Sunday 9 March 2008

Misogyny & The Bible

Women: The very image of motherly love and yes, the very object of lust which generations upon generations of pious, stupid old priests had ceaselessly reminded us. The images of bikini-clad babes sashaying down the beaches in insipid Baywatch episodes, nude, lewd naked women in porn magazines..... in whatever shape or form, the archaic Judaic-inspired monotheisms love to treat women as some kind of a wicked taboo.

In The Beginning..........


Paradise Gone Wrong: Eve Persuades Adam to Eat the Darn Fruit


& no wonder: Right off the bat, in the first few Chapters of Genesis, Adam and Eve, the first human creatures ever to be created by Adam's alter-ego, God, the role of the temptress became the indelible curse of women: Tempted by the talking serpent, who was actually the Devil in disguise, Eve persuaded Adam to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. While both were to bear the curse of their disobedience, Eve faired worst:

To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give
birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." -Genesis 3:16

In essence, God had, in his infinite grace, instigated what seems to be a mass-orgy of sorts: Instead of restricting the error of Adam and Eve well within one single episode of disobedience, he chooses Eve to harbor the first pregnancy on the planet, and thus ensuring that generations of generations of so-called sinners were spawned to carry on the debt of sin. Meanwhile, Eve becomes the archetypal figure of womanhood: The evil temptress who ruined her husband's good fortune in Paradise.

It is on account of such archaic nonsense that Catholics and other religious bigots are so adamant in their opposition against birth control and contraception: Sex, if anything else, is solely meant for reproductive purposes, so that women have no choice but to be punished for the sins of the first Mother, Eve.

The Unclean Woman?

If one is to study the insipidity of the bible, it is hard to miss out the fact that women bear the worst blunt of irrational prejudice: Women, if anything else, are anything but "clean":

1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Say to the Israelites: 'A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. ' 3 On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised. 4 Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. 5 If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding.

6 " 'When the days of her purification for a son or daughter are over, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin offering. [

7 He shall offer them before the LORD to make atonement for her, and then she will be ceremonially clean from her flow of blood. These are the regulations for the woman who gives birth to a boy or a girl.

8 If she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be clean."

-Leviticus Chapter 12: 1-8

It is quite difficult for us, in this time and age, to fathom how such erroneous, pious stupidity can have any place in our secular setting. Yet, if anything else, such biblical nonsense remind us that we have progressed a hell lot, even from a moralistic point of view, than the authors of such breath-taking stupidity.

As we can glean from Leviticus, the sight of bleeding virginals, be it from menstruation or child birth, is considered a disgusting act, not fit for Gawd's divine, ceremonial functions.

The idea that a woman has to wait for 66 god-damned days after giving birth to a girl, compared to 33 days, gives us an indicator of the lowly, filthy status of women in the minds of religious morons. The idea that women must be "clean" after menstruating or giving birth in order to be considered fit to enter Gawd's opulent churches is nothing short of bigotry; the extraordinary sacrifices of lambs, pigeons and what-nots merely amplifies the sheer ludicrousness of biblical-inspired misogyny.

Death Via Stoning

The hymen: a innocuous membrane in a woman's virginal, which really serves no other function than being a social indicator; a woman with an intact virginal is, categorically speaking, a virgin.

Since the dawn of human civilization, Man seems to harbor a deep fixation with virginity: Screwing a virgin on the wedding night is akin to animals spraying (with urine) on virgin territory. There is a sense of territorial ownership, no matter how bizarre and absurd that sounds, and religious dogmas (clearly, such chauvinistic nonsense can only be the work of sick, depraved men) merely reinforce what is already a male-ego issue: Women must invariably be the equivalent of vestal virgins on their nuptial nights. Failure to be one, it seems, may incur the wrath of religious authorities, as mandated by the good book:

If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl's virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father's house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father's house. You must purge the evil from among you.
-Deuteronomy 22:20-21:

Quite unfortunately for women, the hymen is not a indicator of sexual experience. The hymen is a notoriously weak membrane: Women who engage in sports, or have suffered from some physical trauma, are likely to suffer hymen tears that have little or nothing to do with engaging in actual sex.

The Submissive Woman

Now, you would think that the holy babble has something good to say about women.......well, you guessed it wrong.

Mandatory stoning of non-virgins and other stigmas aside, the role of women is unceremoniously spelled out in the bible: They must be submissive to their husbands, or any other male alter-ego in the family:

Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says.
-1 Corinthians 14:34

A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.
-1 Timothy 2:11

Biblical Misogyny and the Everyday Christian

Judging by what is written in the bible, it is quite easy to understand why most Christian households are such oppressive environments for women: Women have no status in a heinously religious environment: Short of become an auto-bot version of a child bearing and child raising android, the average religious housewife has to submit to the every will and whim of a patriarchal husband.

