I could do better.” or “Awesome, but why would you wear that?” We constantly look for something to lessen the value of what another woman has done in order to make ourselves look better. This is something we are ALL guilty of- myself included. So once again, we are expecting something from someone else that we aren’t even giving to one another!

The saddest thing, in my opinion, is that society as a whole has lost sight of the beauty of being a woman. They have been so busy chasing after what they “don’t have”, that they have forgotten what we do have! Women are beautiful, strong, sensitive, and complex beings. We have the incredible ability to function in logic and emotion at the same time. We can grow and carry a human being inside of us for 9 months. We can raise children, keep a household, work our dream job and be a support system for our family all at the same time. Women are amazing! God has gifted women with so many beautiful attributes that only women have yet, somewhere along the line we decided that wasn’t enough. God has placed extreme value on every person, male and female. He has created us to be equals yet, individuals. Men and women were created physically, mentally, and emotionally different from one another with the sole purpose of complementing one another. This means that there should be a mutual respect from one to the other. The fact of the matter is, man needs woman, and woman needs man. Equals, but individuals.

Rather than trying to be the “supreme sex”, we should be focused on honoring and respecting each other. I believe that God is restoring women to their rightful place in society. He wants us to be successful, powerful, wealthy, functioning members of society. Because of the way modern feminists act towards and think about men, I believe feminism is the “fake version” of the life God intends for women. God will never upgrade your life by degrading someone else’s life. That would imply that He wants a better life for one person that he does for another. This is the main reason why the words on that little girls shirt saddened me so much. My belief is that the future is NOT female. A future that is female is a future that cannot sustain itself. The same is true for a future that is male. The only route to a prosperous future is for this world to realize the true meaning of equality- that no man or woman is above anyone else, regardless of income, race, sex or religion. My prayer for this world, and especially for the next generation of young ladies to grace it, is that they would understand this concept better than those who came before them. I pray that they know their worth, and that they would never let anyone convince them otherwise, but I also pray that they would know the worth of those around them. We, as women, need to do better.  We need to bring ourselves above the line of disrespecting ourselves and others. We cannot control what others do, but we can control how we respond. I know from personal experience that it can be exhausting to experience the continual bombardment of hatred, complaining, and negativity, but rather than allowing that to stir up those emotions in ourselves, allow it to fuel a fire for positive changes. Mother Teresa once said, “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” That’s where it all starts. Raise up your young girls to be strong, independent, self-confident, and self-respecting without making them believe that they are above anyone else in this world. Teach them to be gentle and kind, because at the end of the day, it often takes more strength to be kind and loving than it does to be hard and callous. Raise up your young men to be strong, yet sensitive; to respect and protect women. Teach them that, though they may be the physically stronger sex, there is a strength in women that this world needs. There is nothing wrong with knowing your strengths, but being able to acknowledge other people’s strengths and how they complement your weaknesses is a game changer. It’s called humility, and this world could you a healthy dose of it. I challenge you today, especially the women who are reading this, learn to exemplify humility. It doesn’t make you a weak person to acknowledge your weaknesses. In fact, it makes you stronger.

XOXO

ELK