boys consistently receive the simultaneous message that they are going to assume power in their adulthood. Men are told that they are God’s chosen ones. It will be their job to lead a household, a church, a country—this is what they grow up seeing modeled in both their faith communities and the secular United States. For women of faith, there is no such promise of agency or power tempering the message of total surrender and obedience, only the constant reminder that a complete denial of self is what makes you faithful.
