The trend toward feminism being defined as the freedom to do that which would be seen as not-feminism when the movement started continues apace:
Marge Simpson has gone where no animated character has gone before – on the cover of Playboy magazine.
As part of The Simpsons’ 20th anniversary shenanigans, Marge has been honored with both the November 2009 cover and a three-page pictorial (that’s what they call photo spreads in Playboy) featuring Marge in various states of undress.
As a fellow cartoon character, Father Orthoduck is quite annoyed with Marge. But, it does let Father Orthoduck bring up a point. Many years ago when the feminism movement started, the original movement pushed away from what they saw as the constricting demand of fashion. Thus, to dress in comfortable clothes, to not wear underthings–such as girdles–that pushed one into a false shape, etc., were considered to be signs of freedom from male domination. Oddly enough, many of those “fashions” also went quite well with the early Jesus movement. Father Orthoduck can remember sermons on 1 Peter. “Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.”
This was the time when many young women would wear simple scarfs, long blue jean skirts, etc. “Natural” makeup, that is, either no make up or make up designed only to smooth over some blemishes, was considered to be the most appropriate. Yes, yes, it was also quite a sign of the times. But, behind it, both on the side of feminism and on the side of Christian women was the desire to get off the merry-go-round of what was seen as artificial beauty, whose only purpose was to entice men. Women wanted to be able to stand on their own and make their own decisions. For instance, Gloria Steinem–a celebrated feminist–said, “A woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual.”
But, the drumbeat of sex started coming in. Already in the early hippie movement, part of the rebellion against the supposedly hypocritical morality of the 1950’s was the freedom to “love the one you’re with.” For instance, Gloria Steinem also said, “A liberated woman is one who has sex before marriage and a job after.” Liberation was seen not simply as being free to dress (or undress) in a non-man-enticing way, or the freedom to have a job and one’s own income, but also as free to do what one wished with one’s body regardless of “conventional” morality. Lest anyone wonder, Father Orthoduck is fully in favor of any person having the right to work in whatever employment they are capable of handling, and is very much in favor of both men and women dressing in ways appropriate to the culture and consonant with Scripture.
More and more magazines started coming out pouring out a message that women–and men–were free to follow their impulses. One example today is Cosmopolitan, with its incessant polls on performance in sexual affairs and affairs of the heart (Note: Cosmo was not started until 1988, but it simply continues a trend). And, the argument began to be made more often that women ought to be able to dress to please themselves without regards to men. Father Orthoduck actually agrees, in part, with this argument. But, of course, the problem was that the original argument meant that women should be able to dress to be comfortable and appropriate for the circumstance. Again Gloria Steinem, “Most women’s magazines simply try to mold women into bigger and better consumers.” Little by little this idea of dressing comfortable began to change to simply pleasing one’s self.
In his book Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis documents how Screwtape teaches young Wormwood to slowly, oh ever so slowly, tempt a human towards sin. Father Orthoduck is convinced that this type of temptation was worked upon much of the feminist movement.
Liberation began to be seen more and more as something other than just the right to a job, the right to equal pay for equal work, the right to the control of one’s wealth, the right to one’s body, etc. Sexual freedom began to be defined as the freedom to be erotic. What is the difference? Father Orthoduck’s final Gloria Steinem quote:
Pornography is about dominance. Erotica is about mutuality.
But, it turns out that keeping pornography and erotica separate is quite hard.
===MORE TO COME===
How silly of Marge. She forgot she was supposed to dress and act the way her husband and others like you think she should. She forgot to ask permission and be submissive! I call "bullshit" on this post, dear brother. Your articles and your voting habits don't appear to be in sync.
Who says our society is becoming more and more infantile?
….first and forrmost i would like to call for calm here…..