Hi liz

Thank you for your comment at Provoketive Magazine (http://provoketive.com). We’re creating a space of rich conversation about life, faith, justice and culture without judgment. Our desire is to provoke the reader’s imagination through conversation and open up spaces of dialogue, learning, and hope.  We want to invite you to come back soon and continue to participate in the conversation. 

Thank you,
Jonathan Brink
Provoketive Magazine

You posted the following comment:
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I am very late to this discussion and I think that many have made great points. Johnathan, I appreciated that you "wondered what it would be like to be a women in a male dominated society." I can’t say I have ever had a man ask me that, but here are some things that came to my mind immediately.
•	It isn’t much fun.
•	It means hearing/learning about male (exclusively) heroes/movers-and-shakers in cultural and biblical history. But then when you emulate those heroes, you are criticized and condemned for being “too masculine,” “assertive,” “loud,” “bossy,” “usurping what doesn’t belong to you”—as though courage and faith that is expressed through teaching, exhortation, prophecy, and evangelism are male traits. I honestly don’t ever remember learning about any women leaders in world history until I was in high school (although there were, in fact, many) and certainly I never heard about women heroes of the Bible preached in church (except for Mary). I grew up literally thinking that there were none.
•	It means living your entire life hearing things like “mankind” and “man” instead of “humankind” or “humanity”; or “you run like a girl” (obviously bad) or “don’t be such a cry baby” (even worse) and you quickly absorb the concept that  males are representative of all humankind. So maleness becomes the measure or plumb line for what is excellent or preferable. And you measure yourself by that plumb line to see if you pass or fail.
•	It means living your life hiding your true self in order to keep up the appearance of being acceptably “feminine”—whatever that means. I still don’t know what that means. I am a woman, but I don’t often think of myself as a woman, but rather as a human being. It is not until I have done or said something that doesn’t fit the definition of feminine, and I receive push-back against it, that I realize that I have stepped outside the boundaries. But, I am female, so who has the right to define what is feminine? Shouldn’t it be females? I am simply who I am.
Once, a male friend of mine made the comment that I “think like a man.” It had never occurred to me whether or not I thought like a man or a woman. (I didn’t know what to think of that—whether I should fell complimented or insulted. I think he was simply surprised).
•	It means at times having a deep sense of shame for being female, because many of the things that are stereotypically female are not valued.
•	It means having people not take you seriously, or treat you like a child, because “what can a woman contribute that is of value?”
These are the things that came to mind immediately. I am sure that if I thought longer, I could think of more.

I am glad that some are willing to have this conversation.