A favourite saying among modern conservatives when someone says, “What is a woman?” is that “a woman is an adult human female”. Now I understand why this needs to be said. It needs to be said because we live in a society where people are increasingly seeking to Satanically reinterpret the definition of woman to: “anyone who identifies as a woman.” When juxtaposed with this evil definition, then it is reasonable, good and sensible to point out the obvious, that a woman is a biological adult female.
But I can’t help but observe that conservatives who assert this have again fallen for a progressive trap. Perhaps I am overthinking it but bear with me as I explain. A woman is not just an adult human female. This, in and of itself, is a reductionist redefinition of woman. In fact, you could argue that this is almost exactly a modern and even second-wave feminist definition of a woman. Because this definition speaks only to the biological and not the ontological realities of what a woman is.
Many conservatives have basically accepted the progressive lie of past eras that while men and women are clearly biologically different, they are essentially equal or the same in every other way. In the classical leftist or progressive understanding, women need to smash the glass ceiling in every field to prove that an adult human female can and should do everything that an adult human male should do. This kind of propaganda is pushed in all sorts of ways in our society from the very clever example of Ripley in Aliens, who is as tough if not tougher, than all the marines sent to protect her yet still fallible, through to the silly caricature examples in modern T.V. shows where the women are shown to get it over the men around them in multiple ways often. The basic understanding of second-wave feminism is that a woman is just a biological female, this should not hold her back from doing anything a man can do. “I am woman, hear me roar” is the catch cry of this understanding of woman.
But Christians should know better than this that we should define woman, and man, as the Bible does. And the Bible does not just define woman as a biological human female. It goes much further than that. A woman is man’s helper, and is the best helper fit for him of all the other creatures on this planet (Gen. 2:18). She sits under the man who has authority to name her (Gen. 2:19-23, Gen. 3:16). She is created for the marriage relationship with a man (Gen. 2:24-25), where she is the bearer of man’s children (Gen.3:16). Marriage is the highest form of relationship that a man can enter into.
Man is also defined in relation to woman scripturally. It is not good for man to be alone, therefore God must make him a helper (Ge. 2:18). Man must provide for his woman (Gen. 3:17-18; 1 Tim. 5:8). And he must care for her in a considerate way and not treat her poorly (1 Tim. 3:7).
Men and women are not stand-alone biological units in the Christian worldview, this is a modernistic, feministic, and individualistic reinterpretation of what a man or woman is. Indeed, it is precisely this interpretation that was utilized by progressives from the first-wave feminist movement to dismantle the Biblical worldview of what a man and woman are.
To prove this, note what Paul says on this issue,
“8 For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. 11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; 12 for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God”.
1 Cor. 11:8-12
Men and women, Scripturally, are defined in relation to each other from the very beginning, and exist to multiply on this earth and spread the image of God through God’s creation (Gen. 1:26-28). A woman is more than a biological female. A man is more than a biological male. To not see this, is to fall into a progressive reductionist understanding of man and woman, and to, intentionally or not, aid the redefinition of manhood and womanhood towards unbiblical purposes.
Just something to think about.
