Traditional Womanhood in a Modern Society
BY: SHELBY LOHMAN (‘19)
Listen as our student host, Addy Longenecker, interviews Shelby for a more in-depth look at navigating womanhood in our society today.
After two years of teaching high school mathematics at a small classical Christian school in Kentucky, along with having a younger sister of my own who attends a large public high school, I have gotten a fairly good glimpse into the average experience that many high-school or young adult women go through in our current society, regardless of their surroundings.
And I don’t think you need me to tell you all the things wrong with it.
“The world is telling us we should act a certain way, while tradition and the great books we're reading present us with a very different way of life."
Now, here me out: There are some incredible shifts that our society and culture have gone through in recent years that I truly believe have benefitted women – particularly the increases in information about fertility awareness, pregnancy support, and postpartum support. But that’s worth a whole different article.
So let’s talk about what is going wrong.
Something that came up when I was speaking with other faculty about the challenges that the female students at our school faced was a conflict that could be summarized mostly as "We are (mostly conservative) Christian women, but the world is telling us we should act a certain way, while tradition and the great books we're reading present us with a very different way of life."
And if you are or ever have been a Hillsdale student, you can likely attest to noticing a similar conflict.
But beyond acknowledging the conflicting views, what are we women to do?
Do we dismiss the beauties and virtues – and flaws – of Tradition’s great heroines because the world tells us that they were just doing the best they could under a domineering patriarchy?
Do we read the Great Books with a modern lens, trying to manipulate the Elizabeth Bennetts of Tradition into modern feminist voiceboxes?
Do we just throw away Tradition altogether because clearly its works are no longer relevant to us as modern women? Because those centuries-old male authors had no idea what it would be like to be a young woman in the 21st Century? Because we want to be liberated, independent, modern, insert-whatever-other-adjective-society-tells-us-is-important young women?
No.
Instead, now more than ever, we must lean into Tradition, this body of knowledge and truth that has existed far longer than we really are capable of comprehending. It is a body of knowledge that, if we throw it away, we are left with nothing to cling to but the ever-changing tidal waves of what our modern society tells us is admirable.
“These works that have come long before us – and will no doubt last long after us – have so much to teach us as humans and particularly as women.”
So let us read these great books that have lasted for centuries – even as the wheat has been separated from the chaff, these great works have persisted for a reason! – and let us do so with a reflective and serious demeanor.
Let us read Anna Karenina and witness Anna’s fatal trappings of vanity and pride. Let us read Pride and Prejudice and fall in love with Lizzy’s amiable sense of humor and wit. Let us read the Divine Comedy and admire Beatrice’s beauty and goodness.
Read C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and grapple not just with what it means to be a woman, but what it means to be human.
Read scripture and ponder the countless women worthy of our imitation. Reflect on Mary’s fiat. Reflect on Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi. Reflect on Elizabeth’s profound and humble joy when she conceived at an old age. On Sarah and Tobias’ prayerful beginning to their marriage. On Mary and Martha and their very different responses to the presence of our Lord.
These works that have come long before us – and will no doubt last long after us – have so much to teach us as humans and particularly as women.
So let us read these great works with avid interest and open hearts, looking to see what some of the greatest writers have to tell us about true, authentic, traditional womanhood, and let us hold fast to it. Because you can be damned sure that today’s society will do its best to convince you otherwise.
