Dangers of Gender Equality and Neutrality

Our society values balance, equality and fairness, so the idea that men and women are equal is widely appealing. Political correctness had led to most modern books speaking in gender neutral terms, replacing the traditional masculine view (he) with either a gender neutral term or using a feminine term (she). I have to admit when this movement started many years ago, I did not see the big deal with it. The logical arguments made sense to me that women should be treated equal with men.

But as I look around at people in the United States and Western European countries, I see that we have neutralized the genders. Women now cut their hair to look like men and men grow their hair out to look like women. You can no longer tell the difference between a man and a woman based on their hair. Likewise, the clothing has moved towards the middle where even the clothes that men and women wear are often very similar. The path towards gender equality has led us to a path where the difference in genders have been neutralized.

Many people consider this a great accomplishment, but I am beginning to question what we have done. Women hide their breasts behind business suits and try to look like a man. Men try to get in touch with their feelings and act more like a woman. It seems as though women are ashamed of the fact they are women and men are ashamed of the fact they are men. Women are afraid to put their breasts on display to show they are a woman, because they fear what other people will think about them. Men are afraid to show their bulge in their pants, because they fear what other people will think.

Have we really achieved freedom and equality if everyone is walking around ashamed of their gender, trying to be careful not to offend someone because of their gender and hiding body parts that God designed to stick out from our body? I think back to the Old Testament where circumcision was an outward sign, something that people looked at to determine if a man was obedient to God's command. I cannot imagine a society where a man's penis was visible to the point where people would look to see how he was cut or not cut to determine whether to have fellowship with him. There was a time when men were proud of their circumcision and it was an outward symbol or sign to other people of their commitment to follow God's convenant with Abraham. If a man showed another person his circumcision today, he would be thrown in jail and labeled a dangerous person.

I'm not advocating circumcision or that men should walk around flaunting their stuff, but I am questioning the impact of hiding what God clearly intended to be visible. God made a woman's breast to protrude from her body for a reason, so maybe their is good that comes out of a woman showing off her breasts. God made a man's penis to protrude from a man's body for a reason and chose to use it as an outward sign for an agreement, so maybe their is good that comes from a man showing off his manhood.
Just maybe men and women were created different for a reason. Maybe we should celebrate and enjoy what makes us special and different; instead of hiding it and being ashamed of it.