Surely, in this time and age, we cannot depend on the holy babble to teach us what to do with regards to our attitude towards women. After all, stoning non-virgins to death isn't a very pretty sight (or anyone else for the matter, except maybe Falwell?).


"To no form of religion is woman indebted for one impulse of freedom."
-Susan B.Anthony

23 comments:

Frog said...

Beast,

The notion that a woman has an intact hymen yet passes menstrual fluids monthly is a bit confusing. I've always imagined a perfect, unpenetrated membrane? The whole notion has been exposed as a myth.

According to Wikipedia (the Atheists babble):

"As early as the late sixteenth century, Ambroise Paré and Andreas Laurentius asserted to have never seen the hymen and that it was "a primitive myth, unworthy of a civilized nation like France." In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, medical researchers have used the presence of the hymen, or lack thereof, as founding evidence of physical diseases such as "womb-fury." If not cured, womb-fury would, according to these early doctors, result in death. The cure, naturally enough, was marriage, since a woman could then go about having sexual intercourse on a "normal" schedule that would stop womb-fury from killing her.

In late 2005, Monica Christiansson, former maternity ward nurse and Carola Eriksson, a PhD student at Umeå University announced that according to studies of medical literature and practical experience, the hymen should be considered a social and cultural myth, based on deeply rooted stereotypes of womens' roles in sexual relations with men. Christiansson and Eriksson support their claims by pointing out that there are no accurate medical descriptions of what a hymen actually consists of. Statistics presented by the two state that fewer than 30% of all women who have gone through puberty and have consensual intercourse bleed the first time. Christiansson has expressed an opinion that the use of the term "hymen" should be discontinued and that it should be considered an integral part of the vaginal opening.

Since the hymen has been culturally constructed to be the sign of virginity, its existence plays into a political discourse that circulates around the body. By examining women's bodies for the existence of the hymen, researchers have used it to determine whether or not women are "virtuous." Sherry B. Ortner, professor at the University of Chicago, explains how "the hymen itself emerges physiologically with the development of sexual purity codes" as an element of patriarchy.[26] In some cultures it was customary to examine a woman for her hymen before her marriage to see if she was truly fit to be married. If she was found with a broken hymen, or to have no hymen at all, often the male would not be obligated to marry her. Additionally, the construct of the hymen has been used to consistently create the image of women as physically bound to their sexuality, insofar as there's a specific membrane that needs "breaking" in order to have sex and enter into full womanhood, being sexually dependent on their men."

BEAST FCD said...

Hi frog:

Glad to hear from a scientist like you.

Hymens or no, the idea that women must be virgins on their nuptial night is as ancient as the advent of civilization. As far as I am concerned, virginity is not a virtue at all.

Beast

tina FCD said...

Who the hell should care if there is such a thing anyway?

vjack said...

Excellent! This is the sort of post I will bookmark and cite often. Christian women need to know this stuff.

BEAST FCD said...

Thanks for the compliments, vjack.

Anonymous said...

Come on. If you name your story "Misogyny & The Bible" which I googled out then you should have under that title a comprehensive study about misogyny in the bible. Your page does not! It is clear you have made no homwork about the subject and you have missed most of misogynous places in the bible completely. Why are cheating poor googlers like me with your misleading title???

Anonymous said...

Agreeing and appreciating this blog entry for the most part, I do think it is the male babies that fare worse in the second passage. Having 80% of erogenous tissue chopped off, and removal of all the unique nerve endings, tissues and glands.. in short massive genital mutilation and sexual crippling, is worse than not being allowed to go to church for a couple of months.

-blessed holy socks, the non-perishable-zealot said...

God blessa youse -Fr. Sarducci, ol SNL

Anonymous said...

I am a Christian, and I am a woman. I do not live anything like the life you have describe here to be my lot. My husband has never ruled over me, nor do I live my life as a barefoot and pregnant, subservient wimp. I myself struggle with the misogyny that exists in the Bible, however, as another reviewer pointed out, you have completely neglected to do any real homework on the subject, which is evidenced by your negligence to explore anything about how Jesus treated women in the New Testament, which completely flew in the face of pharisaical beliefs and traditions. A very poorly written article, with a very archaic and prejudice view of how Christian women really see themselves and live their lives. My (Christian) husband agrees with me.

Sarah said...

The Anonymous Christian said that your article failed to state how Jesus treated women, I've heard this from a lot of Christians. "That was the Old Testament, Jesus changed things."
BUT the two versus you put in there about submissive women were from the New Testament. That was from Jesus' time wasn't it? Correct me if I'm wrong....

