Everyone wants different things, but what I am noticing--after an event my house put together today called “Reframing Gender Roles”--is that often women will be judged for what they want, (maybe more than men, maybe just differently). Single women who are ambitious sometimes criticize women who choose to marry young. Stay-at-home moms sometimes judge women who pursue careers while they have young children. Women who don’t shave the body hair that our culture has deemed undesirable will sometimes receive disapproving looks and comments. Women who wear makeup in the workplace are sometimes scorned by women who don't.
We uncritically accept everything and judge everything else. Today was a good day of critically evaluating things and saving the judgement. I loved hearing from my female pastors and professors about the many challenges they faced from their cultures, churches, and families when they chose certain things in their lives. I loved hearing from women who wanted to stay home with their babies and the women who pursued other things. I am thankful for diversity and that there is room for ideologies to change and that we can have fruitful conversations about these things that make me feel affirmed and supported, regardless of decisions I make or paths I choose. --Diversity. Freedom. Community. That's what I want, but I can't speak for everyone.
