#catholic feminism

[ffcrazy15]

There's this way of doing female-ness in Christianity that I call "pastel flower journal Christianity." I've got nothing against pastel flower journals per se, but for some reason people believe it's the end all and be all of female spirituality, and I think it's a real disservice towards young Christian women.

One of these days I'd like to start a prayer-and-reading group or something for young women, but there would be no floral themes or over-focus on how "God thinks you're beautiful even if the world doesn't" (a true statement, but it's wayyyyy too often the focus in women's spiritual reading). Instead we would be reading:

Seneca's Letters from a Stoic

Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning

Sheed's A Map of Life

Portions of Pieper's book on leisure

Kreeft's Three Philosophies of Life

Guardini's The Lord (or something similar)

Therese's Story of a Soul

and some select portions of the Nicomachean Ethics.

(Also they're all getting the porn talk. I don't know why we give the porn talk to young men but not young women. There's this idea that women don't use porn and they only need the talk about "guarding their heart." Bullshit. There's porn on the YA shelves of Barnes and Nobles and before that there were bodice rippers. Young women need the porn talk too.)

Every young woman needs to be getting a basic grounding in virtue ethics, logic, natural law, scholastic philosophy and Biblical hermeneutics if they're going to get by in today's spiritual landscape. Enough faffery and emotionalism in young women's spiritual education! Give them real food to chew on, not pasty sentimentalism!

[justjudethoughts]

"I can't stand the 'I'm not like other girls' trope!"

It's almost like we raised an entire generation of women to be ashamed of womanhood and then made fun of them when they behaved exactly how we taught them to.

If you teach girls that femininity is weakness, pink is for ditsy princesses, and that they need to "hustle" and be a "boss babe" to live a life that's "as worth much as a man's" they're going to do anything they can to make sure people know they aren't like "those girls."

[misespinas]

I know it doesn't matter what women wear when they are sexualized by men, because men sexualize women who live as modestly as possible. The genre of nunsploitation is proof of this:

The Lady of Monza (1969), The Nun and the Devil (1973), School of the Holy Beast (1974), Flavia the Heretic (1974), Suor Emanuelle (1977)

And these are just older films. The genre of nuns in porn is still very present.

A woman can take a vow of celibacy for life and all these men will think about is a) having sex with/raping these women or b) other woman sexually exploiting/abusing these women

[traditionaldream]

Feminism is full of lies: being a "boss babe" won't fulfill most of us, birth control harms your body and no, it doesn't heal you, it just cover the problem, like a band aid, children are not a burden, but a blessing, men aren't oppressing you, you can't find total equality for things that aren't equal.

Don't belive that man aren't needed. Man work jobs that most feminist don't want to work in: building, mines, military....

It is not backwards, oppressive or misogynistic to realize that all of these things are true.

Embrace your true essence

[my-traditional-world]

Birth control and abortion were not made legal to allow women to have control over their bodies. It was invented to add the domestic population to the work force.

[marysbrighteststar]

the anti-aging industry is disgusting. we will inevitably age, you don’t have to inject your face with botox and drink from specialized straws when you can just face reality.

aging is beautiful. God created us this way, and we should allow ourselves to feel life to its full extent instead of fearing our beauty being lessened.

when your worth is placed on character instead of outer-appearance, you will glow with happiness, and that’s what truly makes someone gorgeous forever.

[maythestormsnevertakefromme]

It says a lot about the current state of the community that for a lot of my life I feared pagan men.

It wasn’t even that so many of them were white supremacists, yes obviously that was horrible but most of them were mask off Nazis and therefore easy to avoid and report.

It was that they used their position in the community to manipulate mentally ill women. I think we need to have a genuine discussion community wide about how men in positions of power within spiritual/pagan/witchy spaces have always used that power to take advantage of women or other fem aligned people suffering from mental illness.

Over and over and over again I’ve seen pagan/witch men in positions of power (e.g running a temple/shrine/coven ect.) use the religious or spiritual beliefs of the women around them to manipulate them. I’ve seen men basically recruiting mentally unstable women into cults under the guise of witchy book clubs or other seemingly harmless things.

I knew men growing up who would boast about recruiting for our faith from group therapies and get almost no punishment from the rest of the community around them. We’d have stalls at markets and the imagery and wording so obviously pandered towards women going through hard times.

And I know this isn’t just an us problem and it’s something that happens because of the patriarchy which is a society wide problem but I really think we need to examine the way that our communities especially work to obscure justice and how we so often spit on victims to save face.

Also, so often if someone had experienced intercommunity violence they don’t want you to pray for them or have their space cleansed with sage they want you to talk to them like a normal person not a religious zealot.

