The advertisement is enticing. It promises, in effect, that "he" will be more of a man if "she" becomes more of a woman. What the advertiser is selling, along with a product, is the familiar stereotype about sex and power. He's also selling a relationship between the sexes which suggests that aggressive man dominates oppressed, but beguiling, woman. If they believe these stereotypes, men and women can find themselves thinking that the amount and kind of human influence they possess is based on their sex.
Christian Science reveals God as Mother as well as Father. Man is spiritual, not anatomical. In Science and Health, the Christian Science textbook, Mrs. Eddy says, "The notion that animal natures can possibly give force to character is too absurd for consideration, when we remember that through spiritual ascendency our Lord and Master healed the sick, raised the dead, and commanded even the winds and waves to obey him." Science and Health, p. 67;
Much attention has been focused on the liberation of women because historically women have been subordinated to men. However, the problem is not fundamentally solved by casting one sex in the role of villain and the other as victim. It is only just that women should be free to fill responsible civil positions, hold property, and manage their own affairs. But men would like to realize greater freedom too—from the traditional role of provider, from the compulsion to increase their earning power or prestige as proof of masculinity. Both men and women can solve the problem as they look beyond stereotyped roles to the spiritual essence of manhood and womanhood. Through Christian Science we can learn to respect worthy characteristics of race, age, and sex, and to set aside limiting human categories to discover spiritual individuality and substance.
This spiritual substance is God-determined. As the account of primal reality in Genesis makes clear: "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Gen. 1:27; This speaks of no roles, no domination of one sex over the other. All individuals comprising the genus, man, the male and female of God's spiritual creation, have dominion over all the earth— over all the claims that would tie them to materiality.
The mortal claim of man's division into two sexes—opposite, and frequently at war with each other—is typified in the murky allegorical account of creation in Genesis 2. In the darkness and mist of the pseudocreation—the false belief that man is mortal and material—is born the concept of a magnetic relationship between man and woman, a magnetism resulting in repulsion and strife as well as in attraction.
The allegory goes on to represent the willful drive for human power that dominates the false creation and suggests the separation of man from God. Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit in order to gain mortal power, separate from their creator. This in turn brought the curse that set them against each other: women were to be controlled and ruled by men; men were to till the barren soil of materiality in order to provide for their wives. A pattern of aggression and oppression was thus established.
But to identify the problem as a struggle between one sex, historically identified with aggression, and another, identified with oppression, is to miss the point. The struggle is not between the sexes but between spiritual reality and animal magnetism. Magnetism is annulled, not attacked; it is dissolved as one demonstrates his birthright of dominion as a spiritual and complete idea of God. And spiritual dominion frees mankind from believing in the punishment, strife, and uncertain rewards of mortality.
Whatever tribute one pays to the pride of mortal belief—whether he looks upon himself as an aggressor or sees himself as the oppressed—must melt as he bows before the power of divine Love. Love restores to all of us our native dominion over all sex stereotypes and the distortions they promote. Mrs. Eddy points out: "Christian Scientists must live under the constant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be separate. They must renounce aggression, oppression and the pride of power. Christianity, with the crown of Love upon her brow, must be their queen of life." Science and Health, p. 451;
Several years ago I saw the dominion of Love dissolve injustice. After completing graduate study I applied for work with a large organization. My field of specialization, as well as personal interests, made me feel I could contribute to its activity. I filled out several applications, made appointments with the personnel office, and traveled some distance for interviews. Although I held a doctorate and had worked in a professional capacity, I was surprised when both interviewers indicated that they would consider me only for a clerical position. The reason seemed to be simply that I was a woman.
Bracing myself against resentment, I stayed with the basic concept that had sustained me through my graduate study: that whatever was honest and selfless about my preparation and present motives, was not locked into, or limited by, gender. God knows nothing about physical gender; He is aware only of spiritual qualities and ideas, and whatever is of Him carries its own power and emerges into expression.
The next day, before leaving for home, I decided to walk through the halls of the organization in search of an individual I knew by name, who I thought might understand my situation. This person proved to be unavailable, but in trying to find him I was introduced to another man, who soon realized that my qualifications exactly fitted his need. He employed me in a position that drew on all my capabilities and developed new ones.
Many people would like to free themselves from limiting sex stereotypes. Women might feel, as I did, that they would like to expand out of traditional roles; men might like to relinquish some of their heavy responsibilities for a more equal partnership. But both may be afraid. Much of this fear is based on the false assumption that human qualities are divided into mutually exclusive categories labeled "his" and "hers," and that if either sex dips into the other's category the accepted order is violated.
While it is true that tenderness, nurturing, and compassion are sometimes called "feminine," and strength, creativity, and courage, "masculine," these names are only labels for the sake of convenience, not exclusive clubs for men only or women only. Human beings known as men and others known as women possess in their true, spiritual selves the entire complement of divine qualities, individually reflected.
Men may, perhaps unconsciously, fear that they will be rendered powerless and demeaned if they are not dominant over the women in their experience. But the belief that power is equated with aggression and domination is a myth. Men do not have to regard aggression as manly, nor do women need to admire or encourage it. The man Jesus has not been remembered for aggression but for his meekness and spiritual insight. More than just another good man, Christ Jesus was the Son of God, the living proof that goodness carries with it infinite power. His resurrection and ascension shine through the ages, reminding us that spiritual strength dissolves the aggressive power of mortality.
A woman who accepts aggression as true power can easily fall prey to its opposite side: oppression. On the other hand, she can be freed from thinking she must manipulate aggressive power in men in order to exert influence herself. She can leaven the belief in forceful animal natures by maintaining with the Psalmist that "thy gentleness hath made me great."Ps. 18:35; Seeing the ultimate weakness of human power, she can abandon it for spiritual dominion.
Or she may fear that she must imitate the actions of men in order to do something called "making it in a man's world." "A man's world" is only as real as the imagination that allows it to exist. Women do not have to become little counterfeit men— approximating the stance and behavior patterns they see in men. They can reach inward to their reflected spiritual substance; then the strong and courageous and creative elements of their being will emerge without diminishing their womanliness. It is interesting to note that when Annie Knott, an early Christian Science worker, lamented the rejection she received as a woman on the lecture circuit, Mrs. Eddy did not advise her to become more masculine. She said, as Mrs. Knott reported, "You must rise to the altitude of true womanhood, and then the whole world will want you . . . ." We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Third Series (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1953), p. 83. Effectiveness always lies in the expression of the qualities of God, the Father-Mother, which constitute one's true identity.
Women have long been lauded as the guardians of love, gentleness, and peace. They've been set on pedestals and admired. But they've also been variously admonished not to participate in government, run a business, or drive a car. This attitude is not so obsolete as may appear, and it would relegate women, along with qualities they have historically expressed, to a second-class citizenship considered irrelevant to the real world.
Yet the qualities traditionally attributed to femininity lead to the redemption of human consciousness. These are the qualities exemplified in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount: meekness, purity of heart, peacemaking, spiritual hunger and thirst. They redeem us from the pride of power that would set us against our neighbors and would, in belief, separate us from God.
It is important that the womanly qualities find expression in all walks of life. We can remove these gentle spiritual qualities from their remote pedestals by bringing them forward in thought and into the mainstream of life. As we liberate those qualities called feminine in all of us, we can replace the hierarchies of human power, which cause many of the world's ills, with "Christianity," the "queen of life." We can replace the drive of aggression, or submission to oppression, with "the crown of Love."
And although we drop the stereotypes implicit in some advertising slogans, we may find that the woman in us, when cherished and freed, will indeed make us all more manly—will awake us to the spiritual completeness that is ours as the true expression of God.
