I'm not sure what irritates me more, but let me give you a few scenarios.

1) That brilliant evangelical professor who managed to avoid all liberal, feminist, Catholic and Orthodox sources--and looks at you like they would be totally and obviously irrelevant to his topic.

2) That brilliant and liberated seminary graduate who assumes that since you are a woman you obviously have the highest respect for and agree with all the feminist authors he has ever read--though all those authors disagree with each other.

3) That well meaning church person who takes care to make sure you understand that the gospel is the main message of the Bible--without asking you any questions and therefore missing the fact that you just spent the whole last year teaching this.

 I am still struggling with the feelings that I got all last year though this summer. The looks and comments that people would give me suggested that my teaching Bible was either somehow a cute and sweet little thing, or a dangerous liberal feminist experiment, or else that my views were horribly old fashioned and I wasn't nearly daring enough. And though the last is closest to the truth, what I'm wondering is, How the hell did I manage to get accused of all three at once? I love theology, but my experience in the world of Bible scholars so far has not been very encouraging. I'm torn between wanting to move to more daring communities where I would be more welcome or moving on to a different discipline all together. I have several other fields I enjoy just as much that don't result in nearly the same level of personal attack. But then I think, wouldn't that just be giving in? Isn't that exactly what all those nay-sayers want? I will have lost the right to be on the field if I take my ball and leave now. And yes, I do want to play on the same field as the men, in the same sport as the men, and be as good as the men. Theology isn't dependent on body mass or the circumference of your biceps. So I think I ought to be allowed.