Part of the Christian Kyriarchy Project
Last updated 08/11/2025
Gender essentialism is the notion that people have or should have particular qualities because of their gender. For example, men are painted as being inherently more aggressive while women are portrayed as nurturing by nature.
This worldview tends to be cisnormative.
1. Christians who promote purity culture tend to stereotype people's libidos by gender. They see men as lustful, aggressive animals who can't help themselves when it comes to sex, which both reduces men to their sex drives and gives predators an easy defense when they get caught. On the flip side, women are said to prefer more romantic aspects than sexual ones.
Uncritical examples
Doing Things Right In Matters of the Heart Study Guide by Joshua Krohse | Northbrook Baptist Church (contains multiple examples)
Archive on Wayback Machine
Understanding Your Husband's Sexual Needs by Juli Slattery | Focus On The Family
Archived on Wayback Machine
Sex Is a Relational Need by Juli Slattery | Focus On The Family (January 2009)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Key Truths about a Husband and Wife Needing and Desiring Sex - Part 2 - Is It Just About Sex for the Man? | Love & Respect
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
How Your Husband Feels When You're Too Tired For Sex | Shaunti Feldhahn (June 2019)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Persistent Temptations Men Face | PeaceBrooke Biblical Counseling
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
Gender and race in the cult of true womanhood | Are Women Human? (September 2011)
“You Are Not Your Own:” Men Are Animals | Sarah Over The Moon (July 2013)
That doesn't sound like attraction: what conservative Christianity teaches about the sexuality of women | Speaking When the World Sleeps (September 2014)
“Boys Can't Stop” | Tell me why the world is weird (March 2023)
In Purity Land, Only Straight Men Are Allowed To Have A Sexuality | Tell me why the world is weird (November 2016)
2. There's also the notion that men are naturally protectors and women are nurturing when they are being honest with themselves. More extreme Christians tend to treat this notion as gospel.
Uncritical examples
Observations Upon Our Genre by Moira Greyland | Superversive SF (October 2019)
Archived on Wayback Machine
Missing the Target: Some Brief Thoughts on Target's Cultural Capitulation by Grant Castleberry | The Council On Biblical Manhood And Womanhood (August 2015, deadnames a famous trans person)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
A Feminized Faith by P. Andrew Sandlin | Chalecon Foundation (February 1998)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
I'm a woman, and God created me to do math and build robots | Tell me why the world is weird (August 2015)
More about gender essentialism in Christian spaces
Men are like waffles, women are like spaghetti, non-binaries are like pancakes | Speaking When the World Sleeps (September 2014, brings up anorexia)
“I know you because I know your gender:” the relationships created by conservative Christian gender roles | Speaking When the World Sleeps (September 2014)
Further information
Do Women Really Talk More Than Men? by Catherine Aponte, Psy.D. | Psychology Today (October 2019, talks about how gender stereotypes can aggravate relationship problems)
Christian misogyny and sexism
various | misogyny in purity culture | antifeminism and related | “pro-life” sexism | coercing women into submission to men | gender essentialism | rejecting feminine and gender neutral terms for God | complaints about the church being feminized