Female He Created Them Podcast

In this episode, KT and Mary are joined by Murieann Lynch at Load bearing assumptions to discuss her recent piece “Why are so many Catholic feminists converts?”

We discuss why online Catholic feminism doesn’t work for Lynch (and us) as a cradle Catholic and discomfort with overemphasis in Catholic circles on motherhood as the ‘feminine genius.’ Other topics include consecrated virgins, the all-male priesthood, and seeing faith as something we’re working out in real time.

Other references:

“Is There a Feminine Genius?” panel featuring Sr. Therese Aletheia Noble of the Sisters of the Little Way.

The Bible for Normal People podcast

In this episode, Mary and KT discuss two recent articles on whether or not it’s high-time we stopped venerating Maria Goretti as a patron of purity. Topics include a vote to honor Maria Goretti as a patron of courage for girls and women in situations of sexual danger who have no recourse to safety and understanding the virgin martyrs as those who died due to someone’s hatred of what God loves: women’s personhood.

KT is going to practice not emphasizing her points by banging on the table…(sorry).

References:

St. Maria Goretti: A Saint in Need of Revisiting - S. E. Greydanus

Defending St. Maria Goretti’s Title ‘Martyr of Purity’ - Thomas V. Mirus

Gertrude von le Fort and the Virgin as Symbol - Female He Created Them

The Saints and Spousal Abuse - Female He Created Them

In this episode, KT and Mary discuss In A Different Voice (1982), the pioneering work of Carol Gilligan, who is credited as one of the originators of feminist psychology. The book examines the moral development of children and young adults, arguing that girls/women generally follow a distinct trajectory from that which had been put forward by Freud and others as the ‘standard’ (male) trajectory: identity formation through separation, the glorious achievement, a focus on moral rules and personal rights, which finally reaches maturity in a turn to generosity through intimate relationship.

Girls, she argues, instead find their identity through attachments and generosity marks an earlier stage. Girls are not done developing when they orient morality around responsibility to others, but when they realize the self is also a person who matters. This point can only be reached through a crisis wherein she must rise above a feeling of helplessness to make an important choice.

Ultimately, both paths reach a maturity which requires integrating the fundamental insight of the other—the value of self and our responsibilities. Thus, the paths are complementarity and in full human maturity should result in the sexes helping each other—women helping men to see their responsibilities and men helping women see that they, too, are a person who has rights.

We’re back!

In this episode, Mary and KT discuss Leah Libresco Sargeant’s new(ish) book The Dignity of Dependence. Topics include reflections on whether the world is the wrong shape for women and a philosophical anthropology that is expansive enough for all people at all stages of life, irrespective of sex, age, temporary or permanent disability, sickness, left-handedness, etc. Plus some irresponsible thoughts about basketball.

Other references:

Collaborators and Privates - Eurydice Lives

A Message for Girls about Womanhood - Pamela Paul

Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious - Ross Douthat

The Religious Potential of the Child - Sofia Cavaletti

This episode is Mary and KT discussing all the books they've been meaning to read but haven't and deliberating on what to read next.

References:

Holy Feast and Holy Fast by Carolyn Walker Bynum

Sick Societies by Robert Edgerton

- Psmith review of the same

Diagnosing Social Pathology by Frederik Neuhouser

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

The Dignity of Dependence by Leah Libresco Sargeant

- Other Feminisms substack

In a Different Voice by Carol Gilligan

The Evolution of Beauty by Richard O. Prum

Women and the Gender of God by Amy Peeler

Beyond God the Father by Mary Daly

Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez

Debt: The First Thousand Years by David Graeber

In this episode, Mary and KT discuss Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum, plus historical context about the industrial revolution and the emergence of Catholic Social Teaching.

References:

The Dignity of Society by Russell Hittinger

In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Eileen Reuter and Dr. Matalyn Vennerstrom to discuss A. G. Sertillanges, OP's The Intellectual Life. Topics include a holistic, embodied approach to the intellectual life for, how mothers relate to time, can Sertillanges’ frame be applied to women,  seasons and the ebb and flow of the intellectual vocation, should we point out errors or politely ignore them?

Other references:

University of St. Thomas Houston Catholic Women's and Gender Studies Program

The Minority Body: A Theory of Disability by Elizabeth Barnes

Essays on Woman by Edith Stein

Edith Stein episode

In this episode, KT and Mary talk about the outcome of their Lenten resolutions and eventually get to the topic of the Easter Gospel readings. Topics: what do the Resurrection accounts say about women’s ecclesial vocation, the priesthood as spiritual motherhood, and the courage to be inadequate.

References:

He Leadeth Me by Walter Ciszek, SJ

Called to Communion - Joseph Ratzinger

A lot of things we couldn’t remember where they came from…

In this episode, Mary and KT discuss "The Maturation of Mutual Submission" by Dr. Greg Bottaro. Topics include he feminine principle and human meaning, female subordination as cafeteria Catholicism, developments in what is available to us through reason requiring a rethinking of the faith/reason conclusions of theology, and whether women are participants in sex.

(Apologies for the fact that KT is apparently bumping the mic in her excitement…)

Other references:

Models of the Church by Avery Dulles, SJ

In this episode, Mary and KT discussed Abigail Favale's article "Rethinking Complementarity: From Stereotypes to Icons." Topics include what are sex-predictive traits and the aggregate versus the particular, stereotypes based on the statistical extreme making the average woman/man feel like a misfit, accounting for virtue and acknowledging how men and women experience the world differently.

Other references:

Episode on JPII's Letter to Women

Episode on the Eternal Woman

Episode on The Genesis of Gender