Fawn: How a Trauma Response Became "Biblical Womanhood"--and How Women Can Reclaim Their Agency

Summary

Fight. Flight. Freeze. These are the trauma responses most of us recognize. But another response is to fawn. This is the instinct to appease, flatter, and stay small to avoid harm. For many Christian women, this pattern has been reinforced as a virtue. What does it say about the church when our model for women's behavior looks like a survival strategy?

In Fawn, Sheila Wray Gregoire and Dr. Merry C. Lin reveal how modern ideas of "biblical womanhood" have often mirrored—and even perpetuated—the fawn response. Drawing on research, theology, and lived experience, they explore

• how trauma and psychological harm have shaped women's survival response;
• why the fawn survival response has been spiritualized; and
• how women can reclaim their voices, boundaries, and agency.

Ideal for women, small groups, and church leaders, this book offers language for listeners' experiences, tools for healing, and a renewed vision of faith rooted in mutuality and wholeness.