It gave me a fantastic idea of who people are, where they’re at and what they want to see more of. For example, I didn’t know around 20% of readers are clergy, consecrated religious or actively discerning the religious life. That’s kinda cool!

Today, I’m beginning the process of moving the blog to self-hosted WordPress with Bluehost. To make sure you don’t lose track of Catholic Cravings, be sure to like the blog on Facebook!

God willing, it will all go relatively smoothly and I’ll see you on the other side!

Love yous all!

So if you read Catholic Cravings at all, I’d love you to fill out this quick survey.

At 7 1/2 questions, it’s super short, you can skip any question you want, and it’s ALL multiple choice (ok, almost all multiple choice.) I just did it – deliberately slowly – and it took me 1 minute and 11 seconds.

It doens’t get much quicker or easier than that.

In return, you will have my undying gratitude and God willing, a better blog here. (Because you guys, secret changes are afoot!)

Take Literally a Minute and Do Catholic Cravings Reader Survey Now

I was driving home tonight, I was angsty, I was confused, I was thoroughly dissatisfied. I had gone out some hours earlier, thinking that spending a little time at Church would help ease my neediness. What I needed was a hug from a mate (that’s what we call a ‘friend’ in Australia,) and I got the hug, but it didn’t cut it. I was empty still.

St Teresa of Avila in ecstasy, heart pierced with a lance

My hunger was earthly, I needed human contact because I was feeling lonely- but my hunger was also heavenly. Now, this ‘heavenly longing’ stuff might sound cheesy to you, but hear me out, because I’m talking about getting what you want, when you don’t know quite what you want. It’s kind of physical, really; It’s like earthly appetites, and I mean all of the earthly appetites, have become vaster, more immense, more voracious.

There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else. 

-C S Lewis, Problem of Pain

For me, what I thought was loneliness, and boredom, and low self-esteem, amounted to something far greater. It became that hoary chestnut, that friend of old, that deep longing. That longing that God planted in me before I could talk or walk. It’s a source of torment, a thorn in my side, yet it’s my truest pleasure, leading me to the highest summit: Christ’s sacred heart, and the Eucharist

But I’m not there yet, I don’t have it, probably, none of us, this side of heaven, have that perfect fulfilment.

“You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it – tantalising glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear.

But if it should really become manifest – if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself – you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say ‘Here at last is the thing I was made for.”

-C S Lewis, Problem of Pain

Yet, the desiring of it is so exquisite that I wouldn’t want it to stop. It makes me faint with pleasure, and groan with pain. Trying to know God is weird that way.

The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it.

-Chapter XXIX; Part 17, Saint Teresa’s Autobiography

I don’t know why He allows me to feel such pain. But at the same time, sometimes it’s moments like this, where I feel tragically alone, and scared and desperate, that I can, finally, see straight, and think clearly. He is the only thing that satisfies me, and I see that now, because

 “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

-C S Lewis

Now, I don’t know how to form a segue into this inexpressibly beautiful litany to the Sacred Heart (and I have tried) so I’ll just let it speak for itself.

Heart of Jesus, desire of the everlasting hills,
Heart of Jesus, patient and most merciful,
Heart of Jesus, enriching all who invoke Thee,
Heart of Jesus, fountain of life and holiness,
Heart of Jesus, propitiation for our sins,
Heart of Jesus, loaded down with revilings,
Heart of Jesus, bruised for our offenses,

-Entire Litany here 

— 1 —

Yesterday, New South Wales had one of the worst days for fires. One man has died, and hundreds of homes have been lost as hundreds of blazes burned to Sydney’s north, west, and south. It was so hot and dry, and even though it is only October, these are the worst fires in NSW for over a decade.

A massive smoke cloud covered all of Sydney, turning the city an eerie orange.

Although we were completely safe, the fact that the smoke was so bad in the middle of city just made me even more aware of just how bad these fires must be. I went for a bit of a walk, and took this pic. (And no, there were no actual clouds that day – that’s smoke and no, there’s no filter either. It was freaky and awful.)

— 2 —

On that note, can you pray for our firefighters, for all those who have lost their homes, and that the fires would get under control as quickly as possible? Also, please pray for the soul of the man who died and for comfort for his family and friends.

The fires are still burning, very high temperatures are expected in the next few days, our premier said that it would be a miracle if no else died. He’s right.

