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INTRODUCTION
Most religious traditions have subjugated womankind (Hawthorne, 2011; Armstrong 1986). All in accordance with holy texts, religious laws and guidelines, the different religion have place restrictions and taboos on womankind, which ranged from the openly oppressive and inhumane, to subtle limitations. Women have been barred from leadership, land ownership, prevented from religious learning and even secular education, forbidden to hold power, denied fair inheritance and land ownership, denigrated, physically dominated, and sometimes even forbidden to speak
(Ruthven, 2007). No religion is exempted from these religious restrictions and taboos, the monotheist religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have been worse; but
Womanist biblical hermeneutics centers Black women’s experience and identity, social location, historical memory, a hermeneutics of suspicion, and a hermeneutics of affirmation. In addition, womanist biblical hermeneutics are radical and subversive forms of biblical interpretation that provide multi-dimensional systemic analysis and critique, acknowledge and affirm a multiplicity of voices and identities. Womanist biblical hermeneutics provide a means for Black women to critique unjust forms of oppression, discourse, and practices, especially in relation to the use of scripture in order to facilitate social transformation. This bibliographic essay will map the various conceptual frameworks and methods of religious scholars engaging in womanist’s
Violence against women is not a new social issue and Pamela Copper-Whites’ book The Cry of Tamar does well in bringing this to light not only as a social issue but as a religious issues as well. Tamar’s story sheds light on the violence and degradation of women in the biblical times.
When the Bible was written in the early years of civilization, society held a severe prejudice towards women. This prejudice is reflected in the written word of the Bible. While these sexist ways may have been accepted by society at that time, they are definitely not appropriate today. I find it unbelievable that women are “supposed to live” by the same discriminatory fashion they were about two thousand years ago. According to Lu Ann Bransby in Woman: A Formula for Victorious Living, the Bible dictates how women should look, live, and even love.
Henrik Ibsen once said, “A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view.”(Notable Quotes) Ibsen’s statement exemplifies what life was like for women during ancient times. In many of the organized ancient civilizations, it was very common to find a primarily patriarchal civilization in government as well as in society. The causing factors can be attributed to different reasons, the main being the Neolithic Revolution and the new found dependence on manpower it caused. As a result of this, a woman found herself to be placed into an entirely different view in the eye of society. In comparison to the early Paleolithic matriarchal societies, the kinds of changes that came about for women due to the introduction of agriculture are shocking. Since the beginnings of the Neolithic era, the role and rights of women in many ancient civilizations began to become limited and discriminatory as a result of their gender.
states that men are to work and make money for the family. A woman's goal was to
In the Paleolithic era, men and women equally contributed towards survival. Men and women were responsible for hunting and gathering respectively. Additionally, the birth rate was very low and there was no need for a large population during this time. Only a small group of people was needed for hunting and picking food from the environment. When agriculture was introduced about 10,000 years ago, it caused patriarchy due to the higher value men obtained due to ownership of land as well as being responsible for more of the labor. There was also a huge need for a larger population. The output of this seemed to favor male gods over female goddesses, and women found their freedom being severely limited.
...ction of Classic Texts." Special Issue: Feminist Philosophy of Religion. Hypatia. 9/22/94. Retrieved from Electronic Library April 16 2001. http://www.elibrary.com
There has been an inconsistency between scripture and the role of women in society for hundreds of years now. As Elizabeth Cady Stanton once said, ”If the Bible teaches the equality of women, why does the church refuse to ordain women to preach the gospel, to fill the offices of deacons and elders, and to administer the Sacraments...?” And today many Muslim women view wearing a hijab as a sign of feminism in an otherwise sexually obsessed Western Culture. So how does religion affect women? How is it used to suppress? How is it used to liberate?
Throughout the novel “The House of the Spirits” by Isabel Allende the reader sees many instances that exemplify the antagonistic nature of man verses woman. Through Esteban Trueba’s raping of many of the women at Tres Marias, his marriage with Clara, his relationship with his daughter Blanca and her with her lover Pedro Tercero Garcia and with Alba Trueba’s relationship with her lover Miguel and her Grandfather Esteban, much of what Allende wants the reader to know about the nature of man verses woman is exposed. Nature pits man against woman, in marriage, love, sex, work, and war. Women can choose their battles and fight them subtly, without really seeming to, because all women know that the men like to think they are in charge when they really aren’t, and that men will fight every battle just to prove that they are men. Triumph over a weaker opponent does not make men stronger. It only makes them feel powerful. Allende writes about women who are able to quietly persevere, always managing to get their own way, without seeming too, because they know the only way to keep men happy is to let them feel powerful and in charge.
Women were the subject of marginalization ever since the very beginning of Christianity. They were viewed as a “second Eve” (92) who did not deserve the same attention as men. Women were treated as second class citizens. They were willfully ignored by members of the Christianity
A patriarchal social system can be defined as a system where men hold all authority over women in all aspects of life. Men also have the most influence on society and the way it functions. When this kind of philosophy exists within a civilization, it can very well form the way each gender is treated. This is extremely clear in John Wyndham’s novel, The Chrysalids. I believe that the citizens of Waknuk hold a patriarchal ideology and that this ideology directly influences the way men and women are treated and represented in Wyndham’s novel.
In modern society, there is a large importance placed on women to be beautiful and poised. The ‘appropriate woman’ is supposed to be poised, elegant, and sophisticated. Whilst never inconveniencing anyone around them through voicing their ideas, or being anything more than an artificial figurine to display. “Barbie Doll” and “A Work of Artifice” are two poems, by Marge Piercy, which imply that women are tailored from a young age to fulfill the roles that traditional society has set for them. Each poem uses numerous literary elements to advance their purpose of showing how the public and society subdue women’s intelligence and hearty virtues in order to make them better fit the social norm of the domestic woman. Marge Piercy, in her poems “Barbie Doll” and “A Work of Artifice,” uses diction and metaphor to assert that society suppresses women’s intelligence and places an unjustified demand on women to be their idea of perfect.
In the United States, fundamentalist religious movements flourish. Tuning into any news station in the last fifteen years, one can see and hear anti-Muslim rhetoric twenty-four hours a day. One of the most widely criticized elements of radical Islam is it’s portrayal and treatment of women, yet anywhere in North America, there are sects claiming the bible as their backing for institutionalized misogyny and abuse. Fundamentalist churches began as a backlash to the modern woman who rose out of the midcentury. Women began working, waiting to have children and defying the white, puritanical roles that had existed for them for generations. From suffrage to the Pill, many conservative movements began to see holes in the walls of their culture that
D. Adamson, C. (2007, Winter). Gendered Anxieties: Islam, Women's Rights, and Moral Hierarchy in Java. Anthropological Quarterly, 80(1), 5-37. Retrieved May 24, 2008, from Academic Search Alumni Edition database.
My paper studies the three most significant and most commonly known western religion Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in terms of the role that the woman played and a brief synopsis of the religions itself. Religion is a system of human though which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner’s experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity, or ultimate truth. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are the only religions that are based on a single creator and that are why they are called western religions. These three religions are monotheistic faiths practiced by about half of the world’s population. Believers of the three religions are found on every continent but tend to be concentrated in North and South America, Europe, Australia, Western Asia and North Africa. Christianity and Islam are growing faiths in the sub-Saharan Africa, beginning to replace indigenous beliefs.