I have to say, I’m used to diet sodas and expensive cars advertising themselves as for being for Real Men Only, but the priesthood advertising itself as being for Real Men Only is somewhat new. I’m now imagining the associated TV spots involving priests with bulging muscles fighting off CGI demons while Eye of the Tiger played in the background.
At first blush, this seems less problematic than a lot of forms of Real Man advertisement. I disapprove of anything that says that some men are somehow fake men. You are a real man whether you wear pink or not, just like you’re a real man whether you refrain from crying or not. However, since the priesthood generally involves nurturing and caretaking (positive traits gendered female), this ad could serve to expand the behaviors that fall under the Real Man umbrella.
However, upon closer examination, this ad is actually sexist and gender-policing. The ad describes the priesthood as “tough” (which it is) which is why they need Real Men to do it (after all, all those namby-pamby fake men can’t handle the stress). The priesthood falls into standard male gender roles: the priest is a protector of his flock, a provider of God’s grace, and a leader in bringing people to God. The archetype of “priest” is another one of those “men have power over other people and never feel weakness” archetypes– except that this time it’s spiritual power.
Obviously, men should be priests if they want to. However, by depicting the priesthood as something Real Men do, the Catholic Church is reinforcing problematic gender roles that suggest that it’s men’s job to be the protector, provider and leader– regardless of whether they want to or not.
The advertising is also inherently more problematic because literally only real men (well, a subset of real men) can be priests. Only cis men are allowed to be ordained; no matter how good she’d be at taking care of her parishioners, a woman cannot be ordained to the priesthood, and is instead left to the separate but unequal position of nun. Within this cultural context, the Real Man advertisement feels much ickier: it’s not just gender role enforcement, it’s taunting women and trans men who cannot join the priesthood even if they want to.
Also, I really think that if the Catholic Church were concerned about its recruiting problems, it should have thought of that before it covered up the systematic rape of children.
I was also struck by the awkwardness of the phrasing. It reads like it has been badly translated into English
I wonder if this ad campaign is actually aimed at the public rather than at recruiting priests. Does the church really want priests who make their commitment after seeing an advertisement? I think this is a tactic to get the public to think more “positively” of the priesthood and the church.
@MorkaisChosen: Dead men. 😛
Actually, my first reaction to the ad was that it was funny, playfully ironic. But that’s just me, and logically I can see that I am probably wrong. One of the scary things about it is that it, almost right out, says “And your job will in large part consist of listening to the mundane and spiritual problems of, giving advice to, giving absolution to, and marrying to their wives, male individuals who are not as strong as you, and therefore are not real men.”
Real men respire oxygen.
I’m willing to retract this statement should anyone point out anyone I’m inadvertently ignoring.
@Eli: For my part, I forgive Ozy — when I saw “real men” in the ad, I AUTOMATICALLY assumed they meant cis men. In other words, I automatically assumed that the Catholic church would never dream of ordaining someone who identified as a male but didn’t have the sanctioned sexual anatomy. I think that’s where I am too. Even if it wasn’t the Catholic Chruch’s modus operandi putting me in that frame of mind, if someone did use Real Men in a context that could include transmen, I’d be rather weirded out that they could remember to be so open… Read more »
No pope has ever ruled ex cathedra on the female-priests issue. Until one does, you can fight it through Canon Law and get rulings, change laws and all of that stuff. Most issues in church history have been solved in this manner. However, once a pope preempts or supplants this process and announces doctrine ex cathedra, game over.
Most popes emphatically do NOT like to do ex cathedra statements, so that works in feminists’ favor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_infallibility#Conditions_for_teachings_being_declared_infallible
There are Catholics who want female priests to be allowed. Eventually the Church may listen.
And a slight subtlety that people may not be aware of, basically evidence that nun is seperate and unequal to priest: monks, which *are* basically the same as nuns except male.
@Levi Ramsey: Given that the structures of the Episcopal Church and the RCC are damn near identical, I’d say the difference is that the Episcopal Church allows for female priests (is it kosher to say “priestesses” in this case?) and hasn’t had a major sex scandal in recent memory. You’d think the RCC would pay attention.
Male and female, He created them. Male and female, we ordain them.
The Episcopal church welcomes you. 😀
It makes me sad when religious groups get it wrong. 🙁
@Eli:
For my part, I forgive Ozy — when I saw “real men” in the ad, I AUTOMATICALLY assumed they meant cis men. In other words, I automatically assumed that the Catholic church would never dream of ordaining someone who identified as a male but didn’t have the sanctioned sexual anatomy.
…is that a problem with me, or a problem with the church? 😛
On Roman Catholicism’s issues with priest recruitment/retention, I find it sort of interesting that the joke in Episcopalian circles is that the Episcopal Church may well have a situation in the not-too-distant future where there are more ordained priests than parishioners, especially in view of nearly all of the recently ordained that I’ve encountered could not become Catholic priests.
“The Catholic Church’s recruiting problems predate that particular scandal.
But lambasting the Roman Catholic Church for gender role enforcement is kind of like complaining that the restrooms in Auschwitz weren’t kept very clean.”
This is a great line. 😀
Also note that this means that gay men can’t be real men because priests can’t be gay. Pedophiles, maybe, but not gay for a consenting adult man.
Eli: Thank you. You would think being a trans person myself I’d be magically free of cissexism in my own writing…
literally only real men can be priests. Only people who identify as male are allowed to be ordained
A minor but important correction: only cis men are allowed to be ordained (which is, of course, not the same as being a “real man”). The Catholic church does not accept the validity of trans men’s identities as men.
“However, by depicting the priesthood as something Real Men do, the Catholic Church is reinforcing problematic gender roles that suggest that it’s men’s job to be the protector, provider and leader– regardless of whether they want to or not.”
This.
Well, I haven’t been to church since ’08 so take the following with a grain of salt. I think a lot of the problems of the Church stem from it trying to please an older very conservative very devoted group of worshipers and neglecting some of the social justice aspects to the church, cough Jesuits cough, I think the church could do itself a world of good by encouraging the more left of center movements in the church and allowing them a certain amount of prestige, thus making the priesthood about being a gender neutral provider of more than just… Read more »
The RCC is just doing it’s standard “slap-a-new-label-on-whatever-we’re-doing-without-actually-changing-anything” song and dance. Remember when JP2 started talking about that “new feminism” and “genius of women” crap? The Catholic church has become drastically feminized since the 1960’s. (I mean that demographically, not derivatively.) Young men are dropping out of Catholicism faster than young women. Take a look at the Young Catholics club at any given university, and I guarantee you it will be a vag-fest. Never mind the shortage of priests, my (still-Catholic) sister complains about the shortage of Catholic boyfriends. I don’t know why the Catholic church is losing the marketing… Read more »
Oprhan – I was about to type almost exactly this response until I scrolled down and say your comment.
This sort of sexism is integral to the entire chruch, and will likely persist as Catholicism continues it’s long, slow slide into obsolescence and irrelevance. If it serves to hasten that slide, all the better.
The Catholic Church’s recruiting problems predate that particular scandal.
But lambasting the Roman Catholic Church for gender role enforcement is kind of like complaining that the restrooms in Auschwitz weren’t kept very clean.