— 3 —

The top post on the blog this week was I’m a Feminist Because I Love Patriarchy. I acknowledge this was a stretch for a lot of people and I can’t the feedback was wholly positive…

Did you hear that loud groaning sound? That was the sound of every self-respecting feminist turning over in her grave. And that brief pop? That was the law of non-contradiction exploding. Oops!

But for the moment at least, I stand by it.

Feminism challenges the abuses of men’s authority, whether in marriage or the parliament. It demands legal, social, and cultural rights for women because these rights should have been guaranteed anyway. Feminism is a stop-gap because those who should have been the strongest protectors of the dignity and well-being of women failed. On both an individual and societal level, men abused the sacred authority entrusted to them by Almighty God.

— 4 —

In case you missed the news, Carpe Veritatem has moved her fabulous blog to WordPress! And what a start it’s been! She wrote a fantastic post on Catholic Complementarianism in response to Rachel Held Evans, and so naturally Rachel re-tweeted it to all over her 30,000 followers and inundated poor Carpe. How great is that!!! :D

“My point is that, despite insistent claims that they simply follow the “clear teachings of the Bible,” complementarians themselves are not in total agreement on what those teachings are. And despite all these references to a patently obvious and consistent hermeneutic regarding biblical manhood and womanhood, complementarians have failed to produce it.” …

I thought it was interesting that one could pretty much replace ‘complementarian” with “Christian”, and one would have a pretty good summary of why Catholics take issue with Sola Scriptura.

EXACTLY.

— 5 —

All this is a bit heated, no? So here’s a picture of winter!

— 6 —

Finally, my Catholic credentials were put to the test at my old (Protestant) church’s Trivia Night. One round included Medieval (i.e. Catholic) History and thankfully, I managed to get the questions right. (I would never have been able to live it down if I hadn’t… Or heard the end of it, for that matter.)

There was only one question our team got wrong and it was “Which country was Martin Luther born in?” At the urging of a few members who shall remain nameless, our team put down “Austria.” I was sure this was wrong but I was overruled.

“No, he’s German but he was born in Austria!”

“Guys, you’re thinking of Hitler! I know, it’s an easy mistake to make…”

(If you need proof that Protestants have the forbearance of saints, I called Luther Hitler and still survived the night.) I feel like there’s a moral in all this… Maybe, don’t trust the mob?

— 7 —

Also, THIS needs to happen.

Please.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

(To be clear, this is the guy whose advice on how to improve Catholic Cravings was: “be less Catholic”. But his friends said I should use more gifs too. The gifs are for you guys!!)

But ask away I did, and you know what he said this time? You should blog about why Christians aren’t crazy enough.

You should blog about why they should be crazier. 

Crazier? Really, crazier? Like more crazy?

Because here’s the thing, I already thought we were pretty weird and crazy.

I asked him to explain.

Well, he said, (and I’m paraphrasing here because I don’t wire tap the car when I’m chatting to my little brother), if you really believed what you say you believe, you’d be actually bonkers.

If you actually believed that God is real (which He’s not, he clarified) and that my life – and everyone’s life – depended on belief in Him, then shouldn’t you do anything to make sure we all believed? 

You wouldn’t have a job or stuff like, or be concerned about all this “earthly” stuff, you’d just be evangelising all the time.

Whether people wanted to hear it or not.

Wouldn’t that be pretty annoying? I asked.

Um yeah, was the emphatic response. You’d be (and I quote) “a f***ing annoying lunatic.”

But what else could you do?

He said that Christians believe the vast majority of their lives – an almost infinite majority – will be in heaven. So why would you even bother about what happens here and now? You’d be all about heaven and making sure everyone’s there.

“I mean, you have a whole bunch of people with two possible destinations. One’s heaven and one’s hell and flames and all that.

And you have one job – to get as many people as possible into column A.” (A, being heaven, I assumed.)

But Christians, he continued, are so normal. Religion is just so “earthly” and “convenient”. You’re supposed to be living by these invisible, hidden heavenly rules – but you’re so normal. You should all be crazier.

Christians aren’t crazy enough.

Hmm, said I.

And you should blog about that, he said.

And you should blog about how your atheist brother said you should blog about it.

It’ll be like…

(Ok, the inception bit was my idea just then.)

But yeah, I thought… why not?

And I won’t add any commentary. That would just confuse it and make it about all the reasons I’m not crazy enough. (Like, what about loving people where they’re at? What about speaking with gentleness and respect? What about care for creation? And sanctifying the world in our ordinariness? NO, Laura, NO. This is not the time and place.)

