Exercise and Femininity, cont.

HERE ARE two additional comments — powerful essays, really — to add to the long and sometimes heated discussion on “Exercise and Femininity.” The first comment is from Mrs. W. (who goes by her full surname here). She began the original conversation. Stephen Ippolito also responds with further thoughts on the concept of dignity and how the Mother of God is the highest counter-force to feminism. It’s a long comment, but well worth reading in its entirety.
Mrs. Willodson writes:
Thank you for your opinions and for those of your readers. Most helpful to me was your comment:
“I think a woman should not rush too much or push. She should be as much as possible in a state of potential prayer.”
That is what woman is. Tranquility. Peace. Calm. Her husband, and children and everyone around her for that matter depend on her for this. Exercise and clothing (even posture, hand gestures, hair style, facial expressions, etc.) that don’t outwardly complement or cultivate this type of inner peace is unbecoming to a woman. Some of your readers may say that jogging or swimming or whatever brings them this inner peace. Indeed, I have before had the habit of “clearing my head” by running. But this is a farce. They are wrongly depending on a natural activity for inner peace instead of doing a supernatural one: prayer. And they are forgetting that they do not live for themselves. Men and women both need to act in such a way as to not cause scandal to others. (more…)

