Who Runs the World: Beyonce and the Gender Supremacy Battle

Beyonce's stunning new video communicates that Girl Power and Sex Goddess are synonymous, and that female domination of men constitutes progress in taking over the world. It seems that women may have overplayed their hand in attempting a male model of force and domination, and that a fourth wave of feminism is swelling.

NASHVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - Twice now I've seen Beyonce's new video, (Girls) Run the World, and both times I was struck by the mixed messages communicated through it: on one hand Girl Power, on the other hand, Sex Goddess. In the end it was the same tired message: a woman's power is in her ability to generate sex-interest. In case the ladies might be too reticent in that pursuit, Beyonce conspicuously encouraged us to "get on [our] grind." Hmmm. Half-clad, gyrating women would certainly teach men a lesson.

What leapt immediately to mind was a juxtaposition of Beyonce's "power" and the Virgin Mary's power.

The flagrance might be humorous if the whole matter were not so indicative of a deeper social problem, since Beyonce also claims to be "reppin' for the girls who takin' over the world." I wonder if women really feel this approach is working for them? Laying aside the obvious sexual messages (if that's even possible), both visual and musical, how do men really view the artistic statement in this song? Do they respect and admire that women are,

"Smart enough to make these millions
Strong enough to bear the children
Then get back to business"?

Or do they view it, in the end, as an invitation to "wham, bam, 'thank you ma'am'"?

Bearing the Children

I suggest the obvious Freudian slip in the lyrics tells the sad truth. Women, in sweeping general terms, have yet to realize that any "feminism" that encourages them to act like men, think like men, dress like men, "be" like men, to dominate men while viewing their wombs as a curse and babies as predators, is simply exposure, subjugation, and powerlessness in new terms.

It incites women and girls against their own bodies, gender, nature, and fertility. It forces them into unnatural, and therefore vulnerable, positions. It silences the true power inherent in being the only ones who can give these gifts to the world. Pre-teen girls wear padded bras and micro shorts when they think their only dignity is in sexual prowess; they feel pressure to "get to it" as early as possible, or be left behind in "running the world."

And then there is the double standard, the increasing diminishment of men and boys that has simply taken the place of diminishment of women. What would happen if Chris Brown wrote and performed this same song of domination with the opposite claim that (Men) Run the World?

How can women pontificate about society's double standards regarding gender while conveniently denying that they have created it? Women who claim the right to sex without love, marriage, or children, yet bemoan that they can't get men to respect them, simply reap the whirlwind after sowing the wind. Haven't we heard the "old wives" saying, "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free"?

Why should men be responsible providers and labor to support their families when women are determined to do it or want the government to do it? Why should men marry women who live with them and take care of them in every possible way outside of marriage? Why should men be responsible fathers when women seek single motherhood through fertility treatment, divorce, and custody rulings?

Why, simply for the sake of sacred marital holidays like anniversaries and Valentine's Day, or even Mother's Day, should men feel coerced to celebrate wives who marginalize or belittle them, who laugh at or make "stupid man" jokes at their expense? Could any one of us seriously imagine Mary gathering up her skirts, snatching the hammer from Joseph's calloused hand, and taking over the workshop while pointing her haughty finger toward the dirty diaper on the Baby in the next room?

I confess our modern double standard makes me sad and angry. While misogyny is equated with a crime tantamount to rape, man-hating is routine, accepted, and even promoted, ostensibly for historical oppression of women by men. Certainly this type of modern "feminism" qualifies as nothing more than the bullied becoming the bully.

The idea that men are simply sowing what they reaped in ages past is trite. While containing an element of obvious historical truth, women have since grossly overplayed their hand and now complain of adolescent or effeminate behavior in men (I speak in the most general terms). It is no wonder that men have stepped back and said, for all intents and purposes, "Have it. ALL of it."

The wholesale diminishment and disrespect of men is evident in our society from the heights of academic circles to the trenches of pop culture where examples of strong, virtuous, capable men are either disappearing or nonexistent. The number of men is dwindling at institutions of higher learning. History books eliminate any reference to the brilliance, foresight, and ramrod-straight virtue of our forefathers, unless portrayed as oppressive.

Sitcoms perpetuate a pervasive characterization of men as obtuse baboons who need their wives and children to explain the smallest, simplest matters and make "Winning!" pop-culture icons out of drug-crazed men with multiple failed marriages, abandoned children, and sex-interests.

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Reality shows feature gender-confused or hyper-sexualized male adolescents who deride morality, purity, and simple goodness. Is this really progress? Are not, instead, our men and boys worthy of feminism in service to life and the gift of self?

The Fourth Wave: Peace

It is time to leave the rejected male model of domination behind. Rather than progress for women, it stifles their true "genius," which is the inherent gift of women to assert their femininity while simultaneously nurturing the identity of others. Equality is not sameness. Feminine dignity and power lie, not in competition, but complementarity.

Pope John Paul II insisted that, because of a woman's moral and spiritual strength, God entrusts the human being to her in a special way (Mulieris Dignitatem, On the Dignity and Vocation of Women, John Paul II). "Feminine genius" considers, in the name of Charity, that true freedom for women respects the dignity of males as well.

The in-your-face "I can do anything you can do better" attitude is patently false, as experience bears out and our beloved John Paul II explained. We simply do some of what they do differently, and that is what makes our partnership beautiful and fruitful. What would happen if we saw our colleagues, husbands and sons as co-creators rather than adversaries?

Now that legal obstacles to equality, such as voting and property rights, have been rescinded (18th and 19th centuries); societal issues like sexuality, family, the workplace, contraception and abortion have been addressed (60's and 70's); and the failures and backlash against those primary feminist initiatives have occurred (90's to present), a fourth wave of feminism is beginning.

Women who do not like the antipathy toward faith, family and motherhood demanded by establishment feminism are beginning to look for alternatives to the vitriol common in the older constructs.

They sense that the gift of self, not anger and domination, is the power that will overcome gender discrimination, violence and exploitation in ultimate terms, and they begin with the men and boys in their own homes. In so doing, they exercise true power, inspiring and calling into being what every woman really wants in her battle for dignity, self-giving masculinity.

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Sonja Corbitt is a Catholic speaker, Scripture study author, and a contributing writer for Catholic Online. Visit pursuingthesummit.com for details or to order her 10-week, DVD-driven Bible study on the Church in the Old Testament tabernacle, Soul of the World, The Heart as God's Dwelling Place.

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