It will be just what you said, I told him… An abbreviated, creatively enhanced, gif-adorned version of what you said. And I’ll call it like, “Christians Aren’t Crazy Enough, Says Atheist.” He admitted that even he’d click on that… even though it had no pics of kittens.

So thanks bro for writing my next blog post. We make a great team. (*older sister starts tearing up at sibling love*)

And in thanks, here, have a kitten…

[And yes, this conversation actually roughly happened. I couldn’t make this brilliance up even if I wanted to. This stuff is GOLD.]

I’m a feminist because I love patriarchy.

Did you hear that loud groaning sound? That was the sound of every self-respecting feminist turning over in her grave. And that brief pop? That was the law of non-contradiction exploding. Oops!

In case you were wondering, I’m also a feminist because I’m not a hypocrite and because being female is still dangerous. But still…

But before you write me off as a crazy person, hear me out.

One of the fundamental tenets of feminism is that patriarchy is bad. Like, really bad.

Patriarchy, loosely defined, is the social structure that enables men to exercise dominance over women. The word itself means “rule of the father” but patriarchy itself encompasses all levels of society, from the relationship between husband and wife to culture, religion and the state.

On the one hand, when feminists bag out patriarchy, they are usually condemning the same things I condemn: the abuse, oppression, and condescending infantilisation of women. On the other hand, I am a Christian and a traditional one at that, and we Christians have a lot of patriarchy.

Hans Baldung, Holy Trinity, date unknown

Christians believe in one God, the Father Almighty and maker of all things, including human beings beginning with the man Adam. Although man sinned and fell, God established covenants with the patriarch Noah, the patriarch Abraham and the people of Israel; he gave Israel male kings, male priests and male prophets who were His representatives.

We believe in one Lord, the only-begotten Son of God who became a male. He is the Second Adam (Rom 5) who came to reveal the Kingdom of God (Mk 1) and God as Father (John 17) and to redeem us by His death and resurrection. We believe in one Holy Spirit, the “spirit of sonship” (Rom 8:15), who makes us adoptive sons of God in Christ and by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Gal 4:5-6)

And in the Church, a divine hierarchical institution built on the foundation of the twelve male apostles, we have priests we call Father, bishops who are typos tou Patros (image of the Father), actual, honest-to-God patriarchs (i.e. of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem), and even a Holy Father to top it all off.

And that’s barely scratching the surface.

So what gives? How could I possibly be cool with both feminism and patriarchy?

We can distinguish between the intrinsic character of something and its abuse, even when abuse is always present to a greater or less extent. It was C. S. Lewis who first clarified this for me.

Lewis says that he is a democrat; he believes in political equality. But he does so not because people “are so good that they deserve a share in the government of the commonwealth, and so wise that the commonwealth needs their advice” but because people are “so wicked that not one of them can be trusted with any irresponsible power over his fellows.” He believed in democracy because he believed in the Fall and in the reality of Original Sin.

He goes on,

I do not believe that God created an egalitarian world. I believe the authority of parent over child, husband over wife, learned over simple to have been as much a part of the original plan as the authority of man over beast. I believe that if we had not fallen…patriarchal monarchy would be the sole lawful government. But since we have learned sin, we have found, as Lord Acton says, that ‘all power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ The only remedy has been to take away the powers and substitute a legal fiction of equality. The authority of father and husband has been rightly abolished on the legal plane, not because this authority is in itself bad (on the contrary, it is, I hold, divine in origin), but because fathers and husbands are bad. Theocracy has been rightly abolished not because it is bad that learned priests should govern ignorant laymen, but because priests are wicked men like the rest of us. Even the authority of man over beast has had to be interfered with because it is constantly abused.

– C. S. Lewis, from Membership, “Weight of Glory”

I agree with Lewis.

Jean Nocret, Mythological Portrait of the Family of Louis XIV, 1670 (Palais du Versailles)

I’m a feminist – but not because I think undifferentiated equality is actually good and right. I actually love patriarchy. I believe in the authority, as Lewis says, of parent over child, husband over wife, lord over subject, learned over wise, man over animals, and God over all.

