Don’t be ridiculous you might say but do women really sin? From all available records, women do not seem to sin and there are good reasons why they might be completely immune to sin. Remember Eve from the bible? despite the love in tongue discussion with Adam and her knowledge of what he was not supposed to eat, she ate the fruit, and as if that was not enough, she persuaded him to eat also, a double offence you might realise it is. But Adam was the one questioned. Nobody said she sinned. It was Adam who did. Eve was actually free to do whatever she liked because she was not given instruction on certain things.
What is sin? From the religious point of view, a sin is an act of defiance of set rules. If eating bread is forbidden, then eating it is a sin. In relation to male and female relationships, the woman is expected to submit to the man (Gen 3:16). In this regard, she remains blameless even for acts that she wilfully commits. The silent logic is that a man, in fact, any man should have restrained her; the weak vessel, from committing unwholesome acts, else the blame shifts to the man or all men. Women, like children, are supposed to be weak and maybe feeble-hearted, hence incapable of doing wrong. But every boy is a potential man, who like real men are made strong in body and mind; and as such, capable of self-control for personal accountability, hence capable of committing sin.
Again, remember Joseph and Potiphar’s wife from the bible? Despite her trying to seduce him and lying to that effect, Joseph was the one that went to prison. Can women lie? The answer again is “No” as long as it is part of an unfinished temptation. Some women specialize in selectively seducing Priests. When they succeed, the women are hailed as most charming and the Priest wayward. The Priest becomes a sinner for yielding to temptation. If a woman’s role is to tempt a man, then she would not sin even if she tempts the Pope on sexual matters. But woe betides any Pope so enticed. It is like a bad workman quarrelling with his tools or in this case blaming his tool. If women are the tools of temptation, the man is blamed for the effect. And the man blames the “tool” as Adam said of Eve: “the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat.” (Gen 3:12).
During marriage ceremonies in some parts of the world, the audience is reminded thus: “What God has joined together, let ‘no man’ put asunder.” The admonition appears like it is only for men. A woman is free to put asunder but for a man, it is a sin. For the command, “thou shall not commit adultery” is usually interpreted as “thou shall not sleep with someone’s wife.” Again the man is the target even if a sex-starved woman locked him in with a knife in her hands and raped him. You might ask: Is it possible for a woman to rape a man? These days, female rapists drug their male victims with ‘erectile function’ drugs and when they achieve an involuntary erection in their victim, they rape the men even if the men are unconscious. As a man, if a woman gives you her maid to sleep with, like Abraham’s wife Sarah did or as Jacob’s two wives did in the biblical Old Testament, you will not sin. But if the man sleeps with a maid without Madam’s consent, then it is a sin because the maid is someone’s potential wife.
For sins of idolatry, covetousness, stealing and murder, a woman’s defiance would stand out and we can see openly that only in these areas is a woman’s sin acknowledged. Jezebel’s case was abating covetousness. Sapphira lied and died immediately. In Miriam’s case, she joined Aaron to protest against Moses’ marriage to the Ethiopian woman (Num 12:1-16) but only Miriam was punished with leprosy. Lot’s wife sinned and was turned into a pillar of salt. You can see that whenever a woman sins, which is rare, the design of her punishment is so strange that it mystifies onlookers. That might be the reason why women do not sin no matter how they try, except they touch the specially anointed.
Can prostitution be a sin? Or is gluttony a sin? Is to have a big appetite a sin? Prostitution is like an act of ‘overfeeding’ yourself with sex rather than stealing from someone. But has prostitution at any time been called a sin? No. remember (Gen 38:1-26) when Judah slept with Tamar, (who was his daughter-in-law although in disguise as a prostitute) her act was seen by Judah as “more righteous” and not sinful― It is wonderful!
Which of these activities is worse if they are sins? Noah drank himself drunk and Ham his eldest son accidentally entered his father’s bedroom and saw his uncovered nakedness. The result; (Gen 9:20-25) Ham was cursed by his father to be a slave. Note that he did not give drink to his father and he entered the room accidentally and he did not also make his father naked. In the second case, Lot’s two daughters made their father drunk by giving him strong drink. As if that was not enough, they stripped him naked, saw his nakedness and not only that, they each made love to him. They even got themselves pregnant for him. The result; (Gen 19:20-38) they got blessed. Each child became a father of a great nation, Moab and Ammon. You see what I mean!
When a man demands and gets sex before obliging a woman with favour, he is seen as a sinner. But when a woman offers sex to get a man to do her bidding, she is not a sinner. When a man seduces a girl (a subordinate) he wishes to marry, he is accused of sin. But when a woman deliberately hands over herself to a man in order to commit him to be her lover, whence she can then force pregnancy on him and maybe marriage, she is not seen as a sinner.
A woman goes out with a man; the man spends on her in anticipation of friendship. But the woman in all excuses continues to extort money from the man by playing hard to get. If the man feels the loss, like robbery on him and decides to get even with the woman for her act of extorting money from him, it would become a sin of assault. But a woman is never charged for “covetousness in disguise” because it is believed that she has a right to act dubious to be a tough woman. For man, deceit is a sin. For a woman it is art. When therefore does a woman sin?