Secularisms, sexualities and theology (original) (raw)

Religion in Sexual Space REVISED Sept 219

Religion in Sexual Space

1. A History of Asymmetry Generally speaking, religion bears the stamp of patriarchy-the belief in male superiority and their right to dominance over women. Popes, cardinals, gurus, sadhus, druids, buddhas, patriarchs, abbots, lamas, bishops, mullahs, imams, khalifs, ayatollahs, and so on. All men. Even God is more often "father," whether as head of the Trinity or as the High God of the Indian tradition, Dyaus-Pitr. Muslims insist on 'covering' women, but never their men. Why? Orthodox Jewish men thank God each day that they were not born women. In the Orthodox synagogue, men occupy the main precinct, but women hide in the gallery. Christian women need to be purified-"churched"-after childbirth; Orthodox Jewish women need to be purified in the mikva bath. Paul sternly warned women to be silent in the churches. Buddha must always be male. Homosexuality is condemned as an unnatural "abomination," when it has been, respectively, long-lived and victimless. This discussion will explore critical reactions to such asymmetrical beliefs about men and women, straight and gay, primarily by leading women scholars in the study of religion. Concentrating on women scholars is primarily dictated by the historical fact of women having been most disadvantaged by the lopsided frequency of patriarchy in religion. For men, patriarchy is typically assumed to be "natural," simply the way things are and always have been. Men, therefore, have little to explain. Women, on the other hand, have had to explain why things are not, or ought not be, what they seem to be. Women are more acutely aware of these asymmetries because they are its victims. A sense of moral outrage, accordingly, incentivizes women to criticism of the cultural and historical contingencies that make them "inferiors" according to a patriarchy that denies them justice. Part of the meaning of being "feminist" author is the acceptance of the commission to tell the truth about patriarchy by telling the truth about women. Scholarship in the area of sex and religion, therefore, takes much of its rise from feminist criticism of the ideology of natural inevitability upon which patriarchy in religion rests. This historical asymmetry, in turn, explains why women dominate the production literature we are going to discuss in this chapter. Women simply have a great deal more at stake in exposing the "fake news" of the patriarchal natural right to dominate in religion.

Introduction, Religion and the Body

What role does gender, sexuality and the body play in producing the idea that religion, and particularly politicized religion, is equal to conservatism, while secularism is progressive?

Religion in Sexual Space @BULLET A Rainbow in Sexual Space

This chapter introduces readers to a select, but representative, range of recent work on religion by women in what I shall term, "sexual space." This term attempts to encompass the literature of the engagement of women religious studies scholars in three vital, but distinctive discursive domains --sex, gender and sexuality. This is not to say that only women can be feminists, only that the great bulk of significant work on women, gender, sexuality and religion comes from women scholars.

"Introduction" to special issue of Culture and Religion with Melissa M. Wilcox

In May 2002, 70 people gathered at the University of California, Santa Barbara to attend a conference called Queer Visions in the Americas. The original intent of this meeting was to examine the relationships between queer studies and the study of religion in North, Central, and South America; because four recent conferences had examined queer sexualities and world religions, we felt that the time was ripe to focus on a more specific geographic area. While the papers submitted were not as diverse as we have hoped, they still represented a broad range of religious traditions and methodological perspectives, as does the selection of those papers that is published in this issue of Culture and Religion.