Unmasking the Male Soul

Power and Gender Trap for Women in Leadership

Wilmer G. Villacorta

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781532652349
  9781532652356
• eBook ISBN:
  9781532652363
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Unmasking the Male Soul is about freedom that confronts the innate and enslaving obsession for power and control in destructive ways. At the core of this liberating process, we must acknowledge that we cannot escape the sociocultural matrix in which every human being emerges. In denying their fallen nature, human beings set aside their dependency on God and become self-centered and self-reliant. It is from their self-centered hearts that human beings foster dynamics of coercion, domination, competition, and distorted self-realization at the expense of others. This cycle of shame and guilt is well-disguised behind a mask which enables them to enact these dynamics in subtle ways. At times even in the name of religion, men followed the illusion of their internal insecurities and became dependent on masks of power and control. It is time to break away from the chains of exclusion and devaluation of women in Christian leadership. Masculinities have only perpetrated a narrative of exceptionalism as the apex of humankind, and often they have contrasted to subservient expectations of women in leading others. Each chapter responds to the implicit male silence on the issue in a multidisciplinary way with historical, sociocultural, theological, and scriptural implications. In this book, I will endeavor to challenge the masks of masculinities and dismantle several mental models that foment a gender divide in Christ-like leadership in the twenty-first century.

1

Confronting the Distortions of Being Male

The greatest of man is great in that he recognizes his misery. The tree knows nothing of its misery.1

—Blaise Pascal

In this chapter, I propose challenging the conceptual distortions which proliferate human violence, disrespect of both women and men and the exceptionalism of being male—the unmasking of the male soul—is a necessity. To accomplish this, it is necessary to identify the core problem addressed in this book—a deficient understanding and practice of power as the embedded cause of dysfunctional masculinities which Christian leaders must acknowledge and correct.2

The underlying concept is that most people play power games; it is inherent to the human condition. In particular, a majority of males exacerbate their attitudes, behaviors, interactions, and values by expressing them outwardly so that others can see them.3 This is done by taking or seeking power, which is characteristic of men in most cultures. This trait seems to describe how humans relate with one another regarding gender inducing power differential between men and women globally. A sense of loss aligned with the human fall as described in Genesis 3 becomes the entry point for the decay of human relations beneath the shadow of cultural patriarchy feeding into the many distortions in the male soul.4

The skewed emphasis of a “masculine feel” is shown in every human enterprise throughout history.5 The idea of a “masculine feel” is a symptom of a distorted sense of patriarchy infused by the self-centeredness of the human soul. It has also proliferated into a narrative of masculine domination in the crafting of biblical narratives.6 This has been an ongoing process throughout the development of Christian thought.

Consequently, many popular theologians have embraced this mental model to suggest that the same is applicable in the practice of Christian ministry. This chapter provides a critique of such an assertion and dissects its nuanced message of passive misogyny in traditional “Christian masculinity.” Disregarding and ignoring patriarchy negates the message of freedom in the creative act of Imago Dei endorsed and completed in the Gospels.

What Distortions?

In this chapter, tackling the issue of distortions in being males in a multidisciplinary way will help articulate a robust and integrated understanding of the topic. Often, studies on this issue limit their focus to addressing one or two disciplines. And the analysis from biblical perspectives has little to do with sociocultural analysis, limiting arguments to overgeneralized and biased statements. Similarly, theological studies assume their findings without an appropriate and sound cultural and sociological awareness in their analysis.

Hypermasculinizing

For example, to argue that ministry has a “masculine feel” obliterates millennia of historical data as well as overlooking the place of women in the communities of faith in the early church.7 By asserting this, I am implying the first distortion—hypermasculinizing—a term I developed (equivalent to machismo in Spanish-speaking contexts). This distortion is demonstrated in social interactions at different levels; it often results in exerting control and subordination. Gender hierarchy is of high significance. A common practice in fundamentalist Christianity is to justify any distortion by prooftexting—utilizing Scriptures to contend and support for a particular insight without an appropriate interpretation aligned to other sources and the texts’ Sitz im Leben.8

To summarize, hypermasculinizing has become foundational to the ordering of human existence. It has permeated politics, military structures, established religious orders and dogma, economics, and family.9 “It is a man’s world” is both a common saying and reality. Although some may say these distortions are modern expressions of humanism and rationalism, hypermasculinizing began in the establishment of the church in the second century as it assimilated the social and political structures of the time.

It is important to mention that the above assertion requires historical perspectives to rebut the simplification of the “masculine feel” in a ministry. An exhaustive body of literature challenges this naïve oversimplification.10 Some of these perspectives will be developed in later chapters. Given the relevancy of historical data in understanding the increasing “hypermasculinizing,” “behaviors and attitudes” is intrinsic.

In my book Tug of War: The Downward Ascent of Power, I assert that the normative way of male spirituality assumes the expressed behaviors and attitudes of Christian men as “always ready to divide and conquer.”11 From a feminist perspective on spirituality, I elaborate on the central role females play in defining male “normative” spiritualities.12 From this stance, we may say that male spiritualities are geared to extroversion and abstraction which indicate a preference for an accruing of power through cognitive efforts in pious form. At its root, the deficiencies of fundamentalism and prooftexting depend strongly on these dynamics that assert control and dominance conducive to sexist and misogynistic connotations. Undoubtedly, these dynamics inform behaviors and attitudes in males at different levels and social contexts. So it would help to see through several scenarios giving examples of how behaviors and attitudes play out in the context of the family at home, roles at church, sibling roles, and parental expectations.

Girls Are Not Enough

Joanna grew up in a strong patriarchal Christian family. Her father longed to have a son so that his inheritance and the successful family business would be in safe hands. Joanna was a disappointment because she was a girl and the firstborn. He was bitter because all of his offspring were female. In his frustration and sense of failure, he expressed often that being female was an automatic disqualification for leading or making good decisions about anything. Joanna felt that her childhood robbed her of creativity and missional vocation, forcing her to suppress what she knew deep inside—the Imago Dei—the centerpiece of who God created her to be.13

The Exclusive Old Boys Club14

Rachel recently became a licensed minister in her denomination and had the opportunity to attend a ministerial conference for the first time. She related her experience:

The setting was so memorable to me because it was the first time I realized I had been lied to by the very organization that had told me my whole life that I had a clear and obvious calling on my life. I cultivated my leadership skills for four years, and they told me that I could do anything in the Kingdom of God and the fellowship of our denomination. I quickly discovered that they had been talking about if you were a man, all of those things were possible. But if you were a woman, you should be happy with what you might be allowed to do.

The implicit idea of ministry belonged exclusively to qualified and credentialed males. Thus, the tone of the conversations from the platform had a particular emphasis—that is, all men talk about the “men of God” in the room. A particular way in describing males refers to pastoral ministry and leadership in only the masculine. Rachel felt as though every ega...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Confronting the Distortions of Being Male
• Chapter 2: Unveiling the Faces of Manhood
• Chapter 3: Discovering a Divine Way of Gender and Power
• Chapter 4: Dynamics of Power and Gender in Narrative Form
• Chapter 5: Taming the Male Soul through Storytelling
• Chapter 6: Unmasking and Transformation of Manhood
• Chapter 7: Female Strength, Male Struggle
• Chapter 8: Female Presence in Divine Vulnerable Dimension
• Chapter 9: Leading Together Side by Side
• Conclusion
• Bibliography