Religion and Gender Communications (Part 2)
In
the second part of Chapter Ten, the book discusses gender communication and
religion through sexuality, liberation, and empowerment. We will first look at
the “Religion and Sexuality” and how religion and can be an influence on an
individuals sexuality. Then we will look at “Religion as Liberation and
Locations of Empowerment.” This deals with gender and spiritual equality in the
eyes of their supreme deity. It will discuss how individuals try to find a
balance between their sexuality and religion. Also it will look at how
individuals try to find empowerment in their religion through different
religious practices.
Religion and Sexuality. Certain religions offer teachings on
sexuality and directions on gender and sex. Religion also plays a big role in
political issues when it comes to sexuality. For example, the legalization of
same sex marriage can be viewed as a secular, public issue. However, decisions
on whether or not it should or should not be legalized, has been influenced by
religious views. My personal experience with how sexuality can be influenced by
religion is through my Christian beliefs. In my Christian beliefs, I am
encouraged to restrain from any type of sexual contact that is outside of the
laws of marriage. I was encouraged at the age of 16 years old to make what is
called a purity pledge. This purity pledge was my agreement and choice to
remain abstinent until marriage. Through the years I occasionally held on to
this idea that if I can maintain that promise I made to God and in my Christian
religion then that would somehow reconcile my faith and sexuality. That is just my personal experience of how my
sexuality has been influenced by religion.
Religion as Liberation and Locations of
Empowerment. The book
talks about spiritual equality amongst gender and religion. In Christianity,
Christians believe that no matter what race or gender, all are equal and are
one in Christ. You are viewed the same as the next person. “There is neither
Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you
are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) In Islam, all Muslims are
encouraged to “seek knowledge.” No matter if you are man or woman, you are
considered capable of doing so. People try to find empowerment and fulfillment
through their religion and religious acts.
“Religions and divinities are more than a source of violence;… religions
are also a source of resistance, hope, and struggle.”(Thie, p.232)
African Americans and Religion. Religion has been a source of empowerment
for African Americans throughout history. Their faith and trust in God has
given them the strength and courage to take risks and fight for rights. The
book gives an example of how woman like Harriet Tubman found courage and
motivation in God to get through to freedom from slavery. This is an example of
how individuals use religious institutions as a location of empowerment. Their
religious institution, for example, church, can be a place where they can go to
grow spiritually in a way that frames their everyday lives. Spirituality is not
a system of religious beliefs but a way of life. In my personal experience,
within my Christian faith, we are encouraged to not have a religion but to
instead have a relationship with Christ. We are encouraged to not habitually participate
in the actions of religion but to do these acts as a service to God. We are
encouraged to live our lives for Christ. The book also discusses how religion
can serve a purpose of to create a sense of community. Gender still defined
certain roles that men and women play in the religious community. Usually, men
played the roles of hierarchy within the church community while women tend to
play roles that are seen as an invisible service in the church. I personally
feel that has changed in today’s age. At my church, women are
ministers/evangelist and occasionally sit in the pulpit. They even preach sermons.
I know of some churches that have female head pastors.
Veiling Practices. The book discusses the practice of
veiling amongst men and women and Christians and Muslims. Unfortunately, the
use of the veil has been misinterpreted by western society. “Veiling practices
provide an excellent example of how religion is a site of resistance and
emancipation but also can be used as a justification for subordination.”
(Defrancisco, 2007) According to Fadwa El Guindi, “veiling is a language that
communicates social and cultural messages.” Wearing veils can provide an
example of nonverbal, bodily communication. Western society sees veiling
practices as a sign of oppression for women. Before the 1960s, Catholic women
were required to wear head coverings to church. Islamic women practice veiling
as a form empowerment and not oppression. Veil Practices are not solely
connected to religion and Islam. Veil practices are also seen in wedding
ceremonies. Veil practices are not solely for women either. Even men in the
Islamic religion are encouraged to practice in body coverings.
Behind the Veil. In the article, Behind the Veil, Hebah
Ahmed discusses her decisions to wear a veil. She discusses the reactions of
people in America that made comments towards her new choice. Her parents didn't
push her to wear veils. ''I do this because I want to be closer to God, I want
to please him and I want to live a modest lifestyle,'' said Ms. Ahmed, who
asked that her appearance without a veil not be described. ''I want to be
tested in that way. The niqab is a constant reminder to do the right thing.
It's God-consciousness in my face.'' But there were secular motivations, too.
