Jenna, who was born “Walter,” has been surgically/hormonally “re-gendered” to look like a woman. He was originally banned from the beauty competition because he didn’t meet the “born female” requirement. But famous feminist lawyer and women’s rights advocate, Gloria Allred, quickly took up his cause. Allred argued that the rule that a contestant has to be a “naturally born female” to compete against females was “blatantly discriminatory.” And pageant owner, Donald Trump, agreed.

Whoa. So now feminists believe that you don’t have to be a naturally born female to compete against females? Think about the implications of that for a moment. It doesn’t bode well for women in sports, does it?

Because if you consistently apply Allred’s reasoning, a Walter-turned-Jenna ought to be allowed to compete against females in other venues too. It’s the next logical step.

Take the Olympics, for example. What if 6’1” Walter-turned-Jennas were allowed to race against our “naturally born female” daughters in the women’s 100 meter sprint? Jump quads against them in women’s figure skating?  And take them to the mat in women’s wrestling?

I’m a tall woman, just shy of 6’. But a Walter-turned-Jenna has 50% greater total muscle mass than me. Even at the same height and weight, I would only be 80% as strong. He has a larger heart and larger lungs, and greater amounts of red blood cells flowing through his veins. If a Walter-turned-Jenna jogged at 50% of his capacity, I would need to work at over 70% of my capacity to keep up. His bone structure, the angle of alignment of his elbows, pelvis, and other male skeletal distinctives would also give him an advantage over me in most sports. His femaleness is a facade. No amount of gender-reassignment surgery and artificial hormones can change the maleness of his DNA. Each cell in his body remains distinctly male.

If a natural born woman competes against a he-turned-she, the odds of winning are not in the natural born woman’s favor. So in the end, Allred’s feminist “advocacy for women” will end up favoring those who were born male and discriminating against those who were born female.

Women will lose. And the ideology that purports to better the lives of women ends up harming women. It’s the ultimate irony, isn’t it?

But I guess it just goes to show what happens when people ignore God, and assume the right to self-define.

Related posts:

1. Teaching Young Women to be True Women
2. Women aren’t Fish and Men aren’t Bicycles
3. Women, Typology, and 1 Timothy 2:15

Forget the “his” and “hers.” Sweden has introduced a new, gender-neutral pronoun: “hen.”

The word was added to the online version of the country’s National Encyclopedia days after International Women’s Day. It was sparked by the publication of Sweden’s first ever gender-neutral children’s book, “Kivi och Monsterhund” (Kivi and Monsterdog). The child, “Kivi,” whose gender is non-specified, wants a dog for “hen’s” birthday.

Toward a Gender Neutral Society

Newspaper columnists, TV announcers, feminist bloggers, and Swedish gender-neutral educators could not be more pleased. The Nordic country has always advocated gender equality. It has the highest proportion of working women in the world, and females earn about two-thirds of all college degrees. But now, activists want to push the matter to its natural and logical conclusion. They want to abolish gender altogether, and construct a utopian, gender neutral society.  They’re intent on raising up a new generation of children who’ve been freed from the limitations of stereotyped gender roles.

Breaking down gender distinction is a core mission in the national curriculum for Sweden’s preschools. Many have hired “gender pedagogues” (gender police) to help staff identify language and behaviors that risk reinforcing stereotypes. At the taxpayer-funded Egalia preschool in Stockholm, staff avoid using words such as “him” or “her” and address the children as “friends” or “hens” rather than girls and boys.

In these gender-neutral schools, language is regulated, certain forms of play are taboo, and children’s interactions and attitudes are closely monitored by teachers. One Swedish school got rid of its toy cars because boys “gender-coded” them and preferred them over other toys. Another preschool removed “free playtime” from its schedule because, as a pedagogue at the school maintained, “when children play freely, stereotypical gender patterns are born and cemented.” In order to keep things gender neutral, every detail of the children’s interactions are micromanaged by politically correct adults, from how they form friendships, to what games they play and what songs they sing.

Does Language Matter?

Swedes figure that the introduction of a gender-neutral pronoun will help matters along. After all, how can you raise a child in an environment free of gender distinction when the very language you speak distinguishes boys from girls?

They have a point. Language does make a difference. Obliterating gender-distinct pronouns will undoubtedly help obliterate gender distinctions.  If you blur the words, you blur the meaning.