But this authority exists not so the one above can use it to his (or her) own ends. It exists so that the one above can love and serve the one under. Authority, in the Christian understanding, exists for service. We see this most clearly in the perfect human being, Christ who,

“though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” (Php 2:6-8)

He is King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and yet He “came not to be served but to serve.” (Mk 10:45) This is the model for true God-given authority. It is the model for parents who give everything for their children. It is the model for governing authorities who are “God’s servant[s] for your good” (Rom 13:4). And it is the model for husbands and wives. As I’ve written elsewhere, “our hierarchy… is a hierarchy of agape, of sacrificial, servant-hearted love.”

If you’re thinking this sounds all very idealistic, you’re right.

It is.

And that’s where feminism comes in. Feminism challenges the abuses of men’s authority, whether in marriage or the parliament. It demands legal, social, and cultural rights for women because these rights should have been guaranteed anyway. Feminism is a stop-gap because those who should have been the strongest protectors of the dignity and well-being of women failed. On both an individual and societal level, men abused the sacred authority entrusted to them by Almighty God.

To be clear, I’m not blaming all men for this, or even most. In some cases, men were and are personally culpable. But much of the time, the universal human inclination to sin distorted patriarchy. It’s just that men had more authority to start with and so they had more to abuse.

Thus, in some sense, I am a feminist because sin exists.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Fall of Man, 1537 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

But paradoxically, I also believe feminism can heal and restore authentic patriarchy. Feminism reminds us all of the inherent dignity, worth and equality of women and men and that is essential for patriarchy to work as it should. After all,

“The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”

– Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible

As a feminist, I can be secure enough in my own worth that I can submit to my (future, currently hypothetically) husband, not because I have to but because I want to. As a society that has embraced feminism, we can preach the authority of husbands and be more confident that this authority will be exercised for the good of wives because it will be understood in that context. (Wait, think being under authority is inherently degrading?)

As a result of feminism, we will also have far more legal protections present to deal with abuses of patriarchy. And that’s only good news for patriarchy. I almost think of feminism as a necessary pruning of patriarchy – a much-needed detox or righting.

Of course, it will never get there completely – or even mostly – while human beings are sinful.

But one day, the Wedding Supper of the Lamb will come.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the lion with the calf, and “a little child shall lead them” (Isa 11:6) Mercy and truth will meet, and justice and peace will kiss. (Ps 85:10)

And you never know, maybe even feminism and patriarchy will too. 

It’s a privilege to read of their purity of heart, their sincerity, their (very human) pursuit of a holy life, etc. etc.

So, I’d like to introduce you to a voice for love, integrity and Christ.

His name is Steve Gershom and he is a gay Catholic.

Now, I appreciate that “gay” is a term loaded with cultural connotations, and this may prevent a complete understanding of Steve Gershom or any other complicated, varied human being with same sex attraction, or opposite sex attraction for that matter. Words are limited.

However we live in a society, and it employs language for meaning, and so… Steve is gay, and he is Catholic.

Here is part of his story, it might express some of his searing honesty,

Sex isn’t everything, but as anyone with any kind of sexual dysfunction knows, it’s an awful lot. Put the sexual aspect together with the other things that homosexual men and women often experience — depression, low self-esteem, loneliness, a sense (however false) of being utterly different — and you have a heavy cross.

As you can tell, Steve pulls no punches.

When people think of the Catholic church, there’s no mistaking that a myriad of sad and horrendous things come to mind.

Yet, for all the human crappiness, it is Christ’s church.

He built it, and he said that he would protect it.

And I see Christ in Steve, and in the Holy Father and in the millions of other Saints, named and unknown, alive and not alive, throughout the ages.

People at their best, people cooperating with the Holy Spirit.

Thank God for Gay Catholics like Steve, they’re vocation is in the real world, and their voice is crucial for an integrated understanding of holiness, marriage and celibacy.

Here’s Steve’s commentary on his favourite parts of the Pope’s big interview some time ago, the same interview where the pope made this much needed statement,

“A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person. Here we enter into the mystery of the human being. In life, God accompanies persons, and we must accompany them, starting from their situation. It is necessary to accompany them with mercy. When that happens, the Holy Spirit inspires the priest to say the right thing.

Our pope is making a human response to people’s needs (See his recent letter of his to an Italian Gay Society.)

AND Superheroes like Steve Gershom are loving Christ and loving themselves with transparency and self-esteem.

If we keep it up, we can heal the wounds of isolation, insecurity and pain that have been made in gay people.

These scars were caused by members of the church itself as well as by society’s facile and stupid expectations of people: gay and straight or whatever else.

