The New Eve Read Free

replicate. You carry on thelifestyle you grew up in, not because it's necessarily right or best for you but because it's what you're comfortable with.
The Wounded, Reactionary Worldview
    Believe it or not, reacting to a wound can become your world-view. It can mark your life so powerfully that everything about you is shaped or interpreted by its persuasion. Such a wound can come from your parents' failed marriage, your father's abuse, your mother's neglect, your parents' misplaced priorities, or a personal tragedy. As a result, this wound now serves as the primary lens through which you see your world. Unlike the traditional worldview, which esteems the past, this mind-set demands that you become different from your past, sometimes radically opposite in order to protect yourself from previous experiences.
    Many women embrace this worldview. Study the background of some of the most strident modern-day feminists and you will find women choosing a lifestyle tailored to distance themselves from the pain they experienced from men, most often from the man they love most—Dad. To establish security, these women grab for power and promote a radical ideology that shields them from ever becoming vulnerable to or dependent on men again.
    Andrea Dworkin is a prime example. At nine years of age, Dworkin was molested in a movie theater by an unknown male assailant. When she married, her husband assaulted her with kicks, punches, and burns. He even bashed her head against the floor so hard she was knocked unconscious. It's no surprise Dworkin became a fire-breathing feminist who saw men as worthless and urged women not to marry. “Like prostitution,” she wrote, “marriage is an institution that is extremely oppressive and dangerous for women.” 1 Her tragic life became her worldview.
    Elizabeth Cady Stanton is another example. The veritable founder of the American women's movement, Stanton was raised in an early nineteenth-century home that prized boys and looked on girls with cool indifference. The earliest memory seared into Elizabeth's mind was that of her parents expressing displeasure at the birth of her younger sister: “What a pity she's a girl!”
    When Elizabeth was eleven years old, tragedy struck the family. Her elder brother, a promising college graduate and the lone jewel in the family crown, died in an accident. Seeking to ease her father's despondency, Elizabeth vowed to emulate her lost brother, especially to achieve his glories in academia. Greek would become her second language and history her passion. Since her brother's skills in the saddle once pleased her father, she would master the horse as well. Whatever her brother was, Elizabeth was driven to become to win her father's affections.
    If these were her hopes, they were cruelly crushed. Mr. Cady was unable to see past his own grief and prejudice. “Oh, you should have been a boy!” was all the paternal tenderness he could muster. 2
    Elizabeth's sense of shame and humiliation at being a girl eventually created in her a powerful counteraction. Much of her subsequent life was spent attacking this warped valuation of her parents, which she saw everywhere. Everything, including the church and the Christian faith, felt her passion and biting wrath. “The whole history of mankind,” she said, “is a history of calculated, organized tyranny over women.” 3 That's a wound speaking, not reality. But as her worldview, it powerfully shaped her life.
    Today many women choose a life for themselves from woundedness. So as not to be taken advantage of, or abandoned the way Mom was, they insulate themselves from vulnerability through the power of a career. Self-sufficiency becomes their driving worldview. So as not to be dominated by a man the wayDad did Mom, they angrily reject their church and the Bible's teaching on male headship and become hard and demanding. Or to feel safe, they find a man they can dominate. To escape the pain of their parents' marriage, some women