Traditionalists vs Reformers

I heard a news story about the Anglican Church's recent vote to allow women to become bishops. The report both angered and appalled me. The reporter explained that the Anglican communion in America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have all already approved women as preachers AND bishops; the holdout for female bishops was in the Anglican's bastion, the cradle of that church, Merry Olde England.

Aunty Twisty has a label she puts on her posts from time to time that says, "Men hate You," where the 'you' is understood to mean women. Twisty's right. Nowhere is this more evident than in religion, it seems to me. The "traditionalists" in the Church of England wanted to allow a loophole for so-called super bishops, men, of course, who would be able to overrule or supervise female bishops in places where male godbags couldn't accept female leadership. Reason and common sense won out, however, as the reformers kiboshed the super-bishop idea.

It appalls me that something like this would even be open for debate. Pat the ladies on the head, there there dearie, don't worry, the big, strong men will take care of everything, don't bother your pretty little head about it. I thought that the Catholics had a lock on the chauvinistic head-trip in Christianity. Silly me. Just because John Paul II wrote missives about proper roles of wife and mother for women, and nothing else, not single, not working, not anything else but wife and mother, you're either a virgin or a slut, nothing else, according the Catholic leadership (...oooo, this pisses me off, can you tell?) does not mean that the Catholics hold the monopoly on chauvinism, apparently.

It also appalls me that the holdouts are labeled traditionalists, which by very nature of its meaning seems to imply that sacred tradition is right and proper. Urgh.

I am sick unto death of the argument from men that Eve ate the apple, therefore women are inherently inferior. If that argument is valid, what about the guy that God told to kill his son? (Issac and Abraham, yes?) Do we keep fathers and sons separate because there's a chance that Dad might knock off sonny-boy? C'mon. There's even a Midol commercial running on TV that talks about symptoms of PMS being, "the curse," which had me hurling things at the TV screen the first time I saw it. Way to come into the 16th century there, Midol. As if there aren't enough idiots out there who want to make sure women remain second-class-citizens, we have a major national advertising campaign from a drug manufacturer re-enforcing that particular stereotype. Beautiful, thanks, 'preciate the help.

I reject the argument that because I have two X chromosomes there are things that I just can't be or do. Don't hand me that old saw, "women can't" or "women shouldn't" because it will hold no water with me.

Is equality such a distant and impossible dream?