I can hear a most unusual noise emanating from my living room as I sit in the study and type. There is the sound of a footy game on the TV, the noise of the commentators and crowd in the background, with the additional sounds of young fellas making comments along with the odd cheer or two.
These are most unusual sounds, because I have been blessed with a husband who rarely tunes in to the footy. He's doing a Paul (1 Cor 9:20) and watching the footy with a bunch of blokes from our church youth group. It's "boys' afternoon" which means that I am hiding out in my study, a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Next week will be "girls' afternoon" and we'll be getting together to cook food and learn about God's invitation to his heavenly banquet (Luke 14:15-24). We're encouraging the girls to bring along friends - for those who pray, please shoot up a few for this event.
When we organise and run events like this I sometimes get nervous about gender stereotyping - I did study humanities at uni in the 1990s after all - and when the boys watch footy and the girls cook together I wonder if we're just perpetuating unhelpful stereotypes. After all, there's nothing in the Bible about football being exclusively for boys, or cooking being exclusively for girls. If anything we have at least one precedent for the blokes cooking and eating together (John 21:9-14).
However, what is evident is that split gender events work well and are often a highlight in the church calendar. We're not choosing the activity sections of the afternoons with a particular agenda, we're tapping in to what the kids are already interested in. There is something of a buzz among the younger teenage girls around baking together and I'm already a little nervous as to what they might do in and to our kitchen!
So we're sticking with occasional split gender events and I'm shelving my concerns about stereotypes - after all stereotypes are usually true, and I'd much rather eat cake than watch footy!!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
gender stereotyping?
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3 comments:
Everyone stereotypes. Everything. Its what we do. To comment and relieve a little angst of whether females and males can differ. My brother in-law loathes footy (so too does my sister) wheras I love a good game. I watched the inaugral game on Anzac day. I am a huge Western Bulldogs fan. So I say stereotyping is healthy especially if one is aware that one is doing it! :-)
I am right with you over that 'fine line' between perpetuating stereotypes and just doing what the sexes tend to enjoy. Over the last couple of years, I myself have become increasingly "feminist", at least partly due to six years of education in a girls' school where we were told constantly 'Anything a boy can do a girl can do'. But recently I was challenged when a friend suggested that perhaps men are anointed by God to be the head of households, and that essentially, it's not a woman's place. I was outraged at first by such a comment, but I am gradually coming to see that God has made us different, not one gender 'better' than the other, just different.
I can relate to that Elizabeth, having something of a feminist background myself. I certainly now think that the Bible teaches that men and women have some differences and that this has follow on effects in church and the family. Although, there's a lot that is the same for both genders - Jesus died for men and women, as women we don't need a female Saviour.
There's also a bunch of things that are just culturally determined which the Bible doesn't instruct us about. This includes stuff like what kind of activities we do when the girls or boys get together for youth activities.
So far as I can tell the Bible is silent about choosing recreational activities - apart from principles like it shouldn't involve sin and that it should be done in love. I think people can sometimes be hurt when stereotyping goes too far, which is maybe at the bottom of my concerns.
Thanks for your comments : )
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