In her job, she worked with all-male teams on oil rigs and in labs.''No matter
how smart I was, I wasn't getting the respect I wanted,'' she said. ''They
still hit on me, made crude remarks and even smacked me on the butt a couple
times.” “Wearing the niqab is ''liberating,'' she said. ''They have to deal
with my brain because I don't give them any other choice.'' (Ali, 2010)
1.
What
other ways can you think of that religion has had an influence on sexuality/gender besides the decisions on same-sex marriage?
2.
Why
do you think western culture has a narrow-minded view on veiling practices?
3.
Do
you have any experiences that can relate to gender communications and religion?
1. Religion has a influence on sexuality and gender is many ways. First, not only within the christian faith is one supposed to wait until they are married to engage in sexual intercourse, but even while married, the christian's believe that the purposeful of sexual engagement is pro-creation, and pro-creation only. Any leisure or recreational sexual activities are frowned upon among the christian community,which personally I feel is the opposite of feeling liberation of one's own body. A set of regulations from a book that's been translated in over 3,000+ languages however many times, from thousands of years ago, holds a bearing over one's sexual desire as a human being. Also, in opposition to the quote from the bible about god being accepting of all, the christian community is the very community holding back so many and depriving a group of being basic civil rights of equality by not allowing same sex couples to be wed. Religion has in influence on those who abide by the regulations of that religion which influences one's sexuality and gender because one personally might not feel that they align with what that religion is telling them that they SHOULD do or should be.
ReplyDelete2. I think western culture has a narrow-minded view on veiling practices, because it is just not part of our cultural norms as a society. We are a society that dresses how we want and always have people toeing the lines between showing too much skin or not any at all. As a society we do not honor one particular religion over another, although the christian community is the most prominent, therefore society is not regulated by a religion and especially one that enforces a dress code or veiling.
3. I do. I was appalled one day when I was a freshman in high school at mass with my parents at a catholic church, and I literally witnessed a lesbian couple being asked to leave because they were holding hands in the church pews. It made me sick to my stomach how people think that because they believe something should be a certain way, that everyone else needs to align with that view and act accordingly. I no longer associate myself with catholicism, but at the time when I did I remember being so upset and confused by that. That couple was bothering no one, participating in the church service, and because of their sexual orientation they were asked to leave an establishment. How civil. Not.
As a feminine woman I also believe that I have and should have a 100% say over my own body and how I perform my gender and sexuality, and religious beliefs should not hinder anyone's experience in life if they are not willingly a follower of that religion.
One way that gender has an influence has on religion is the fact that women cannot be a priest. Like stated in the book, in most religions, men have held institutionalize power and have been the ones with the authority. Women in different religions cannot obtain a certain role in the church. Certain roles in the church are gendered based. As a Roman Catholic, we are all equal in Gods eyes but men and women receive roles in the church based on someone’s gender.
ReplyDeleteI agree what Lindsey said about the western-culture is narrow-minded because it is not a part of our cultural norms. Women in Islamic cultures wear the veil because it is a form of empowerment to them. In the western-culture, the time when Christian women wear a veil is on their wedding day. We don’t think about the history behind the Christian traditions with the veil. In the book, it states that Catholic women were required to wear head coverings to church.
Growing up as a Roman Catholic, I cannot say that I have had an experience where my gender had influenced my religion or other way around. I haven’t had an experience with religion regarding my sexuality as well. The only experience I can say I have had is when people talk to me about same sex marriage and about the bible. I personally believe that love is love and everyone should be able to spend their lives with that special person if it is someone of the same or opposite sex. I would say that is the only experience I have had with gender and religion.
Besides decisions on same sex marriage religion can influence sexuality/gender in a host of different ways. Speaking from personal experience, Roman Catholicism stresses abstaining from sexual activity until after marriage. While this is expected of both men and women, there is more pressure on women to remain chaste. This influences expression of one’s sexual identity, and desires. Additionally, other religions like Hesitic Jewish people require that after a woman is married she cover her head and wear long skirts. This sets a standard for what a good woman will gender perform as. Finally, I think across a lot of religions men are pressured to be the “bread-winners” and spiritual head of a household. This similarly sets standards for what it means to be a good man according to your faith.
ReplyDeleteI think that Western culture has a narrow-minded view on veiling practices for a couple of reasons. First, I think that there has been a launched campaign to demonize men who are associated with veiled women, and victimize veiled women in contrast to supposedly liberated Western women. This creates justifications for other, broader, geo-political interests that the Western countries have. Additionally, I think that a large number of people in Western cultures have a distorted idea about why certain women choose to remain veiled. I think that often times Western society homogenizes all veiled women as victims of heteromasculine patriarchy. While there might be some veiled women who experience hetero-masculine patriarchy, it is unfair to frame all veiled women as victims. This kind of thinking ignores the multitude of women who choose to willingly wear the veil as an expression of their faith.
