Most of us know the old stereotypes of femininity: the woman driver who can't make up her mind, the wife whose political ideas echo the opinions of her husband, and so forth. Men too, of course, are victims of this sexually limited view of humanity. As Suzannah Lessard writes in The Washington Monthly: "To the extent they [men] . . . betray 'feminine' traits of docility, repugnance to violence, and tenderness and also unsureness, a need for comfort, and timidity—to that extent they are 'womanly.' And in the eyes of society, the womanly man is a pathetic thing indeed." The Washington Monthly, December, 1970, p. 47;
To what extent are such narrow cultural views of manhood and womanhood as these shaping our thoughts of ourselves and of others, influencing marriage and other human relationships—and what does Christian Science have to say about it?
To begin with, Christian Science doesn't reason from the basis of a mortal concept of man or woman. It doesn't look only for an improved body but for a better expression of spirituality as evidence of the effectiveness of Christian Science treatment in any situation. And this concept of man as God's reflection liberates us from our human sense of ourselves and others, heals us, and frees us for higher achievement and more satisfying human relationships.