Anonymous said...

yes the bible was perverted by man. but the same bible tells that man to cherish and love his wife,to cherish her as a rare jewel,to protect her.
The bible does contradict its self but also does the science atheist love.I myself believe in the creator of us all,but no man or woman shall ever know the truth of the universe,
the only chance for that is from that creator whom we will not see until we die.And yes I know you will say the science is proof that it is a settled matter,but that in itself contradicts science which is always supposed to question even the "answers" therefore no science can ever be satisfied.

ReSEARCHER said...

Actually, all of your arguments can be combatted. The Bible is not mysoginistic, although many people interpret it this way. In the Bible, uncleanliness refers to the fact that we should keep our worship and sex entirely seperate. This issue is addressed in the Bible because ancient Caananite religions incorporated prositition and fertility gods in their religion. God wanted the Israelites to avoid confusion with pagan rites. Also, Eve was not the only person cursed. Adam was cursed because he took the fruit also. "Cursed is the ground because of you, through painful toils you will eat of it, all the days of your life." Because of Adam, and not because of Eve, are we all to return to dust. In addition, in the Bible the places where it says that women should submit to their husbands refer to the women of that time. Paul wrote that letter to the Corinthians specifically...to remind the woman that God's calling at that time in that place was not to act out. This is because the women at this time were misguided. The same goes for the women in Timothy and Thessalonians. However, you should note that Jesus and God views womankind as beautiful and a kind to be respected, as well as mankind. Ephesians 5:22-32 is all about Marriage vows. When it tells wives to submit to their husbands...husbands also are to respect their wives and become one body. Essentially, also submitting.Ican also combat the rest of your arguments. You need to be prepared with arguments that can not be combatted. If you would like me to te you how I can combat your other arguments I will...however...I highly doubt that is the case. I see that many Christians misinterpret the Bible to be sexist today. It also appears to me now that many atheists do too. You should do more research before you post. The Bible is complex. I am not saying either Christians are right or atheists, although I know what I believe. But it is important to understand exactly what the Bible is saying. Christians should also take note of the criticism that comes at their Bible. Everyone needs to be able to doubt what they believe in, ask, and criticize.

Anonymous said...

Well said, researcher. I scrolled down to post the very same thing. The women of Corinth were known as gossipers, which is why they were told to be silent; they were distracting everyone around them during services, in addition to not paying attention themselves.

Each book was written as instruction to resolve issues in that church, they're in the Bible because there are general lessons and wisdom that can be gleaned from it.

The general sections praise women and tell men to cherish them, that mistreating them in any way takes you from God's grace. The specific portions deal with problems, as stated above.

Anonymous said...

Your last two posters said nothing about stoning a woman for the crime of sex outside marriage. Yes, Jesus suggests that isn't right in his time, but it was the religious and civil law and likely resulted in the murders of many women who could not prove virginity. The new testament account of the attempted murder of a woman on these grounds makes a specific example. Where is the case that this is not mysogynistic?

Tell me you could look in the eyes of men holding rocks who want to *kill* you and claim that you have equal standing with the man who also committed a sexual "sin" with you. He might even be right there in the crowd with his own rock.

Anonymous said...

I would like to point out that the hymen is non existent. Research "vaginal corona."

eric said...

¨The Bible is complex. I am not saying either Christians are right or atheists, although I know what I believe. (by Anonymous Researcher 12 April 2012)
I respect your beliefs, however, You lead us to think that the Bible targets an elite group of intellectuals. As an Atheist I am, I would have thought that God aimed to lead all of his sheep, not just the smart ones. The Bible is currently read by pseudo alphabetized believers. A god of love, love for the poor and uneducated wouldnt have inspired a bokk that is complex, stained with ambiguity.
Eric

Anonymous said...

God never intended for a book to be the guide, he intended for the church to be. The poor and uneducated were intended to be taught, not to decipher.

Knightinmoonlight said...

"The bible is complex!"

And so is a woman's biology, but I don't see the bible explaining all the deep and hard questions.

The truth is EVERY religion that you bash on, is "complex." It depends on what you wish to ignore and ENHANCE into "deep symbolism," etc. Don't believe me? People do it to books like Twilight, Harry Potter and LOTRs etc... it's just human nature to add depth to stories cause we LEARN through stories.

Anyway, to the woman saying there is no misogyny in the bible... you are TOO adorable! (I'm not patronizing you, I mean that) I love how DEEP DEEP DEEP DOWN inside you really can't conceive (nor want to believe) that what you hold sacred and valuable MAY NOT have been as disgusting as it was.

Just be glad you're 20 centuries in the future.

Cause it's true, the bible was not NOW or EVER "misogynistic." Remember, there was no name for it back then... so it was a way of life... like eating. Except more RIGHTEOUS! :D

I'm a woman too and I believed it all, I believe Jesus was not a misogynist and so his word overruled the entire bible... ahem...

you should do YOUR homework.. The bible IS incredibly sexist, but if you wish to overlook it, you will.

