My last post talked about the many sexual escapades -- moral and not -- featured in ye olde bible. However, that's not the worst of it. As the information provided by the links cited show, more often than not the woman or women involved in any given situation seemed to shoulder much of the blame.
Of course, this should surprise no one because the bible goes out of its way to denigrate the female gender. In fact, this is why conservatives believe that God hates homosexuality, particularly in men, because gay men supposedly are "choosing" the role of the female.
Women get the shaft almost from the very beginning. God decides to create a being "in his image" and, wouldn't you know it, it's a guy! The newly created fellow whines that he needs a mate and, rather than creating a woman from the dust as man had been created, God pulls a rib out of Adam. So, all women owe their existence to Adam's ribcage!
When the nubile pair gets tossed out of paradise, who gets the blame? Eve, of course. She ate the forbidden fruit first AND beguiled the man with her feminine ways. From there on out, women become the central scapegoats of a myriad of problems and consistently endure second-class status as little more than a man's property.
I have to be honest, it just blows my mind that anyone would accept such asinine tripe as the way things are supposed to be, that a god would condone such abject male chauvinism. Yet millions of people -- including countless numbers of women -- go to their graves believing this crap.
I much prefer Taoism's perspective that yin and yang -- female and male -- exist in all things, including each of us. Both work in tandem to make life possible and one is not superior to the other.
Of course, this should surprise no one because the bible goes out of its way to denigrate the female gender. In fact, this is why conservatives believe that God hates homosexuality, particularly in men, because gay men supposedly are "choosing" the role of the female.
Women get the shaft almost from the very beginning. God decides to create a being "in his image" and, wouldn't you know it, it's a guy! The newly created fellow whines that he needs a mate and, rather than creating a woman from the dust as man had been created, God pulls a rib out of Adam. So, all women owe their existence to Adam's ribcage!
When the nubile pair gets tossed out of paradise, who gets the blame? Eve, of course. She ate the forbidden fruit first AND beguiled the man with her feminine ways. From there on out, women become the central scapegoats of a myriad of problems and consistently endure second-class status as little more than a man's property.
I have to be honest, it just blows my mind that anyone would accept such asinine tripe as the way things are supposed to be, that a god would condone such abject male chauvinism. Yet millions of people -- including countless numbers of women -- go to their graves believing this crap.
I much prefer Taoism's perspective that yin and yang -- female and male -- exist in all things, including each of us. Both work in tandem to make life possible and one is not superior to the other.
Sadly, the practice is continued today. I wrote a paper for college demonstrating that women are punished much more harshly than men. In most courts, women almost always were sentenced to double, if not more than double, what a man received for the same crime. It is sickening. I suppose it is still better than a stoning like most Muslim punishments.
ReplyDeleteyep. that's one of the main gripes i had about christianity, while i was still a christian. (nowadays i have much more gripes) :D in the church i grew up in, women weren't allowed to "lead" in anything, including teaching a bible study or prayer group that included men. we could teach sunday school, because it's all right for us to be an authority over children, but women were not even allowed to usher or be in any leadership position when the group included men! i used to swear that i would never get married, because i never wanted to have to submit to a man's authority... i'm happy to say that i decided to throw away the outdated concept of men always being the "leader" and women the "follower" a long time ago, instead of having to remain single to avoid it! :)
ReplyDeleteMr. M,
ReplyDeleteGosh. I didn't realize it was still that bad. I guess the vestiges of Christian influence take awhile to die out.
Iktomi,
I'm guessing your hubby and baby boy are glad you threw those icky concepts out.