Modern Patriarchy and the Feast Day of Santa Lucia

Here we are at the feast day of Santa Lucia.  I have written a more traditional post about this feast day at my theology blog.  This morning, I wrote:  "The lives of these virgin saints show us how difficult life is in a patriarchal regime. It’s worth remembering that many women in many countries don’t have any more control over their bodies or their destinies than these long-ago virgin saints did. In this time of Advent waiting, we can remember that God chose to come to a virgin mother who lived in a culture that wasn’t much different than Santa Lucia’s culture: highly stratified, with power concentrated at the top, power in the hands of white men, which made life exceeding different for everyone who wasn't a powerful, wealthy, white man. It's a society that sounds familiar, doesn't it?"

And then I went on a walk thinking about the recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, where a man told Jill Biden, who has a doctoral degree in Education, to stop calling herself Dr. Biden.  He addressed her as kiddo.  She's old enough to be a grandmother, so clearly, it's a piece full of all sorts of disrespect.  And even if she was one of those rare people who got her doctoral degree when she was in her younger 20's, that's still not appropriate.

During my walk, I thought about my boss who was let go on the last Friday of August.  He used to call all of us females "kiddo."  When he first started, I thought he was older than he turned out to be because of this habit.  I thought it was odd, but I didn't want to cause a fuss.  I thought he might think I was significantly younger than I am.  I thought it wasn't worth making a fuss--his behavior could have been much worse, after all.

The writer who recommended that Jill Biden quit calling herself Dr. Biden also said that her dissertation had the "unpromising title" -- what was that title?  "Student Retention at the Community College Level:  Meeting Student Needs."  As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about retention and improving it, it sounds pretty darn promising to me.

Clearly we still have work to do as a society.  So let us light our Lucia candles knowing that there are so many who need illumination.  Let us fortify ourselves with sweet bread and strong coffee knowing that we have all sorts of transformation of the world left to do.