Submissive Feminists – Really?

Submissive Feminists.

Am I hearing this right?

Are women actually fighting for the right to fantasize about submitting to men after spending decades insisting that equality means never having to submit?

Suddenly, with the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey, submission is an act of feminism?

I’m sorry, what?

And after decades of insisting that it’s wrong for men to objectify women by frequenting strip clubs or utilizing pornography online via websites like m-porn.xxx, women are now flocking to Magic Mike and downloading porn designed for women?

And this isn’t wrong, it’s healthy fun?

Am I the only one confused? I bet, not.

But then, I’ve never understood how becoming a shabby version of an ungodly man translated to equality.


I do believe that men and women are created equal.

Equally representative of God’s image.

Equally capable of sin.

I think that what would frighten a lot of women is an understanding of the fact that we actually don’t have to fight God for equal rights. He’s bestowed on women the blessing of full equality.

The lust of a woman is no less sinful than the lust of a man.

When women are disobedient to the laws that God put into place, they are equally deserving of condemnation by God.

Women are equally called to repentance by the gospel preached by Jesus.

Women are equally in need of Jesus for salvation as are men. (Though some would have us believe that women need a little less saving then their brothers, it’s not true.)

Welcome to the world of “two wrongs don’t make a right.”

But when we become followers of Jesus, we are equal heirs of the kingdom of God.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” Galatians 3:28-29

But, we don’t inherit this promise and this freedom to spend on our own selfish desires.

On this morning’s news, I saw footage of the execution of a twenty-two-year-old Afghani woman, sentenced to public death under accusation of adultery.

I should think that American women who fought hard for freedom and equality would want to use that energy to help other women, like this young victim of the Taliban, find freedom, too.

Rather than wasting time and money on books about sexual submission or movies about male strippers, women who care about women’s freedom could be spending energy on speaking out for women who are truly enslaved.

Imagine traveling to Afghanistan to speak to women there about the freedom enjoyed by American women. Imagine them asking questions about the books and movies currently popular with American women. I’m sure they would wonder why women who enjoy the freedoms we do would spend their time on stories about willingly enslaving ourselves to men.

I would like to suggest that just as men are guilty of twisting God’s idea of submission, women are becoming equally guilty of the same crime.

It illustrates, for me, the verse from Proverbs 14:1 NIV: “The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.”

Modern women are tearing down their own “house” by trying to find freedom outside of God’s design. Men have certainly been guilty of this, too, but women are proving they’re equally adept at screwing up their lives by refusing to submit to their Creator.

I don’t have all the answers but I’m pretty sure I won’t find them sitting in a theatre of women screaming while Matthew McConaughey disrobes.

I’m just thinking out loud as I begin to explore questions about gender, maleness, femaleness, and faith– what are your thoughts?