The Difference Between Men and Women: Introduction

So many times male friends will tell me that they "don't get women"; female friends tell me they just "don't get men."

What is it about the opposite sex that we don't understand? Surely we are all from the same planet, we're all human, and in a religious sense, we are all children of God. Why in the world then, does it seem as though we speak a different language?

In this series of posts I would like to explore the differences (and therefore also the similarities) between men and women. I think that it is a common misconception, in our postmodern world, that we are the same. Certainly we are equal in value, but we are definitely not the same. In this series I plan to not only draw from my experience, but also from lectures I had in anthropology at both university and while I was training in a religious movement, from the wonderful psychotherapist Deacon Dr. Bob McDonald's talks, and from the recounting of anecdotes from friends and family.

I hope you enjoy it, and I hope to get comments from readers. I'm interested to hear what you have to say, even if you disagree. :-)

"[There is a tendency toward] obscuring of the difference or duality of the sexes” which has “enormous consequences”. This theory “has inspired ideologies which...call into question the family in its natural two-parent structure of mother and father”. Further, “in the “attempt to be freed from one’s biological conditioning”, the difference between men and women is not considered to be absolute, but culturally conditioned. According to this perspective, “persons are free to constitute themselves as they like.” A consequence is that the “liberation of women entails criticism of Sacred Scripture, which would be seen as handing on a patriarchal conception of God nourished by an essentially male dominated society.” Further, it would be considered “lacking in... relevance” that the “Son of God assumed human nature in its male form."

Christopher West, on The Letter to the Bishops on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World.

I would like to extend what West says here to imply that the differences between men and women are not to be surmounted, but that in the purest forms these differences, with the help of God and truly seeking Truth, create a unity between a man and a woman like none other, which emmulates the Trinity itself.

This series is intended to work against the postmodern notion that we are equal and the same, but to help each of us see our true value, and to understand the value of the other. As Deacon Dr. Bob's talks strive to do, hopefully we will begin to try to understand ourselves, our relationships/marriages, and our significant other, and start to change the first two and start accepting the third.