For instance, if proponents of gender-inclusive Bible translations were to follow their lead, a few years from now we might crack open the first few pages of Genesis to read this politically-correct, gender-neutralized translation of the text:

“So God created hens in Hen own image, in the image of God Hen created hen; hen and hen Hen created them. . . and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the hen, Hen made into a hen, and brought hen to the hen. . . therefore a hen shall leave hen’s parental hens and hold fast to hen’s hen.”

I’m only half kidding. If they have the audacity to change the language to make it more inclusive, the next logical step is to change it to make it more gender neutral.

The language does matter. “God created us in HIS own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” We were created to display His glory. Male and female. He and she. His and hers . . . not hens. The pronouns matter. Gender matters.

Hard to See

Someday, the English language may change. As in Sweden, the politically-correct gender pundits may force it on us. But I, for one, will resist the change. For in stripping our language and lives of gender distinction, we lose the depth and color of the image God has given us to display His glory. We turn off the lights, so to speak. All the rich, vibrant colors and textures fade into dull, monolithic grey. And it becomes hard to see.

And that, no doubt, is Satan’s plan.

When we lose the image, we lose our selves. God did not create gender-neutral beings. God did not speak in gender-neutral language. Therefore, stripping a language of its gender distinctions, and teaching children that they shouldn’t think of themselves as him and her, but as hens, ought to offend our sensibilities and ruffle our collective feathers.

It’s just a horribly bad idea.

———————–

What do you think? How do you think a gender neutral environment might impact kindergarten children? Do you think it’s possible to over-ride who God created us to be? Do you think a gender neutral society is better than a society that upholds gender distinctions? What sort of consequences might result from a gender neutralizing social experiment?

Related posts:

1. 10 Reasons Why the New NIV is Bad for Women
2. God Created MAN
3. Wild vs. Wild Contrast #8: Body Language

This post was written by Heather Patenaude. 

In 2008, when I attended my first True Woman Conference, I had no idea how God would use that weekend to set me on a new path in my walk with Christ. It was the day after my 34th birthday, and Mary Kassian’s message rocked my thinking. I was a feminist! The culture had infiltrated my mind way more than I cared to admit. God had some foundational repair work to do.

At the end of the weekend, I was more than thrilled to sign the True Woman Manifesto, and with gusto, I took this message back to my church and girlfriends. But I found out that most of my friends weren’t interested. I felt like I was hitting brick walls and eventually just got frustrated with even trying to talk about biblical womanhood. (Insert Heather not following the Holy Spirit here!)

By the time True Woman ’10 rolled around, I was beyond excited, longing for deep fellowship with other sisters. And that’s just what I got. I didn’t know it at the time, but God also had plans to peel back another layer and dig even deeper into my heart and attitude.

It started when Nancy Leigh DeMoss shared that she had just come from her cousin’s funeral, where the line to visit the family was hours long. She explained that her cousin didn’t have a big platform, but simply lived out biblical womanhood with her husband and sons. That impacted me greatly!

Then Holly Elliff said that we’re busy doing things, but are we busy doing the things God has called us to do? Those were two of the most impactful moments for me at True Woman ’10.

I came away from the conference knowing just what God wanted me to do:just do it. Just live out biblical womanhood with my husband and sons. Be a true woman in my home for an audience of One, the One who really matters.

A couple weeks later, I was listening to a podcast with Mary Kassian talking to Bob Lepine about The Art of Marriage. After looking over the website, praying about it, and talking to our pastors, my husband and I decided to host an Art of Marriage conference. That stirred in us a desire to do more marriage ministry.

Now, a year later, we have a newlywed ministry at our church and are pouring into the lives of five newlywed couples. These couples are watching our life, marriage, and family—watching us live out biblical manhood and womanhood.

I smile as I think how God had to rearrange my heart, attitude, and ideas. He was so tender and gracious with me. His patience is priceless!

This is why I am beyond excited to talk about True Woman ’12. If you want God to pick you up, put you on a new path, and do a new work in your heart, then plan on joining me in Indianapolis in September for True Woman ’12! I can’t wait to see what God has for me (and you!) next.

How about you? Did God rock your thinking at a True Woman Conference? I’d love to hear about it!

Related posts:

1. The True Woman ‘CLICK’
2. True Woman ’10
3. True Woman 08 – SOLD OUT

Meet Sharon Beougher, a high school Bible teacher at Christian Academy of Louisville. Sharon has a passion to help the girls in her school make wise decisions about how to live. She knows that some of the biggest “influencers” on young people are their teachers. So she intentionally uses the opportunity God has given her to make an impact in their lives. I asked Sharon to share how “Girls Gone Wise” helps her do this:

Girls Gone Wise by Mary Kassian has been a perfect book to do with high school girls at school.  The sessions are short enough to cover one or two points of contrast between the wise woman and the wild woman; each session include biblical truths pulled out of Proverbs 7, and they give practical ways to become a wise women.

