It’s about respect.
Women are never what they seem to be. There is the woman you see and there is the woman who is hidden. Buy the gift for the woman who is hidden. ~Erma Bombeck
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Hearing the heartbeat of a woman has never been a difficult task for me, after all, I first fell in love with a woman long before I was born.
Growing up, my mom taught me to always hold the door open for a woman, not because a woman was incapable of opening a door for herself, but more importantly, because she deserved the respect of having the door held open for her. It was about politeness, kindness and simply doing the right thing. It didn’t mean anything more than that.
The honoring of women by men must reflect women as a natural manifestation of God and also a call to a supernatural love. As the highest manifestation both of beauty and of the production of life, women deserve reverence. A natural form of “worship” for a “natural grace”.
Women are after all a visible manifestation of God.
When women’s bodies are worshiped in a selfish way they are made into objects and divorced from the personal bonds of love. This is still the domination and the division first introduced through the fall from grace.
In a culture that has demeaned the role of women, and has not allowed them to be treated differently than men, we need to rediscover the distinct roles and relations of the sexes. Women need not act like men and should not be treated like men. They are too wonderful for this! When women are treated in this way, we also lose the essence of masculinity.
There can be no masculine without the feminine.
The definition of ones masculinity is not measured by the inches in his pants but rather by the space between his ears. How a man thinks is how manly he is. And the true test of ones manhood is in how well he treats a woman. All women. Any woman. Every woman. If a man cannot respect a woman, he can never expect to be more than half a man.
Masculinity is also not about conquest.
We live in a society where women are taught how not to be raped rather than teaching men not to rape. This needs to be fixed.
No man goes out at night worried he might be raped, sexually abused or catcalled and these are all serious instances of aberrant male behaviour that we must address, punish or discourage as a society.
We can continue to acknowledge that we are men and women, but at the same time we have to keep in mind that we are all also human beings, born to cherish and to help one another. The same conscious Self is present in all beings. Soul has no sex, it is neither male nor female. It is only in the body that sex exists, and the individual who desires to reach the spirit cannot at the same time hold sex distinctions.
Treating women with respect should not be contingent on whether or not it “gets you somewhere.” Women have value. Women are people.
Our language we use needs to be looked at as well. I’m not talking about profanity but rather the meaning behind our words. You cannot “get” a girlfriend, because a girlfriend is not an iPad or a burrito. Women are people. You aren’t entitled to “have” people, just because you think it will cure your unhappiness. Your unhappiness is your problem and no one else’s. And thinking about a girlfriend as a thing that you “get” and not an equal partner whose humanity you respect and cherish will never result in a satisfying relationship anyway.
If you really do want to treat women like human beings, just internalize these simple truths:
1) A woman is more than just her physical looks.
2) She has a complex inner life.
3) A man’s fulfillment is not her responsibility.
4) A woman is not obligated to get romantically involved with a man, and she is definitely not obligated to stay with him. People are not property.
5) A woman’s time is valuable, and it’s her right to choose how she uses it.
Women are people, and women just get to exist, set boundaries and say no. Always. Any time.
It’s about respect.
