When you think of "traditional" religion, what comes to mind?
I see G/god the F/father, Jesus the S/son, twelve male disciples, and dozens of corpses writing codes for how humanity should behave for all of eternity, thousands of years in the past. Male corpses, at that. I visualize all of the main female "heroines" in the Bible - Jael, Hagar, Esther, Mary and Mary Magdalene, Vashti, Bathsheba, etc. - as being portrayed very extreme examples. Jael, for example, was considered a hero - but what did she do to earn that title? She drove a tent peg through Sisera's head. According to Deborah, (a female Judge, how awesome is that?) the only reason Jael is given the title of heroine, is because a man, Barak, refused to listen to Deborah's orders. So essentially, what we have here is a woman, granted a title of honor, but only on the basis that a man refused to be subordinate to a woman.
I'm sorry, but what the hell is that? Women can be heroes, but only when they do something initially morally wrong, such as prostitution, deceit, or murder, and only when men do whatever they want to do. That's the message I'm receiving in a very brief reading of this story. That was a tangent, and I apologize. (The story of Jael was summarized from this source.)
What I'm saying is, when I think of religion, I see a patriarchy. A male-dominated, tradition-based structure that puts individuals in even more categories and organizes them according to those categories. Then we're all led by men. Everyone, even other men; whether G/god, a priest, or a rabbi - it is typically a man guiding the flock.
So what about spirituality? The beginning of this article sets spirituality up as similar to how I defined religion in yesterday's post. Asphodel Long refers to "spirituality [as] usually associated with male domination and the male personages in heaven and elsewhere, whose kingdoms are paradigms for the totally oppressive situation on earth for women."
How do we really perceive spirituality, though? I can easily count on more than my fingers people who see or identify spirituality as being more about nature, the Mother (Mother Goddess, Mother Earth, nature and nurturing), healing, and a personal experience. Just in that, we have a correlation to Feminism. What kind of patriarchal society would want to elevate the image of a Mother Goddess? No one wants to allocate that kind of power to a Woman.
Another important connection to establish between Feminism and Spirituality is the concept of public and private spheres. A key issue in the waves of Feminism is the struggle for equality in societal positions. Women fought (and are still fighting) for the right to exist outside of the home. Particularly in Judaism, we see women struggling to become ordained rabbis, or even the right to simply participate in certain gender-based rituals and traditions (such as leading the prayers or liturgy, appearing on the bimah, or approaching the Ark that the Torah is kept in). Historically, the public roles have belonged to the men. Women were the "domestic" sex, maintaining the house, tending to care of families and everything else that went on behind closed doors. Men were involved in politics and other forms of leadership, including that of women. So how does this relate?
As I said yesterday, we defined spirituality as more of a private, personal affair, and religion as more of a public, communal one. Does that connotation have anything to do with men's public roles and women's private ones? Definitely.
Picturing spirituality as inherently feminine is as helpful as it is damaging. By relegating spirituality, goddesses, nature, "essences," and all things involved to "feminine," we are inadvertently denying men the right to be spiritual. By "owning" spirituality, as women, we are saying that men are incapable of communicating with concepts that reach beyond the borders of conventional religion. We are not only validating the concept of Spirituality as inherently feminine, we are reforming it to be inherently sexist.
A relevant text to this conversation is The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, by Matthew Fox. Fox addresses the potential damage done to men and masculinity by suppressing spiritual instincts; Fox believes "our crucial task is to open our minds to a deeper understanding of the healthy masculine than we receive from our media, culture, and religions."
So yes, Spirituality is a feminist concern. This, however, also addresses that feminism isn't just a "women's movement." In the modern world, feminism not only addresses women's rights, but the rights of cultural, ethic and "alternative" (gender, sexual orientation, religious, class, etc.) minorities, and the right of "men" to feel less pressure to be dominant. Does modern-day feminism feel as inclusive as it supposedly is? Or does modern-day feminism need to reinvent itself? The very term implies that is only relevant to females, but it's conceivable to stretch that as being applicable to the feminine - encouraging all people, not just females, to approach and embrace their feminine side (such as the spiritual, private parts). How do we make that stretch more tangible and less threatening to the "outsiders" looking in - those who want to take part in this huge movement for equality but are scared of the stigma it brings when we drop the f-word?
This is kind of a cliff-hanger post, but I really want to stop here and hear what you have to say on the topic. Also, here's another relevant article that a previous teacher had given me, which I stumbled across again today while doing a little prep work for this post.
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