Reading · Marginalia with Beth Allison Barr

This is me, a feminist. This is the year I got tenure at Baylor University. I had a 3 year-old and a 9 year-old and spent most of my weekends (and Wednesday nights) doing youth ministry with my husband.

I made my daughter a sandwich this morning. Like my husband and son, she prefers a toasted sandwich. So I browned it in the skillet, melting the cheese on the honey-roasted turkey slice, and wrapping it in foil for her lunchbox.

I made dinner last night. Chicken parmesan, hand breaded by me, with bronze-cut spaghetti. I roasted broccoli with sesame oil. But I did heat the marinara sauce from a jar. Tonight I am making salmon and rice pilaf. I’ll grill some street corn, too.

This is me, a feminist. I made gingerbread men almost every Christmas for several years and helped the little ones decorate them.

I married my husband 29 years ago this summer. I took his last name. I wore a veil. My dad walked me down the aisle. My husband and I share a bank account and household chores. I breastfed both of my babies, weaning them at 13 months and 14 months respectively. I usually let my husband and kids pick what we watch for movie nights. I am not that picky and just like being with them. Sometimes my husband will make us lava cakes for a treat while we watch.

This is me, a feminist. Walking down the aisle with my father on the day of my wedding.

I am a Christian. I gave my life to Jesus when I was young; I was baptized in a Southern Baptist church; I married a pastor. I’m still married to a pastor (albeit NOT a Southern Baptist one). I teach Sunday School most weeks. Actually, I love teaching Sunday School. It is my favorite way to serve my church. I learned to teach the Bible from my mother, who still teaches a weekly Bible study, too.

This is me, a feminist, with my newborn son.

I don’t really want to preach. I just want to teach and support women who do want to preach. I prefer wearing bras to the alternative. I’ve never burned one. I rarely curse (and when I do you better pay attention), and I’ll stop watching a show if it has too much language and sex (or I’ll skip parts). I know some of you will think that is funny, and it is, but it is also true. Just ask my husband.

I like to do things that help the people in my life flourish. This is probably why I love teaching. I would rather be reading at home than speaking on stage, and I’d definitely rather be at home reading, or building legos, than at a social gathering where I have to talk to lots of people. I really do love hosting people in my home, though.

The cakes I, a feminist, have made. A chocolate cake I made last summer for small group and a birthday cake I made and decorated (the eye of Sauron if you are not a LOTR fan) for my son’s 9th birthday. My mother-in-law helped me ice the cake after my father-in-law drew the pattern.

And I am a feminist.

I remember, once, a friend reported to me that her more conservative friend, after meeting me for the first time, remarked, “She is so nice!” It surprised her friend that someone who identifies as a feminist could be nice.

I surprise people a lot. People who only know my name, but have never met me. People who only have read what those who have a stake in maintaining patriarchal theology say about me. People who know me and only later realize that the mom of their child’s friend who kept the Jr High volleyball books is the same person who wrote The Making of Biblical Womanhood.

I am surprised a lot, too, by how the word “feminism” evokes apprehension in Christian circles. Not so long ago, my husband and I were eating dinner with some parents from my daughter’s school. One mom began a story with, “I am not a feminist, but…..” Around the same time I heard a local pastor blame feminism for leading Christian women astray.

“The whole Women’s Empowerment Movement seems to be making women men, which feels like what he says in Genesis 3 is going to happen. He says, Your desire will be for your husband. That word desire is the same word in Genesis 4, where it says to Cain, Sin is crouching out your door and it desires you.
It desires to rule over you. And it seems like the complementarianism is under attack and being replaced with egalitarianism. I just, I don’t know, man.
I desire better for my sisters.”
From Becoming Something with Jonathan Pokluda: Episode 298: Where Are The Godly Girls?, Dec 23, 2024

I also desire better for my sisters and brothers.

I desire for Christians to tell the truth about feminism instead of turning it into a bogeyman and using the fear of it to shame women into supporting patriarchal systems that do not reflect the goodness of God.

So, tell me, what do you think feminism is? (I am leaving my comments open on this post, so this isn’t just a rhetorical question; I really want to know as long as your comments are clean and respectful. If you don’t want to tell me, just think about it.)

Do you fear the word feminism? (ditto)

If so, why? (ditto)

What made you fear it? (ditto and etc.)

Do you think your church world has told you the truth about feminism actually is?

If you are unsure, would you be willing to learn more?

This is me, a feminist, with Mary Wollstonecraft in Trinity College, Dublin. She is one of the mothers of feminism. I’ll tell you about her, too.

I’m not great about continuing series on my substack, but I am going to do this one. I want to introduce you to what feminism actually is—the good, the bad, and the ugly. I want to introduce you to what my students learn. I want to introduce you to some feminists who will surprise you. I want to talk about the shortcomings of feminism, the goals of feminism (it isn’t destroying the family, btw), and the history of feminism. I want to talk about it from my perspective as a Christian woman, too.

So, off and on this summer, I am going to talk about feminism.

I hope you stay with me.

How do you feel about feminism?

Comments