Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man;
we shall this day light such a candle,
by God's grace, in England,
as I trust shall never be put out.
These are the words Hugh Latimer said to Nicholas Ridley as they went to be burned at the stake. These men were church reformers in England who were executed when Queen Mary took the throne. No doubt you realize by now that Nicholas Ridley is our dog's namesake.
Now Latimer's advice to 'play the man' was no doubt good advice. In a matter of three short words was saying 'Be strong, and take courage in the strength of the Lord.' Real men do this, of course. But the phrase, "play the man", and many others like it, can bring with it all kinds of assumptions about what it means to not play the man. Could Latimer have, alternatively, said "Don't be a woman" and meant the same thing? My guess is that many of us assume that to be the case. All kinds of jokes stem from this assumption, like SNL's Hans and Franz saying "don't be a girly man". I found another example recently in a blog. One man was commended for being a strong man, but he then associated not being a man with activities like "knitting and scrap-booking".
These jokes, and the attitudes behind them, damage women, the church, and society as a whole. These attitudes are both inside the church and outside the church. They assume that to not play the man is to act like a woman. But that is not so.
Now Latimer's advice to 'play the man' was no doubt good advice. In a matter of three short words was saying 'Be strong, and take courage in the strength of the Lord.' Real men do this, of course. But the phrase, "play the man", and many others like it, can bring with it all kinds of assumptions about what it means to not play the man. Could Latimer have, alternatively, said "Don't be a woman" and meant the same thing? My guess is that many of us assume that to be the case. All kinds of jokes stem from this assumption, like SNL's Hans and Franz saying "don't be a girly man". I found another example recently in a blog. One man was commended for being a strong man, but he then associated not being a man with activities like "knitting and scrap-booking".
These jokes, and the attitudes behind them, damage women, the church, and society as a whole. These attitudes are both inside the church and outside the church. They assume that to not play the man is to act like a woman. But that is not so.
Rather, to not play the man is to act like a child, to be immature. "Don't be a woman" is not an alternative phrase to "play the man". What if there were women going to their death that day with Ridley and Latimer? We should say the same thing to women today that Latimer would have said to them… "Sister, Play the Woman".
No comments:
Post a Comment