[sinful-skeptic]

Hopefully this isn’t something that happens outside of the internet, but i wanna say that no matter how much you’ve been hurt by religion or religious people, do NOT sexualize women who practice modesty for religious purposes, even if it’s out of spite. I saw this going around online and their excuses are always related to their religious trauma regarding purity culture.

I know they have a grudge and many of us do, but sexualizing them only causes harm and does absolutely nothing to criticize religion. I’ve seen (mostly male) atheists who would edit photos of modest religious women (including hijabis and nuns) to put them in clothing that they would never be comfortable in. The sexualization is misogyny disguised as criticism of religion.

[queerism1969]

[madame-helen]

[amillionkilopascals]

they're pinning my wings to a cork board tomorrow,

and i will stretch them out to be pierced.

i will offer no struggle or complaint,

i will lie there with obedience and docility

and let them make a show of how i chose to let them pin my wings.

look at her, they will point and say to my fellow winged creatures,

look at how she let us pin her wings!

she is so much happier like this.

flying is an abomination. 

and i will hang there,

suspended,

until i slip off of the nails eventually

and the holes heal.

then i will realise,

when my mother is taking me back to them to pin me down again, that 

i do want to fly.

i will no longer let them pin my wings to a cork board.

inspired by x via @papayajuan2019

[eternal-echoes]

Thoughts on how misogynistic catholicism is?

I'm not going to deny that there are definitely guys within the Catholic Church that hide their misogyny in the guise of "traditionalism." It's the result of the Fall and Original Sin; pride made them that way.

But the teachings of the Catholic Church, especially in banning pornography, elevates the status of women compare to the secular world. She's not just an object to be used for pleasure; she deserves to be respected because she's made in the image and likeness of God.

Men who calls them Catholic but fail to uphold this teaching by watching porn in close doors are not authentic Catholic.

The Catholic Church lists a bunch of female saints that the faithful can ask intercessory prayers from to help them live holy lives:

St. Joan of Arc

St. Catherine of Siena

St. Catherine of Alexandria

St. Therese de Lisieux

St. Teresa of Avila

St. Mary of Magdalene

That's all the saints that I can think of on the top of my head.

Also, we Catholics venerate the Blessed Virgin Mother Mary as the mother of God. We don't dismiss her role in salvation history by giving birth to Jesus Christ the Redeemer like other Christian sects do.

So no, the Catholic Church is not misogynistic.

If you have more specific questions, anon, feel free to ask.

[traditionaldream]

Don't fall for the feminist lie that tells women that they shouldn't dress for a man. Ýou should dress for THAT man in your life; the one that lifts your feet of the ground, the one that stays by your side and faces the world with you, the one that cherishes every part of your being, the one that provides and the one that showers you with the biggest luxury in the world: love.

It is not "oppression" to wear that dress he likes or wear your hair down or any other thing he may ask you.

[my-traditional-world]

In the last hour a post of mine has gained alot of traction so lets just clarify a few things.

I am a traditionalist catholic, yes i believe abortion is wrong unless it saves the life on the mother. Yes, i believe birth control is wrong, i believe in an open womb.

I am not going to force these beliefs on anyone, i live in your world, i am forced to live under laws i dont agree with, most people do. They dont exactly effect me however. I dont care how people choose to live there lives.

Yes i think we should have single income household, i also think that the framework should be there to support that, lower tax, differnet benefits, higher living wage etc.

If you dont like what i believe thats fine. This blog is not political. I am not advocating for anything. This is tumblr. This blog is just what i want in my dream world.

Also before anyone asks, no i would not vote for someone who promotes abortion

Yes, i am a real life tradwife, how terrifying (i prefer the term wife)

[banishedchildofeve]

,, warning, a rant post,,, mentions of s*x work and p*rn in our society below.

A girl at my work asked me why I wasn’t agreeing with her as she and another workmate of ours discussed modern feminism. I was listening, to be polite, as there was nothing else much to do and no customers, and not saying anything. I’m usually quiet at work, but she seemed to take offence to my silence, as if I should be interjecting into the conversation to express how much I agreed with her.

I told her that I don’t believe modern feminism is always a good thing, and before I could even explain myself, she gave me a horrid look and said “right, because it’s easier to do nothing and get all that male approval, isn’t it?”

It was mean and I blinked at her, affronted and confused. Usually people let me explain when this topic comes up and I voice my opinions, if I have to, as I like to not cause conflict. Normally, I explain how I feel, very politely, about issues that feminism has brought up for women like the normalisation of abortion, contraceptives and dangerous hormone-changing pills, not marrying or even trying to find love, ‘sex work’ being seen as powerful etc etc.

I usually use my example of “girlboss” culture to help people understand how I’m not trying to be hostile or anything, but this workmate didn’t even let me and walked off to go talk to the manager who we’re all really good friends with. The other workmate I was with looked confused too and she joked about the awkwardness of what had happened, and I brushed it off but on the train home I was thinking about it again.

