What do you think?

[wyld_dandelyon]

So, the editor of the Warrior Wisewoman anthology, in the submission guidelines, says, “I am looking for stories that shed light on the truth of what it means to be female…”

This got me thinking, because the grammar (“the truth”) suggests that the editor is looking for a universal answer to this question; I am, in general, dubious about “universal” when we all have different life circumstances, and even basic things like “how it feels to be pregnant” vary greatly from person to person and even from pregnancy to pregnancy in the same woman.

Still, I know what it means to me to be female – or at least, what it has meant at various points in my life. Or do I? Maybe I just know what it has meant to be me in my particular circumstances in a world that treats females differently than males…

What do you folks think? What does it mean to be female? What does it mean to be male? Do you have opinions on what it means to be the gender you’re not? Is this universal, or do you think your answer would be different if you lived (for instance) 200 years in the future?

Comments

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

I certainly think that an unfounded belief in God, or Gods, should be socially acceptable. Just as an unfounded belief in No God should be acceptable. And the belief that "we just don't know" (and even the belief that the truth about the existence of a deity or deities is inherently unknowable) should also be socially acceptable.

I also strongly agree that one should not confuse morality with the belief in a deity, and especially with the belief in some particular deity. After all, belief in a deity has historically been a strong force for good in many, many people. And belief in a deity has also been associated with horrendous (I would say "evil" except that using that word that makes so many people too defensive to listen) actions by many, many people.

Sadly, I think that too many people find it sufficiently difficult and unpleasant to *think* about issues of morality to believe that it will become widespread in our culture to think about morality as a separate issue from religion. Heck, think about how hard certain Democrats worked to change people's confuggling the symbol of our country's flag with support for W's war in Iraq. They had to plain out state that "this flag is for all Americans, including those who oppose the war".

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons that separation of church and state is important!