There is a strange trend occurring in our society that started years ago. As each year passes by, our society makes more attempts to blur the lines between the roles of males and females. It seems that at some point, in the name of equality, somebody decided that it would be best for men to become more like women and women to become more like men. Thus, men and women could meet in the middle and be exactly the same. This is the concept of androgyny, i.e., to have both male and female characteristics.
Here is the big problem with trying to achieve androgyny: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Gen. 1:27) Men and women were made different from each other from the beginning, and nothing that we can do will ever change that fact.
This issue is about far more that physiology or anatomy. It is about God's design of men and women and the order that He established. There is a good reason that God made a difference in the sexes, and it is more than just procreation. The wisdom of God in making us as we are is incomprehensible. It is arrogant for anyone to try to reorder that which is divinely ordained.
It seems that those who promote androgyny do so with the idea of making men and women equal by removing their gender distinctions. They see every difference between men and women, other than anatomy, as the result of cultural bias. To them, the culture has given man a place of superiority over the woman, which is unfair, so those distinctions must be removed.
In truth, it is not a matter of one being superior to the other. It is a matter of each one being divinely complemented by the other. When God looked on the man without the woman, He said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." (Gen. 2:18) Woman was created so that she is similar to man but different. She has what he lacks and vice versa. The differences are by design so that, together, man and woman can be complete in the Lord (1 Cor. 11:11-12).
So then, how can woman be a complement to man if they are exactly the same? If we try to remove the differences that God made, are we not attempting to reverse the divine design? Have we invented a better system than God's system? God has placed the woman in submission to her husband, children in submission to their parents, and all in submission to the Lord (Eph. 5:22-24; 6:1-4; Col. 3:18-21; 1 Cor. 11:3). Have we a better alternative?
Just look at our society and see the fruit of man's wisdom. The results of this philosophy of androgyny are confusion, frustration, and dysfunction. Children are forced to do things that they are not naturally inclined to do. Young people are confused about the roles of men and women in marriage and family. Fathers do not know how to be fathers. Mothers who stay at home with their children are made to feel as if they have wasted their abilities. Families suffer from a lack of direction and authority because they have no leadership.
Essentially, what has happened is that we have tried to put a square peg in a round hole. Men cannot function as women do and women cannot function as men do. When we try to force men or women into roles for which they were not meant the results are disastrous. Therefore, let men be men, and women be women, by God's design, as God intended.
