More on Women and Jesus (and then a surprising source of creative writing)

Some of my favorite writing on women is found in two essays by Dorothy Sayers, "Are Women Human?" and "The Human-Not-Quite-Human." Essentially, she points out that women are often treated as class separate from the human race, perhaps exalted, maybe disparaged, but as something essentially other than human. Obviously, her point is that this perspective, whether explicitly or implicitly thought and taught, is harmful to both women and to men. Truth is, "a woman is just as much an ordinary human being as a man, with the same individual preferences, and with just as much right to the tastes and preferences of an individual." Her writing is clear, witty, thoughtful, and oh-so-delightfully British. If you haven't, you should read these essays. The second contains one of my favorite paragraphs:

Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man-- there never has been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronised; who never made arch jokes about them, never treated them either as "The women, God help us!" or "The ladies, God bless them!": who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unselfconscious. There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole Gospel that borrows its pungency from female perversity; nobody could possibly guess from the words and deeds of Jesus that there was anything "funny" about woman's nature.

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And, as another example of a well-written paragraph, proof from a matchbook cover that even directions can be written with a flair for the witty and creative:

Instructions: Firmly grasp individual match, keeping fingers away from the igniting tip. After liberating said match from its confinement, assure that your matchbook cover is closed. Briskly strike the tip across the provided strikeplate on the backside of your matchbook to facilitate ignition of said match. Repeat when necessary. Flame good.