The fight to be female

[icymist]

PURPLE PATCH: The fight to be female —Julia Hughes Jones

“Girls begin to talk and to stand on their feet sooner than boys because weeds always grow up more quickly than good crops” — Martin Luther, 1533.

When I first read the above quotation several decades ago, I wanted to know why anyone would say such a thing. What I discovered is that Martin Luther’s reflection was, and continues to be, the echo of ancient philosophical and theological conjecture about female inferiority. Luther was primed to believe this fallacy by centuries of both great and small minds that came before him.

Not much has changed in the years between Luther’s observation and the present day. The female half of humanity continues to be defined by limitations in politics, religion, and business because an undercurrent of belief in female inferiority persists, sometimes blatantly, oftentimes unthinkingly.

At a time when the known world seems to be collapsing, humanity stands on the threshold of awareness that a balance between the sexes is a desired outcome. If social and economic structures are no longer viable as established, perhaps the feminine perspective needs to be applied. If the world no longer works properly with only half of humanity in charge, then the time has come to allow the other half to be equally represented in all things.
More