As a teacher at school, I have found two different ways to use the material.  First, I invited the girls who had study hall to come to my room during my planning period on Fridays to study the book. Sometimes we would do just one session and some weeks we did two.  We discussed the highlights of the chapter, answered some of the questions on the worksheet (printed from their resources on-line) and I followed some very helpful suggestions from the leader’s guide on-line.

It was extremely helpful to have the leader’s guide and the worksheets for each young lady (which has just recently conveniently been put into a companion book).  The girls had the questions to think about and it made the discussion easy to keep going.

At the end of the study, I printed off the leader’s guide for the girls so that they could start a Bible study themselves with other girls (high school OR middle school).  These studies were planned to be a half hour before school.  I found this to be an easy way to not only to teach the girls about living a godly life, but to teach them to teach others!

The way I am using it this year at school is to have a Friday lunch Bible study where the girls come into my room with their lunches, and we cover just one chapter each week.  Doing it this way gives all the girls a chance to participate if they choose.  The girls who went through it last year will be facilitators of the lunch group and will help teach.  They can all register on the Girls Gone Wise blog and see video clips and other articles to add to their learning. This semester we have 30 freshman/sophomore girls going through it with the biology teacher and over 15 juniors and seniors (led by two of the girls that went through it last year)

My vision for the material is to introduce starting a new semester class splitting up the guys and girls and using it as part of an actual curriculum for a semester “girls only” class during their high school years.  I teach at one of the largest Christian school systems in the United States so I know that I have the freedom to teach Christian values to teenagers, but if a teacher at a public school wanted to meet with some girls outside of school at a coffee shop or a home, this is definitely a perfect book to use!

Sharon wants to challenge other teachers to intentionally reach out to young women. She says, “Let’s take the baton and disciple these young ladies that the Lord has entrusted to us for a short amount of time!”

We agree, and we salute you, Sharon, for loving these young women, and for exemplifying for them what it means to walk wisely in a world gone wild. Congratulations for being our Wise Thing of the month!

Do you have a Girls Gone Wise story to share?  Email us: office @ girlsgonewise dot com.

The Christian Academy School System serves almost 3,000 students in Preschool – 12th grade on four campuses in the Louisville and Southern Indiana area.  Christian Academy offers an excellent, well-balanced education to students that supports their efforts to reach their God-given potential in academics, athletics, missions, fine arts, and extracurricular activities. We intend for our students to know Jesus as their personal Savior, to know that God has a plan for their lives, and to be noticeably different because they think from a Biblical worldview.

Related posts:

1. Ludy & Gresh Join Girls Gone Wise
2. Girls Gone Wise Video Shoot
3. Cover Design for Girls Gone Wise

The first thing my husband said when he picked up and examined a copy was, “WOW!  This is really striking!”  And it is!  This new eight-week “True Woman 101 – Divine Design” Bible Study is  printed in full color. It’s bright. It’s bold. It’s beautiful! And it’s chock-full of great content! My friend, Nancy, and I spent many months writing it. I had thoroughly previewed a digital copy, but I gotta admit, the final product still WOW-ed me !

It was our aim to provide teaching on womanhood that went beyond cliched advice, shallow caricatures, and cookie-cutter solutions. We wanted to provide a resource with foundational teaching that could be applied to different stages and circumstances of life, and that would be just as applicable to the great-granddaughters of our generation as it is to us.  I think we hit the proverbial “nail on the head”! At least I hope and pray that we did.

Only seven days until True Woman 101 hits the shelves in stores–and until the launch of the new TrueWoman101.com website!

Watch the Promo Video:

• Download a Sampler
• Take advantage of pre-publication pricing! (Hurry – the offer is only good until March 1, 2012)

To celebrate getting my box of books, I’m giving away two free copies! Just leave a comment below, and I’ll draw two names from comments posted before Sunday, February 26, 2012 at midnight (CST)

Congratulations to Tamara Thompson and Rachelle H. –winners of the draw for the True Woman 101 Bible Study books!

(The draw is now closed)

Related posts:

1. Announcing True Woman 101 – Divine Design
2. True Woman 1829
3. True Woman ’10