Maybe if I rewrite the entire bible, change the names and publish it under another title, I'd see your TRUE and UNBIASED opinion on what the bible has to say about women, race, and humankind altogether!

P.S. If you like Jesus, it means you're Pagan! Jesus is a Pagan concept, so is Easter, Christmas, etc..


Do I hear gasps of offended shock? WHOOPS! looks like someone didn't "do their homework!" No supper for you.

Anonymous said...

"The bible is complex!"

And so is a woman's biology, but I don't see the bible explaining all the deep and hard questions.

The truth is EVERY religion that you bash on, is "complex." It depends on what you wish to ignore and ENHANCE into "deep symbolism," etc. Don't believe me? People do it to books like Twilight, Harry Potter and LOTRs etc... it's just human nature to add depth to stories cause we LEARN through stories.

Anyway, to the woman saying there is no misogyny in the bible... you are TOO adorable! (I'm not patronizing you, I mean that) I love how DEEP DEEP DEEP DOWN inside you really can't conceive (nor want to believe) that what you hold sacred and valuable MAY NOT have been as disgusting as it was.

Just be glad you're 20 centuries in the future.

Cause it's true, the bible was not NOW or EVER "misogynistic." Remember, there was no name for it back then... so it was a way of life... like eating. Except more RIGHTEOUS! :D

I'm a woman too and I believed it all, I believe Jesus was not a misogynist and so his word overruled the entire bible... ahem...

you should do YOUR homework.. The bible IS incredibly sexist, but if you wish to overlook it, you will.

Maybe if I rewrite the entire bible, change the names and publish it under another title, I'd see your TRUE and UNBIASED opinion on what the bible has to say about women, race, and humankind altogether!

P.S. If you like Jesus, it means you're Pagan! Jesus is a Pagan concept, so is Easter, Christmas, etc..


Do I hear gasps of offended shock? WHOOPS! looks like someone didn't "do their homework!" No dinner for you.

Anonymous said...

"The bible is complex!"

And so is a woman's biology, but I don't see the bible explaining all the deep and hard questions.

The truth is EVERY religion that you bash on, is "complex." It depends on what you wish to ignore and ENHANCE into "deep symbolism," etc. Don't believe me? People do it to books like Twilight, Harry Potter and LOTRs etc... it's just human nature to add depth to stories cause we LEARN through stories.

Anyway, to the woman saying there is no misogyny in the bible... you are TOO adorable! (I'm not patronizing you, I mean that) I love how DEEP DEEP DEEP DOWN inside you really can't conceive (nor want to believe) that what you hold sacred and valuable MAY NOT have been as disgusting as it was.

Just be glad you're 20 centuries in the future.

Cause it's true, the bible was not NOW or EVER "misogynistic." Remember, there was no name for it back then... so it was a way of life... like eating. Except more RIGHTEOUS! :D

I'm a woman too and I believed it all, I believe Jesus was not a misogynist and so his word overruled the entire bible... ahem...

you should do YOUR homework.. The bible IS incredibly sexist, but if you wish to overlook it, you will.

Maybe if I rewrite the entire bible, change the names and publish it under another title, I'd see your TRUE and UNBIASED opinion on what the bible has to say about women, race, and humankind altogether!

P.S. If you like Jesus, it means you're Pagan! Jesus is a Pagan concept, so is Easter, Christmas, etc..


Do I hear gasps of offended shock? WHOOPS! looks like someone didn't "do their homework!" No dinner for you.

Knight said...

Gosh, did my comment get posted multiple times??? I hope not, I kept getting a "capcha incorrect" error so kept clicking "post comment."

Pardon the "trigger happy" appearance. Heh ^^

Anonymous said...

A fairly powerful argument and one to be considered worthy of an unfair lot in life for women in general.  Take heart from this though.  The teachings of the bible in OT was corrupted by many that followed after the original writings were made.  Leviticus for instance was a renowned wit given to sarcasm, and by much of his life an atheist. Also consider that the bible was written by the Roman Church to subjugate and bend society to the rule of ecclesiastical might, since Roman Empire-might had failed so miserably  God himself has had almost nothing at all to do with the teachings of man's bible.  The only thing one needs to know is that God created heaven and earth (where earth is that which is substantial within the universe).  God is love, only love, and supports that born of love for love's greater fulfillment.  Open your hearts to God - AND ONLY GOD.  Ask of him and he will guide you, regardless of anything anyone else may have to say on the subject of your own spiritual fulfilment.

Nicholas

Me2 said...

There will be many Christians that argue this ugly truth, but the truth is the truth. The bible sees women as lesser than man. Plain and simple! But then again, the bible was written by a bunch of men...