The Church of the all-male priesthood opines on the history of gender relations:
ROME (RushPRnews) 03/09/09-As International Women’s Day is celebrated, the Vatican had a novel message for the women of the world: give thanks for the washing machine. This humble domestic appliance had done more for the women’s liberation movement than the contraceptive pill or working outside the home, said the the official Vatican newspaper, Osservatore Romano.
“In the 20th century, what contributed most to the emancipation of Western women?” questioned the article. “The debate is still open. Some say it was the pill, others the liberalisation of abortion, or being able to work outside the home. Others go even further: the washing machine.”
The article is entitled, “The washing machine and the emancipation of women: put in the powder, close the lid and relax”, taking its name from the Washy Talky, the Electrolux bilingual-talking washing-machine launched in India seven years ago, which would remind the absent-minded housewife how to use the appliance.
I can understand why the Church did this — after all they have to find something, anything, other than the Birth Control Pill that can be said to be responsible for liberating women from the roles they were confined in up until the 1960s.
However, this is just so transparently dumb that it would have been better, for their sake, if they’d just stayed quiet.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Doug,
My wife is very liberated. When I visited her family 20 years ago, they had a washing machine. Her name was Lolita.
I guess the Vatican was only talking about the 1st and 2nd world, but for those of us who know Filipinas as well as I do, they’re very liberated women. Washing machine or no washing machine.
March 9th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
This was actually covered in an episode of The Waltons — if only John Boy could find a way to buy Mama that used washing machine at Ike Godsey’s, etc.
Just saying…
March 9th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I’m not sure Walton’s Mountain could’ve survived a whole family of liberated Walton girls
March 9th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
I’m wondering what the point of this post is? Is the Vatican wrong on this point.
Seems more like a case of application of Clint Eastwood’s recent comments.
March 9th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
The point is that it was a stupid press release meant to justify a self-contradictory philosophy.
Abortion is wrong, but so is one of the most reliable methods of ensuring that abortions aren’t necessary.
Yea, makes sense to me.
March 10th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Sorry, Doug, but you’re reading something into this that I just don’t see, probably as a result of your anti-Catholic ideology (a phrase I use without implying bigotry; yours is philosophical, and I mean no insult). While the Catholic position on abortion and birth control are in the background, this was merely a statement on a question of historical interpretation: what did more to give women more freedom?
Indeed, the notion that labor-saving devices are more “liberating” than liberalized legal regimes on behavior with moral implications strikes me as an almost Marxist/economic-determinist interpretation.
March 10th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Read the whole release from the Vatican. They spend more time claiming that the Pill was a bad thing than anything else.
And it’s not anti-Catholic ideology. It’s an anti-irrational ideology.
March 10th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
I just don’t see how taking a stand against abortion and premarital sex is in any way contradictory…
The simple fact of the matter is that chastity is not “one of the most reliable methods of ensuring that abortions aren’t necessary”, rather it is THE most reliable method. That you would rather bash Catholics is another story.
Next time you call people’s ideology irrational, make sure your own bashing isn’t. Perhaps it’s anti-pragmatic, the Catholic view, I’d be willing to accept that, maybe, it’s up for debate. But irrational is not one of the words I would use to describe it. There have been thinkers dedicated to the philosophy and theology of the church that were and are much smarter than you sir, so please don’t go around throwing anti-Catholic remarks about contradiction until you know exactly what it is that you are talking about.
And stick with the philosophy too, I know that there are all too many people that claim they are religious but will then go around gay-bashing or something stupid like that that completely goes against Jesus’ loving message. Those guys are just assholes.
March 10th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Effective or not, it’s unrealistic.
Just ask Bristol Palin.
March 10th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
ok, fine, call it unrealistic, or not pragmatic, or not practical, though these are all very debatable, particularly because the Vatican never says that one can be chaste with their power alone, but don’t call it irrational. The Church’s philosophical and theological arguments are rather bullet proof and rational. Chastity is something that needs support and love from God, a daily exercise that requires daily prayer. No one said it’s easy… And even if you don’t believe in God or some higher being or all that bullshit if you want to call it that, prayer, like meditation, is something that has real physiological benefits; some people call it discovering themselves, or knowing themselves. Whatever it is, it’s a deep thought and understanding that one can only get from reflection and deliberation. Any academic will agree.
Again, calling Catholicism irrational is just a cop out for those who don’t want to sit down and really engage the Catholic philosophy. Perhaps your scared you will find something that makes all too much sense. Perhaps you aren’t, and you just enjoy living your life without giving it much thought. Whatever the reason, it only hurts you to not have the fullest explanation of any viewpoint, be it Catholicism or Atheism. Learn up, so when you do make criticisms, people take you seriously.
March 10th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
It boils down to the fact that the Church has a very restrictive view of the role of sex in human life.
Inside that constrained definition that they have, yes their position is logical.
Its the basis for their position that is out of whack with human nature.
March 10th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Perhaps. It may be the case that Catholics are too normative; not positive enough.
However, I would argue that when it comes to sex, we still have not been able to separate the procreative aspect from whatever other aspects or “purposes” sex may have. Until then, it remains that sex should not be something treated so nonchalantly. I hate to use this phrase, but the simple fact of the matter is that no matter what contraceptive measures one uses, there will be, some number out of some other number or times, conception.
You say out of whack with human nature, but you don’t even say how, or even what is that basis of which you speak. The Church has actual reasons and arguments for why it is that procreative sex within a marriage is the only form of sex that can truly unite and bond a male and female in a way that does not dehumanize either.
Argue against that if you will, don’t just, as you seem to keep doing, throw out one or two words that will have some people nodding and patting you on the back because they don’t really know the Catholic position.
It seems as though you think that by just stating, “Oh, but look, people will be having sex before marriage!”, it somehow makes it right or the optimal choice. People will also go out and gamble their life savings away, it does not follow that we should condone it.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
I confess that I didn’t read the release. Rather, I relied upon your excerpt.
As for the Catholic view being “a very restrictive view of the role of sex in human life,” I would first point out that I’m not a Catholic; I’m Lutheran (JV Catholic). But I would agree to the extent that the Catholic Church’s “view of the role of sex in human life” is preferable and superior to that of those who elevate “sex in human life” to a central role in — indeed, the be-all and end-all of — human existence.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
ya, actually, under some interpretations, it may be said that sex and procreation are actually not a central role at all. Rather, daily human interaction and loving those you interact with is the true core of Catholic doctrine and that celibacy is really the only way to aspire to the infinite and perfect love that God gives us (after all, he doesn’t have to worry about procreating). It just so happens that most people want to procreate so the Catholic Church attempts to provide guidance to those who choose such a life.
I just can’t see how the Church is constraining in any way. They’ll be the first to tell you that we all have the choice and can decide to be whoever and do whatever we want. They just have set up some moral guidelines so we can try to be the best people in our every day lives when we are presented with these choices and decisions.