The Invitation

Before you begin this blog on femininity, a relevant question to first ask is why it matters if you can define what it means to be a woman. Many have established the position that womanhood comes naturally—like the seasons, or the skies as they redress. They say our gender is so tailored into the fabric of our being, that it is not something that needs to be thought on at length. Womanhood is beautiful because part of becoming a woman does unfold naturally, like a flower that leans into the sun or opens to the rain. And it seems like it should be that way. But sometimes ideas that seem to be universally understood are really not. It is difficult to articulate and define terms such as womanhood, justice, compassion, or what it means to just be human and fully alive.

I am just 20 years old. As I take my first steps into womanhood, I am realizing that how I participate in this existence we call humanity, is intrinsically tied to who I am as a woman. My belief about the essence of femininity colors every part of my life, because my gender cannot be extracted out of my body or soul. The ancients described man as being composed of body, soul, and spirit with gender woven throughout all three.

Now this is very interesting. As humans, we can take an abstract concept like femininity, and mentally remove it from the body it manifests itself in. The mind can do this with all definable concepts. An example would be subtracting the color white from snow. You could never physically remove ‘whiteness’ from snow—but you can do it mentally. The contrast of femininity and color is fitting because both are very hard to describe. How do you define ‘blue’ or 'red'?

A basic law of our universe, is that God created all things to be irreducibly complex. Though people have the amazing ability to conceptualize the essence of femininity apart from it being in a particular woman, I do not believe this separation will ever be a future or spiritual reality. Some argue that gender is not essential to the essence of a person because they believe it is temporal. And yet Jesus was referred to as masculine after his resurrection and recognizable as the same person. We know that “we will be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Romans 6:5). There is nothing in Scripture that alludes to a loss of gender in Heaven, only the fulfillment of marriage as we know it.

Elisabeth Elliot writes in Let Me Be A Woman: “The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman.” Galatians 3:28-29 seems to argue this as well: “There is neither Greek nor Jew, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In Galatians, Paul is speaking of the equality we have in Christ as He address the question of gentile inclusion before the Jerusalem counsel in Acts 15. In all of his later letters, Paul acknowledges the differences between the groups by giving individual instruction to slave and free, male and female, etc. So this verse cannot be used to mean there literally is no difference between genders.

The fact that I am a woman does make me a different kind of Christian because I represent a different facet of God’s image on earth than a man. Much is shared but some is not. If being a woman is an intentional, God-glorifying sanction that will never cease to be, then studying the essence of what it means to be a woman is important. Gender is the second largest classification of human beings in the physical realm. Because of this, gender studies should not be lumped with ‘side issues’ the church cycles through every five or ten years, it should be a fundamental topic we come back to again and again. And acknowledging the journey is the first step.

So I would like to invite you to be intentional about walking in femininity if this is your first consideration of it, and to encourage you in the journey if you are already walking. I look forward to reading your imput as we go deeper into these ideas...

-Stephanie