Self Sacrifice Essay

Self sacrifice

Many feminists have examined the problem of women and self deprecation. Women are expected not just by the church but by the culture to be the nurturing, forgiving, co-dependent ones. A woman who stands up for her rights is considered strident. A man who does the same is often regarded as strong and manly. Young girls are socialized to be this way from the earliest age. Little boys, however, are expected to be strong and autonomous. A few months ago my nine year old son was sitting on my knee at the dentists’ office when some woman took it upon herself to openly laugh at him for being nine and still sitting on my knee. She thought she was doing him and me a favour.

But the expectation that women will sacrifice themselves goes much deeper than superficial courtesies. Women find themselves beaten, abused, exploited, oppressed and somehow internally accepting it because it is the Christian thing to suffer, to put themselves last, to use themselves up. We have all talked to women who work in battered women’s shelters, or women who have weathered abusive marriages because they thought it was their duty to suffer.

It is also the Christian thing to allow yourself to be overlooked, to accept hierarchies and oppressive power relationships, because Christ suffered and so should we. This way an intricate web of justifications is built upon the sacrifice of women, and women are often willing victims. Why? There are psychological reasons why. But today we want to