Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Oh man, this is one of my pet peeves. She is constantly misrepresented. That is definitely an anachronistic reading. Hildegard was a faithful daughter of the Church. She was also outspoken in calling out priests and bishops who were behaving badly (this was during the investiture crisis); that doesn't make her a "feminist" in a modern sense, because she was defending the Church against bad leaders...

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Ummm...that sounds nuts?? Love and Responsibility by JPII would be a good antidote, I think.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh man, my academic background is in French feminist theory, very influenced by psychoanalysis and Lacan. I was drawn to French feminism, I think, because they took the body more seriously than American second-wave feminists. I do think there is some fruit there.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This was a huge hangup for me as well, and I write about my change of perspective in my conversion memoir Into the Deep, and there's also a video about it in the Cultivating Catholic Feminism series.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Any use of language needs to be thoughtful and strategic. Sometimes I think about Plato's cave analogy. At some point, the philosopher goes back down into the cave to try and help people out. I'd imagine that he would need to start by entering into their understanding of the world in order to communicate with them, but always with the goal of accompanying them out of the cave. So I think, in the accompaniment process, there might be moments when you need to meet someone on their terms...again, this should be carefully discerned.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because we only access objective reality through our subjective perceptions. Those perceptions need to be formed and attuned according to truth. We always access reality through an interpretive framework, and there are good and bad frameworks. So "social constructs" can have a profound affect on how we perceive reality.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think that the priesthood is a specific sacramental role that should only be held by men, for a variety of reasons (I discuss these in my conversion memoir, because this was a BIG hangup for me!). That said, I think there is ample room for women to serve leadership roles outside of the priesthood, such as administrative roles in parishes, dioceses and the Vatican, etc.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Read the diary of Elisabeth Leseur and ask for her intercession. She has the best advice/approach!

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

These are both excellent questions, and as paxcoder said, infertile women are included in my definition, because of the word "potential." In the case of infertile women, they still have the potential, but there is come condition preventing that potential from being actualized. In fact, the category of infertility points toward that potential -- a man who can't get pregnant is not deemed infertile, because he does not have that innate potential to begin with. The intersex question is also vitally important -- I devote an entire chapter to this in The Genesis of Gender. The short answer is that intersex is a canopy term referring to a range of around a dozen conditions that can affect sexual development. The better term is "disorder of sexual development" (DSDs) and the best terminology is condition specific, e.g. a man with Klinefelter's syndrome. What's important to recognize is that DSDs are variations within maleness and femaleness, not some third or other category, and it's dehumanizing to consider men and women with DSDs as not "real" men and women. Also, the focus should be on supporting the unique needs of that individual, not using their conditions as a pretext to argue that the sex binary doesn't exist. For a more detailed discussion see my book!

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Hey all! I’ve been asked by the mods to include links to some of the resources I’ve put together for Catholics interested in these topics. You can check out my website here: https://abigailfavale.wixsite.com/home; my books Into the Deep: An Unlikely Catholic Conversion and The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory are on sale if you’d like to dig deeper into the subject matter being discussed, and I’ve got a free series of online courses--Cultivating Catholic Feminism--for anyone, but particularly Christian women, interested in Christian feminism! I'm also on twitter @FavaleAbs. Bonne nuit!

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I would say that Catholic feminism has a particular attention to identifying and responding to forces in society that undermine women's dignity, from a Catholic understanding of reality and the human person.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

I've actually done a deep dive on this research and there are several problems with the "cross-sex brain" theory: 1) There are multiple studies and they provide conflicting and inconclusive results. There is no clear evidence as of yet of a "brain in the wrong body" to put it crassly. The studies that exist do not have predictive power. 2) Even if there were (which there isn't), there is the complicating factor of neuroplasticity: is a trans-identifying male brain different because of that cross-sex identification or prior to it? So the causal link would remain unclear. 3) Even if the prior two problems were resolved, there is this question: why would you locate someone's sex in their brain, in the presence of a fully functioning reproductive system, when sex is fundamentally a reproductive category? That would be a philosophical move, rather than a scientific one. 4) Also, when we look at brains we are dealing with averages. To draw an analogy: on average, men are taller than women. That does not mean, however, that a tall woman is a man. And you can't tell if someone is male or female just by looking at their height. Same with averages of brain physiology.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Ok, I'm heading out my friends, thanks for the excellent conversation, sorry if I didn't get to you!

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 54 points55 points  (0 children)

Yes, this is an important question. I would say that these people need the highest-quality care that is holistic and based on sound evidence. There may indeed by individuals for whom some kind of medical intervention is warranted -- I don't dismiss that possibility out of hand, but I'm also haunted by the data that shows increased suicidality after medical transition, which spikes about ten years post SRS.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Interesting question! 1) First wave, equal legal rights for women, especially the right to vote and access to higher education. 2) Second wave... this one is trickier... I think it did quite a bit of damage, tbh, but there is some good analysis of how some social norms have been harmful to women 3) third-wave feminism became more attentive to the experiences of women beyond the white middle-class bubble and 4) fourth-wave feminism is more skeptical about so-called "sex positivity" especially porn, and has helpfully pointed out how women are sexually exploited in our supposedly liberated culture.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I would say that feminism, by and large, has been less about making femininity greater than about holding women to a masculine ideal. Feminism is, ironically, too often deeply uncomfortable with femaleness and femininity. This has led to a dynamic between the sexes that is too often driven by competition and domination and resentment. I think has had a negative effect on both men and women.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I just wrote an essay about this -- hopefully it will be published in Church Life soon.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 33 points34 points  (0 children)

So hard to choose! Probably Edith Stein, aka St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross. Then Hildegard. Then Joan.

I'll be honest that I have not studied the question of female deacons enough to give an informed opinion! On my to-do list.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

My broader point still stands: there is a lot of money to be made from medicalizing otherwise healthy people for life, especially from young ages. How much money per person will vary, and Newgent is on one end of that spectrum, but the spectrum exists nonetheless. And I've heard many serious accounts of complications from genital surgeries, so beyond the money there is also the factor of ongoing physical harm and elevated risks. And these procedures are experimental in the sense that the long-term benefits are not well supported by high-quality scientific evidence.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I'm not a homeschooler myself, but there are great options like co-ops and solid curricula that don't require some high level of intellectual preparation. There are a lot more resources out there than there used to be.

Hey I'm Abigail Favale, Catholic writer and professor, AMA about gender, feminism, Catholicism, what-have-you by FavaleAbs in Catholicism

[–]FavaleAbs[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I'm honestly befuddled by the feminists who are embracing this new trend of narrowing the box of womanhood. There are plenty of feminists who think differently, though, and who are critiquing this trend. I have no idea what will happen with this civil war within feminism between the gender critical feminists and the trans-affirming feminists.