It seems to me like we've been talking a lot about sex these days at St. Olaf College . Well…perhaps I should clarify. Gender seems to be a hot-button issue on the hill recently. As the echoes of V-Week and The Vagina Monologues fade, Women's History Month kicks off, Mustache Appreciation Week's stubble disappears, and this year's Lenten Chapel Series themed “The Body,” draws to a close, I am greatly encouraged by this community's ability to discuss and celebrate the uniqueness of gender in so many different ways.
The affirmation and empowerment of women from a show like “The Vagina Monologues” and the events of the V-Week are tremendously important, as are the complex discussions and emotional reactions that such a week provokes. Hearing from women who are community leaders, often in very male-dominated sectors of our society is another heartening opportunity that we have as Women's History Month begins.
We shouldn't forget the boys, though, and who could with all that outrageous facial hair we've seen lately? Mustache Appreciation Week is a fabulous, funny way for men to be proud of something unique to their gender, without being accused of sexism or told that they don't need a week or month to celebrate their history, since they have dominated it for centuries. They need to celebrate who they are, too, and I whole-heartedly approve (though I admit I might approve slightly less if the men in my life were responsible for the more noticeable recent fashion statements).
Finally, we've had a bold statement made by our church in its willingness to address “The Body” in relationship to lives of faith and reflection upon the Lenten season. Professor of History, Jim Farrell, gave a chapel talk on March 9 about “good sex” that boldly assessed the meaning of truly healthy sexual relationships well beyond both the confines of our popular culture's expectations and the more common and over-simplified admonishments of the church. He thoughtfully commented on the unhealthy approach we often have towards sex, the misguided questions we ask ourselves and each other. He said that the sex manuals you can pick up off bookstore shelves show us this misguided focus: “These advice manuals are too often about know-how instead of know-why. They're designed to make us competent, but not to make us wise.”
In the context of these events, it is very easy to criticize, to point out flaws or wrong-headed approaches to exploring the complicated questions of gender and gender relations. We do it in our casual conversations and we read it in op-ed pieces in our national and local newspapers. Maybe we think mustaches look dirty. Maybe we think that women wearing certain clothing confine themselves to objectification rather than express their own choices or celebrate what they think of their own bodies rather than what other people think of them. Maybe we disagree with the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade or the politics of certain women leaders. Perhaps we are also suspicious of the church's willingness to talk about sex in more ambiguous ways than it has in the past.
In any case, all this sex-talk means one thing for certain: everyone has a chance to speak to the issues, to celebrate and explore something central to his or her identity. And that, my friends, despite any differences we may have, is a fabulous opportunity. |