I was thinking about how often wives, mothers, homemakers and nuns/sisters/friars etc. are looked down on, often by feminists because they aren’t some business woman who only wears tight office-chic blazers and gets drunk every weekend and posts bikini pics. I thought about the young girls who dream of homemaking and wifehood, and the women who choose it over a career, and who are sort of viewed as pathetic or weak or ‘old fashioned.’

I’ve been told firsthand that my dream of being a mother isn’t good enough and how I “need to decide on a real career path,” or “something other than that, at least.” I’ve been made to feel small or stupid or that I’m offending all the women across all the generations who worked hard for our rights.

And this hurts, because I love women. I look up to who I consider to be the best feminine influence in all of human history, Mother Mary, daily. And I felt confused as I thought, because isn’t it all about choice?

Why is my choice less valuable than hers? Why is my choice to abstain until marriage, not drink coffee or try this pill or that drug or this drink something that I should be embarrassed about? Why is my modest mufti day outfit at school earning me stares and causing snide remarks? Why are we bringing up girls to believe that being a p**n star something empowering, something to do to “make a quick buck.”

Why are we letting young and influential girls believe that their worth comes only from their body, their aptness at reeling in boys, the size of their boobs, the way they dress and how many drinks it takes them before they’re throwing up at a house party outside on the lawn?

Why are we letting men, husbands, boyfriends believe that their wife/girlfriend/fiancé’s body is something that they can both benefit off if they just film that one video, or take that one photo? Why is it okay for a man to watch p*rn while his wife sleeps next to him?

Why is “she has an OF,” an insult, or something that takes away from her worth? Despite the fact she doesn’t feel beautiful unless a man is complimenting her body? How is this her fault? What could she have possibly done? She’s been taught that her body is all that guys care about. She believes that if she doesn’t do this act or send that photo she is wasting his time, she’s not worth his time.

It makes me sad. I hear younger girls talk in the bathroom at work while I’m in their cleaning or whatever about how this boy sexted them this, or how this other boy’s invited her over to his house on this time and how she’s been watching tutorials on how to … well, you know.

It makes me feel sick. These girls don’t know the danger they’re in. They’re being raised in an online world where it’s trendy to wear tiny shirts and post photos of your butt.

Most of the girls I overhear talk of things like this look 14-15.

This is not their fault.

They’re not to blame. It’s the world we let them indulge in. It’s a world where they’ve seen and heard and tried so much before they’re even able to legally get behind the wheel of a car and drive. Before they’ve even taken a proper exam at school.

When our frontal lobes detach, we become so ignorant to danger. Teenagers drive fast, do drugs, dance on the railings of bridges above highways and believe they’re invincible. It’s natural, sure, to an extent. But this is the time when so much can go wrong. Innocence cannot be returned.

I hate to think of how many girls will realise just how groomed and shaped they were by this toxic culture that surrounds us as a society later on and wish they hadn’t done this or that.

I want to protect these girls. I want to comfort them and keep them from these horrible, evil ideologies and that fuel harmful industries and create dirty, satantic fetishes in which people profit and people enjoy.

I want the girls who only dream of marriage and having kids to be safe and protected. I want girls who think it’s cool to smoke cigarettes and steal their parent’s booze to be safe and protected. I want the girls who dream of being billionaires and dating 40 men to be safe and protected.

Young girls are so influential and I wish there were better role models to show them that there is life and beauty and comfort and promise in the life that is ‘old fashioned’ and ‘anti-feminism.’

There is new life in Christ, always, of course. But I really wish the evil didn’t get there first.

I want to raise my own daughters in a world where it’s not okay to watch p*rn and use social media and consider sex work “empowering.”

I want girls and women to see that their worth does not come from how they look; but from within. From their heart, from their charity, from their kindness, from their humility, from their love of helping others, from the words they choose each day.

Of course this means we must make changes now, and step by step, starting with ourselves and our behaviour and headspace and habits. Changing for good can change others for good, inspire good, produce good, spread good.

Our daughters are relying on us.

Okay rant over, God bless all who read this. I hope you’re okay.

<3

(i wrote this awhile ago and just let it sit in the drafts. sorry it isn’t structured well. i was getting v emotional when i was writing this oop lol. i’m not here to have arguments, i hate arguing and it’s even worse online w literal strangers. i just am so sick of all this evil and damage being disguised as “pro women” and “feminism” and to speak out against it is to sound like a woman-hater, which is the last thing i am. the last thing a girl my age could ever be smh).

[witchesbeangry]

Thinking about all the ancestral knowledge women used to pass down generation after generation and all the culture that has been destroyed, and I think the Catholic church should be tried for crimes against humanity.