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Style and Religion
Olympic Outrage: Conservatives’ Double Standards on Gender

Olympic Outrage: Conservatives’ Double Standards on Gender

Last updated on: August 5, 2024 at 3:49 am by Gregory T. Smith

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Olympic Outrage: Conservatives’ Double Standards on Gender 2024-08-04T07:42:57-08:00 Gregory T. Smith

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Conservatives are outraged over Olympic drag queens and alleged trans athletes, demonstrating double standards on sexuality and gender.

Photo by cottonbro studio onPexels

The Olympics aren’t the only place where conservatives have shown their double standards. It hasn’t been too long since they cried out in alarm over drag queens reading books to their children in libraries. What’s behind all that? I imagine there were some Christian dads at the library who didn’t know that the reader was a drag queen. “Oh yeah, I’d like to get me some of that!” the Christian dads thought. They thrilled in anticipation as the drag queen thoughtlessly uncrossed her legs like Sharon Stone, and the Christian dads about threw up on themselves.

No Mrs. Doubtfire

You see, it wasn’t the drag queen who bothered the Christian dads. It was the fact that, as long as they thought she was a cisgender woman, they were fine to lust after her. But, when they found out, she was anything but a cisgender woman, it challenged their heterosexuality.

Or perhaps the outcry came from the Christian moms at the library. This was no Mrs. Doubtfire reading to their children, but a real, attractive human being who made their husbands drop their jaws. These Christian moms said to themselves, “Why doesn’t he look at me that way anymore?” They didn’t like that a man could contend with them in the beauty department. So, it wasn’t about the influence the drag queen might have on their kids that got them all flustered. It was the influence the drag queen had on their husbands.

Generational Increase in LGBTQIA+ People

Conservatives love to complain about society’s changing view on sexuality. They’re afraid that the “gay agenda” is stealing their children, citing as evidence the gradual increase in LGBTQIA+ people in each successive generation. But they are reading the statistics wrong.

People aren’t becoming queer more than they used to. This presumes people can become queer instead of being born that way. In reality, because society is becoming gradually more open with each successive generation, people who were born LGBTQIA+ are coming out of the closet more. Though it’s still not a safe society for all, it’s safer than it used to be. This is why you see lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer and questioning, intersex, asexual, and two-spirit folks more than you used to see them in society. They are simply freer to be themselves. And it’s driving conservatives crazy.

Changing Sexual and Gender Roles

Conservatives say they believe in traditional sexual and gender roles. But this only applies when it is convenient for them. They conveniently forget about changing sexuality and gender ethics when those changes benefit them, thank you very much. For example…

Conservatives like to complain about men wearing dresses. But they are perfectly happy to have the added income when their wives put on pants and work outside the home. Gender roles you disapprove of are unbiblical. But gender roles that make your wallet fatter are simply expressions of your Proverbs 13 woman being an industrious wife.

Conservatives like to claim that they believe in sexual purity. Yet, states with the highest conservative populations also rank highest in consumption of pornography. As long as they can keep their dirty little secrets, it’s easy to say that they believe in traditional sexuality.

With their abortion bans, conservative states like to claim the moral high ground. Yet, they don’t like people to find out that before abortion bans, states that emphasized abstinence only education and prohibited harm reduction products from being given out in the schools actually had higher rates of abortion and STI. Turns out that when Christians try to enforce their conservative sexuality and gender roles on everybody, the result is shame and secrecy, and an environment hostile to sexual health. But, as long as this environment benefits those in power, the sexual health of their children is a price that conservatives are willing to pay.

“You Can’t Pick and Choose”

When it comes to gender rules and Human sexuality, conservatives like to say you can’t pick and choose which parts of the Bible to follow. The truth is that they do so all the time. Most Christian traditionalists aren’t as conservative as the biblical society we read about in the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament. In truth, they wouldn’t want to be that socially restrictive. Those Christian groups that make their women wear head coverings and long dresses, walking behind their husbands with their dozen children, usually get labeled as cults. In truth, most Christians don’t really want gender and sexual roles to reflect those of biblical times. If we did, we would all look like the Duggars.

What Biblical Marriage Looks Like

Most Christians do not want to look like the Duggars. Yet, so many believers fall back on sexual and gender-based stereotypes that come from a world that in truth, Christians no longer want to live in. If they understood what biblical marriage really looks like, they wouldn’t want any part of it. Still, they cling to the patriarchy and call it the inspired word of God.

Breaking Free

American conservatives have always hated the free spirit of the Parisians. This year, the Olympics highlight the difference between fundamentalists in the US and European liberty. Perhaps Americans need to learn how to break free.

Only when we break free from our addiction to law-keeping will we understand the true freedom of the Holy Spirit. The role of the Holy Spirit is to lead us in the direction of love and not law. If all we had to do was to follow the law, we would not need the Holy Spirit. The law would be enough. The law is stagnant, given to a particular culture at a specific time. But the Holy Spirit’s wind and flame are changeable, adaptable, and can guide in every situation. When Christians rely on the Holy Spirit, they can ask not, “What did God want people to do thousands of years ago?” but “What does God want me to do today?”

For related reading, check out my other articles:

General Christian

Style and Religion

Family, Parenting and Religion

Challenging the Church

Picking and choosing scripture

About Gregory T. Smith

I live in the beautiful Fraser Valley of British Columbia and work in northern Washington State as a behavioral health specialist with people experiencing homelessness and those who are overly involved in the criminal justice system. Before that, I spent over a quarter-century as lead pastor of several Virginia churches. My newspaper column, “Spirit and Truth” ran in Virginia newspapers for fifteen years. I am one of fourteen contributing authors of the Patheos/Quoir Publishing book “Sitting in the Shade of another Tree: What We Learn by Listening to Other Faiths.” I hold a degree in Religious Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University, and also studied at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. My wife Christina and I have seven children between us, and we are still collecting grandchildren. You can read more about the author here.

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