Growing up in the Roman Catholic Church I have some experiences that can relate to gender communications and relation. For example, I often felt the disproportionate pressure to remain modest, and chaste. Male peers of mine were given a slap on the wrist, and their goofing around was viewed as boys being boys. I found that when I stepped outside of the bounds of what had been narrowly defined as a good woman, by ability to be a good wife and mother was questioned. Of course, the assumption that I desired to be a wife and a mother is in and of itself another example of how certain people in the Roman Catholic Church attempted to discipline gender based on religious norms. This is not to say that all of my experiences in the church are bad. Rather, I wish to illuminate how even very subtle things, like assumptions that one will want to marry, work to discipline gender and sexuality.
I really feel like that religions that allow sexual freedom are definitely better and are available for having a larger numbers of constituents. I feel like discriminating against certain groups is really easy to do but can dissuade the non minority to have a lack of empathy, and that doesn't sound like a good practice for any religion. I really feel like the narrowminded view on the veiling practice has more to do with fear and not fear in the unknown just pure fear. I think, solely, that people are scared to not see someone's face, they can't see someone's facial expression, and, thus, they can't feel comfortable staring at them were exchanging glances. I actually feel bad for some of the people that would be known as racist for being scared of the veiling, I think it's very common for people to fear something that is secluded. I feel that a child having no knowledge of the ramifications of veiling for a young woman, or a young girl, would be just as scared if they did know what the veiling meant or the adverse. So, it's just really about the fear that people have for not seeing someone's face; I think that people that have fears like that shouldn't be chastised either. I think it's really just as bad the other way around. The only experiences I really have gender and religion would be seeing people at my congregation and I guess that I witnessed women not really communicating as much at church services, or they were little bit more subdued, a little bit quieter, if I could put my finger on anything. It was pretty obvious to me overtime that they did just take a quieter role and less they were involved in the pastoring. I think that gender has been definitely influenced by religion and primarily with you know the monogamists aspects as well as things like dating and sex before marriage and all those aspects about finding one's mate. I think that religion is set some good ground rules down that kind of follow natural biology and can kind of set some standards that should be adhered to for multiple societal reasons. Very often I feel that if we didn't have some heterostructure that religion gave us that people would really Run amuck and do things that are against the natural progression of human life. As for Lindsey's comment about having the lesbians in her church being kicked out for holding hands, I really think that's pretty sad. I think that people are just super scared of something spreading like wildfire. I think that the congregation singularly really could've not had a problem, but when people in power see a moment to be distracted in someway they really want to control the situation. I feel like the women were probably so scarred from that, so much so that they very much probably never wanted to come back to church. If there was a male and female holding hands it would still kind of look weird to overtime but the connotation from the lesbian couple is definitely more sexual in the eyes of the heteronormative constituency. It's really just about our societal norms, we really just don't want to understand things out of our safety zone, our feeling of well-being is altered by anything that is not cisgendered. Once we really diagnose that we just fear the spreading of something to the congregation, they would realized that they're victims of their own fears and that excluding people for other people isn't ever worth it.
ReplyDeleteI feel one major way religions have an influence on sexuality and gender (and furthermore, patriarchy) has to do not only their stance on same-sex marriages, but even heterosexual marriage ceremonies. For instance when committing to each other, a couple will refer to their partner in gendered terms, i.e. “I, take you Joan, to be my lawfully wedded wife,” etc. Such language constructs gender as existing in two categories: husband (male) and wife (female). Furthermore, it also reinforces patriarchy as the officiater of the ceremony often introduces the newly-weds as “Mister and Misses [Man’s full name],” thus highlighting the woman’s secondary role in the union. Outside of marriage ceremonies, typical Sunday services highlight the dominance of masculinity in religion, often referring to God as “The Father.” Since, as per religious dogma, we are all “god’s children,” and come from god, the use of Father in this sence is counter-intuitive given the actual role Fathers have in physical reproduction. A more fitting term would be “mother,” however, the patriarchal nature of western religions uses the male term in its place.
