Her Name Is 'Folly'

In countless women's bible studies, we are constantly directed to Proverbs 31 in order to gain definition for our femininity in this chapter pertaining to the noble wife. In the opening verses of this chapter the noble wife is compared to the attribute wisdom. Throughout Proverbs wisdom is characterized as feminine and is indeed a feminine noun in the Hebrew language - "Chokmah".

I decided that if wisdom contained the characteristics of true and rightful femininity as we are led to believe then it would stand to reason that the evil associated with wisdom, folly, would entail the "false feminine". The Hebrew word for folly is also a feminine noun - "Ivveleth". And so I spent the better portion of yesterday pulling out the various reflections of folly from the pages of Proverbs. The list is rather extensive but I think it will provide some clarification for where we may be deceived into seeing these characteristics as encompassing godly femininity when they do not.

And so, here is my compiled list of the "false feminine":
despises wisdom and discipline, delights in mockery, hates knowledge, does not fear the Lord, scheming, wayward, complacent, perverse mouth, seductive words, leaves the partner of her youth, resents rebuke and instruction, inherits shame, bitter, cruel, lazy, stirs up dissension, haughty (self-exalting) eyes, lying tongue, sheds innocent blood, preys upon men, incites jealousy, loud and defiant, proud and arrogant, brings grief to mother, violent, lacks judgment, leads others astray, finds pleasure in evil conduct, hopeless and depressed, duplicitous, destroys and tears down with words, gossips, attracts trouble, lacks discretion, deceitful, chases fantasies, easily annoyed, anxious, wasteful (squanders money), quarrelsome, spares the rod, tears down her house, quick tempered, hotheaded, reckless, simpleminded, gives birth to folly, oppresses, contemptuous, disgraceful, incurs wrath, spurns father, despises mother, no pleasure in knowledge and yet airs opinions freely, answers before listening, robs father and drives out mother, betrays confidence, craves to take, servant to lender (in debt), immature, praises herself, disregards laws, eager to get rich, lives in fear, gives full vent to anger.

And after all this the tell all sign of true folly is she turns on her character and says, "I've done nothing wrong." I don't know about you but I saw a whole lot of characteristics in there that I have believed in and that the world tells us embodies the empowered feminine of today.

I will be working on acquiring more characteristics throughout other books in the bible but I was just astounded with the extensive list I accumulated from Proverbs alone. These characteristics are evidence of the false feminine - the harlot - in our midst. The world tells us to aspire to be this woman. We lift her up on our shoulders and strive to be like her. But it is a lie. This is not true femininity.