Modernist Poets Are Against Biblical Values

Well, I guess not all Modernist poets, but the females like Millay or Loy certainly were.  I’m not saying that they didn’t believe in God or anything, but they didn’t promote Christian values as regards to marriage, intercourse, or gender roles. 

            In poems like "I Being Born A Woman and Distressed" (1892-1950) by Millay or "Virgins Plus Curtains Minus Dots" (1914) by Loy, women of the times were not shy about discussing the traditional gender roles that pertain to women being lesser than men.  They both cry out to their readers that women are equal to men and that they should be allowed to make their own choices sexually.  The problem with this notion is that it’s going against what scripture teaches about sexuality and gender.

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            The biggest blunder they (Millay and Loy) do is that they promote pre-marital sex as well as masturbation, which are both sexual immorality throughout scripture.  Millay writes, “I find this frenzy insufficient reason; for conversation when we meet again” (13^th and 14^th lines of “I being a Woman and Distressed”).  In this, she means that women should hold the power to their desires and that men can’t own their bodies or the right to their bodies, and at the same time, she is promoting sexual intercourse outside of marriage or even one-night stands.  In Hebrews 13:4, it says that the “marriage bed be undefiled” meaning that sex should be and is meant to be within the context of marriage. 

Unlike what most people take this verse to mean, which is that sex is bad and God is sucking all the fun out of it, God really wants sex to be within marriage for our own good.  He knows that He designed us to be permanently connected to the person we sleep with, and when that person or people are not married to you, feelings are created that can confuse us and lead to heartbreak.  Despite what Millay thinks that women can have sex without any strings attached, this is not how God hard-wired women’s brains.  Women are emotional beings (and I don’t mean that we are emotional in the sense that we’re crying all day long) and we crave true love and companionship, not a booty-call.  When women try to have sex without any strings attached, they normally wind up feeling emptier inside and unsatisfied than if they had just abstained from sex in the first place. This is why God suggests that we keep sex within a married relationship. 

Now as for Loy, she writes “with the door locked; against virgins who; might scratch” (last three lines of “Virgins Plus Curtains Minus Dots”) which alludes to masturbation.  Masturbation is still considered a sexual sin in scripture because it’s defiling oneself or fornicating oneself (Ephesians 5:5), and as crosswalk.com writes, “masturbation is a form of mental pornography.”  Loy is promoting a sinful lifestyle by writing about masturbating as an alternative to sex.  Even though masturbating isn’t traditional sex, it’s still a sexual act.  

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            A more subtle blow that Millay and Loy make against Christianity is that they seem to question or make fun of the authority or leadership of a man over a woman.  Their complaint  is that men shouldn’t be in command of women’s emotions, bodies, or actions because of the belief of the time was that men were above women and that they were meant to command them according to scripture like Ephesians 5:22.

            The thing is that the Bible doesn’t support men as bosses of women rather than being leaders of women.  It’s a common misinterpretation that men are to sit on a throne and command women to do their bidding, but in actuality, men are meant to be a leader which is a partner or mentor to those that work with them.  The Bible talks about how men should love women and use kind words with them (Colossians 3:19).  When scripture talks about wives “submitting” to their husbands, it’s meaning that they now have a permanent tie to their husband and should, therefore, love and respect him ( Matthew 19:5). God created men to be leaders, but not to command them.

            When Millay and Loy are complaining about being bossed around by men, they think they are denouncing the traditional Christian view of gender roles, but they are really just misinterpreting scripture and making false allegations about how God would want relationships to be like. Also, when they support themes like sex outside of marriage, they are going directly against Biblical teachings and ideologies.  

I’ll leave you all with this quote by Matthew Henry:

“Woman was made from the rib of a man. Not from his head to top him not his foot to be stepped on by him, but from his side to be equal to him, under his arm to be protected by him, and near his heart to be loved by him.”