Pray for us Steve.

Of the move, she wrote:

I just like the way it works so much better.

Don’t we all, Monica… Don’t we all.

Monica is a a mathematician, theologian, guerrilla evangelist, cyclist, basketballer, lover of British comedy, eldest of six and (whatever she says to the contrary) an excellent blogger. She is also Catholic, a dear friend, and if anyone is single-handedly responsible for my return to the Catholic Church, it’s her. (She’s the one I write about here and here.) (She’s also Australian! Yay for Aussie Catholics!)

On Carpe Veritatem, Monica covers a wide range of topics and has some fantastic links. Some of my personal faves have been her posts on re-arranging all the mysteries of the Rosary, the errors of compartmentalisation in education, and a particularly comprehensive take-down of The Gospel’s Coalition article on the papacy.

So carpe diem and go follow Carpe Veritatem this very minute!

(Didn’t like the carpe pun? What about this one… We all need a CV so have you got your Carpe Veritatem?? Oh, I crack myself up sometimes…)

You can also follow Monica on Twitter! Which you totally should because she’s a much better tweeter than I am. #harshbuttrue #Iknowit #herjokesareactuallyfunny #loveheranyway

— 1 —

This week, I have been in awe of Malala Yousafzai. What an incredibly young woman. Just awe. Nothing more.

This girl is going to win a Nobel Peace Prize and she thoroughly deserves.

— 2 —

My top post of the week, beyond any doubt, was I’m a Feminist Because I’m Not a Hypocrite.

I’m not prepared to jettison feminism simply because the feminist cri de guerre at the moment is that murdering babies in the womb is pro-woman. Just as feminism has changed over the years, I believe it can keep changing. And when Christians rubbish feminism or treat it like another F-word, all I hear is that they wish I didn’t have a chance to go to school, own property, vote or have a mind of my own. 

I am part of this feminist story and without feminism, my life would be drastically different. And by different, I mean worse.

— 3 —

Also, THIS.

— 4 —

My fave post this week was from Joseph at Lonely Pilgrim on Did Catholics Change the Ten Commandments? It’s a brilliant and clear look at a surprisingly interesting topic. Joseph even translated some St Augustine for us so we could hear it from the horse’s mouth. How great is that! :D

Did Catholics change the Ten Commandments? The presentation of the Ten Commandments (or Decalogue) used by Catholics is in fact different from the one used by many Protestants. The “Catholic Ten Commandments” seems, very suspiciously, to omit the commandment that forbids the making of “graven images” — which, to the minds of anti-Catholics, seems to confirm their every accusation: “Catholics worship idols, and not only do they know it, but they changed the Ten Commandments so their gullible followers would never even know it was wrong!”

— 5 —

Check out this beautiful song from Louisa & Marilyn. It just gives me such hope to see such talent and passion for Our Lord!

And now we’re crying to You
This world is limiting who I am
Your beauty damaged by reckless hands
I see my fault in all of this
And now we’re crying to You
This world is holding me back from You
Come LORD and pull me into Your truth

— 6 —

I also loved this post from Faith & Theology on The Theologian’s Automobile: or, how to tell you are a Docetist. A great (and pretty hilarious) reminder that the Church exists and has authority to decree doctrine precisely because we need her to! Echoing similar thoughts from Chesterton and the grand adventure of Orthodoxy, Ben Myers writes:

It has often been observed that most of us incline instinctively to one or another form of heresy. It is why heresy is the most natural (and also the most individually satisfying) thing in the world, while orthodoxy takes effort and requires a whole community of individuals listening to one another and not only to their own inner voices.

For the record, I think I’m a natural Arian, which let’s be honest, makes a whole lot more sense than this craaaazy “Trinity” thing we’re got going on…

— 7 —

And on that heretical note,

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

What’s the face of feminism?

Feminism has had many faces over the years. We’ve had Mary Wollstonecraft, Emmeline Pankhurst, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, Germaine Greer, and Naomi Wolf.

But the new face of authentic feminism, I’d argue, is a sixteen year old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai.

Much of the critique of feminism in Western countries and among Christians is that the battle has been won. Women have rights, right? So what more could they possibly want?

This makes me angry. Very angry.