ReplyDeleteI personally feel western culture has narrow-minded view of veiling practices because western culture generally has a narrow-minded view of anything that deviates from its ideals. I think it is important to highlight the political motivations behind veiling, and it’s positioning in western society, as highlighted by De Francisco and Palczewski (2014). While in some Muslim states veiling was used as a form of resistance, the west co-opted veiling practices as the engine for propaganda, asserting that it was an act of oppression of women. Since the act of veiling deviates from western cultural ideals, it is easily positioned as a site of oppression in the eyes of westerners. However, this does not take in to account freedom of choice; some women may wish to veil themselves in congruence with religious practices.
As I’ve mentioned in class, I was not raised very religious. I went to Sunday school as a child, but stopped going all together at a relatively young age, so I don’t have much personal experience with religion disciplining gender/sex. I think the a prominent example in society at large, though, is women who have children out of wedlock. Though I feel the stigma is slowly dissolving, single mothers are still sometimes frowned upon on the basis that women should be married before having children, marking the (usually) religious marriage ceremony a prerequisite. This shows interplay between the institutions of family and religion; single-mothers also deviate from the nuclear family ideal. From an intersectional approach, we can see how this two fold relationship marginalizes single mothers; not only do they deviate from the religious institutional ideals, but also from family ideals.
With the decision of same sex marriage being so controversial, its interesting that we study the communication rhetoric of gender/sex; and how religion is mostly, if not completely behind the contemplation. Religion was and still is the law; in some contexts. Governor Snider had publicly stated that appeal to the overturning of the ban on same sex marriage is mandated. In other words, the marriages are still not recognized by law until the law is changed. I have been known to share that my view of God is this: The master builder/artist; the master counselor/psychologists; the master lawyer/judge. Religion has played strong roles in our societal laws and so the religious laws of “principle centered structure” are what concerns me the most with sexuality/gender diversity; as there effects on children's rights/their structure; that they have no control over. However, laws to support the adult publics interest in a quality and fair way so that freedoms that were founded in this country are exercised for a unified community.
ReplyDeleteAs to the veiling practices of women or the cultural differences; are always causing narrow-mindedness. It enlightens to learn in the chapter how it is the empowerment, not suppression that is behind the veil practice. With the western worlds culture of expressive exposing sexual contexts, its clear that miscommunication of ideas would be the outcome. To cover up is to conserve; and to use the last part of that word "serve" for a greater purpose or rhetoric, not to exploit some batwoman or batman type ideology; as an off shoot parallel idea. The holy scriptures in religion teachings suggests the human body is sacred and is the temple of the "holy spirit," and should be an artifact of that rhetoric.
Furthermore, I'm impressed of with religions progression on the issue of gender diversity. There are a lot of leaders in the churches along with the media, that are in support of communication of gender issue differences today. However, my binary paradigmatic experiences are still at heart; I love the biological differences of men and women and love the "white wedding" rhetoric. Regardless, I can say at the same time that I can now communicate with loving and understanding and acknowledgement of the different rhetoric’s of gender/sex and relate at more personal level as opposed to being out of the loop of social reality.
1. I believe religion has had an effect on the way we view women as opposed to men. Women are looked at with a much smaller scope than men and have little room, pretty much a double standard. In church, the home, work, school and so on, women are put into theses boxes of what they should and shouldn't do, how they dress and so on. Also with the decision of abortion. Pro-life and Pro-choice. Some people cannot discuss abortion without adding religion into the mix, some believe abortion is legalized murder and with recent laws being passed by majority male government leaders it is unfair. It is unfair because they passed a law that insurance would not cover abortions that were a result of rape. These men who were for the law are not able to have children and are making decisions about women's bodies and they aren't women.
ReplyDelete2. Why do you think western culture has a narrow-minded view on veiling practices? We have a narrow minded view because we haven't taken the time out to understand what the veiling process is truly meant for. We think that these individuals are being oppressed but if this is what they choose to do, then they have all the right to. Americans need to understand that everyone isn't like us and doesn't want to be like us, certain practices are tradition and those traditions deserve respect.
3. I was not raised very religious and the members in my immediate family all have different beliefs but we identify as Christens. I am very open minded and some members of my family don't believe gay marriage is a correct form of marriage and that being gay is a sin. I don't agree with this and I have had much heated debates when it comes to the discussion of gay-marriage, abortion, and very heavy topics. Many people believe it is sin but I don't. My thing is if you are heterosexual than you shouldn't have such negative and hurtful things to say about homosexual people because you haven't met every homosexual. I you are a heterosexual then you shouldn't vote to pass laws that relate to homosexuals. Religion plays a major part in how people make decisions and I think religion shouldn't be used in issues like gay-marriage.