Malala Yousafzai lived in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, overrun by the Taliban. When she was eleven, the Taliban issued an edict that girls could no longer attend school. With her father’s support, Malala went to school anyway. She began campaigning for the right to education, particularly for girls and was featured in two New York Times documentaries for her outspoken activism. When she was fifteen, she was shot by a member of the Taliban. Unconscious and in a critic condition, she was flown to Birmingham for surgery and amazingly, survived. On her sixteenth birthday, she addressed the U.N.

Dear friends, on 9 October 2012, the Taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead. They shot my friends, too. They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed… we realise the importance of light when we see darkness. We realise the importance of our voice when we are silenced.

In the same way, when we were in Swat, the north of Pakistan, we realised the importance of pens and books when we saw the guns. The wise saying, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” It is true. The extremists are afraid of books and pens. The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women. The power of the voice of women frightens them.

Malala’s story has achieved international prominence because her father is a well-known activist, she is incredibly articulate (and English-speaking) and her oppressors are practically a byword for evil. It’s an easy story to tell and an easy one to sell.

But what about the hundreds of thousands of women sold in sex slavery every year?

Or the millions of girls aborted simply for being girls?

These sort of everyday evils often escape our notice. This is in part why we need feminism.

Anyone who says feminism has achieved its purpose has clearly never bothered to remove their head from a certain nether region. Because if they did, they would see that women are still overwhelming disadvantaged and oppressed throughout the world.

And it’s that “throughout the world” bit that really matters. If the only women who mattered were white, western, and middle class then yes, maybe feminism could tone it down a little. Maybe you could argue feminism has achieved its major objectives. But most women – yes, most – still lack the sort of freedoms my friends and I take for granted every day.

This has been the major achievement of third wave feminism. (What’s third wave feminism, you ask?) It’s tempting to dismiss the third wave for promoting promiscuity as empowerment. I know I certainly hate that aspect. But one undoubted good of third wave feminism is that feminism began critiquing itself and feminists realised that they often neglected the equally important vectors of race, class, and ethnicity in shaping disadvantage.

With the third wave, feminism truly went global.

And by God, it needed to.

Obviously, it is impossible to capture the personal experiences of half the planet. Still, a few stats might be in order just in case anyone thinks feminism is redundant in our world today.

• Women make up around 70% of the world’s poorest people.
• Women earn about 3/4 of the pay the men do for the same work.
• Women aged 15-45 are more likely to die or be maimed from male violence than from cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined.
• 70% of women murdered are murdered by their husbands or long-term partners.
• 130 million women have undergone genital mutilation.
• Women make up around 80% of all people living in slavery today.
• 1,000 women die unnecessarily from childbirth every day.
• Due to sex-selective abortion and infanticide, about 100 million girls have been killed and sex ratios dangerously unbalanced.

These, I gathered from the website Half the Sky, the addition to the book of the same name which you should all read. As Half the Sky points out, while discrimination can be a real problem in many Western countries, it is rarely lethal. That is not the case in the rest of the world.

“In India, for example, mothers are less likely to take their daughters to be vaccinated than their sons – that alone accounts for one fifth of India’s missing females – while studies have found that, on average, girls are brought to the hospital only when they are sicker than boys taken to the hospital. All told, girls in India from one to five years of age are 50 percent more likely to die than boys of the same age. The best estimate is that a little Indian girl dies from discrimination every four minutes.”

– Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky, 2010, p. 39

This pattern is evident across the world, particularly in places of conflict and/or scarcity. When societies who value men above women suffer, women suffer more because they’re  not as “important” or “useful”. It’s appalling but irrefutable logic.

But I’m not just a feminist because women are still oppressed and disadvantaged throughout the world.

It might be dangerous being female in the world today, but we females are also dangerous. Women aren’t merely victims, we are also the solution.

I’m a feminist because I believe empowering women is the quickest way to change the world for the better. Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he’ll eat for the rest of his life. But teach a woman to fish and she’ll feed her family, her village, and heck, probably her nation. According to some research, “for every dollar a woman earns, she invests 80 cents in her family. Men, on the other hand, invest around 30 cents.” (Again, from Half the Sky website) Women are also far less likely to spend money on alcohol, drugs, sex or other vices.

Women, with their focus on family and better impulse control, are the untapped resource in the war against poverty. And we are only slowly waking up to this. Women are strong, powerful and we can change the world for the better. We are dangerous.

I’m a feminist because the world is bigger than my backyard. The future of feminism belongs to the Malalas of the world, not the Mileys.

She is why I will call myself a feminist.

Malala at the UN, 12th July 2013