This is meant as a response to the discussion to the previous post on Dumbledore. It is directed towards this sense in Christianity in which all believers are feminized as the “bride of Christ.” To say we are feminized is simplistic because we are feminine in that particular formulation, but at the same time that we are the “body of Christ,” which is. . . . . male, I guess. But I’d like to preface this by saying that I do believe in heaven, and I do believe in talking about what it will be like when we get there, but I don’t believe we’ll be discussing who is gay or straight. There are many reasons for that by the first that springs to mind is that heaven ought not to be shoot-myself-in-the-head-boring.
Moving along: the Jews practiced circumcision in a region of the world that was pretty grossed out by it. The Greeks didn’t do it, the Romans didn’t do it, and as far as I can tell, neither did the vast majority of the people amongst whom the Hebrews found themselves. If they had been in Africa they perhaps would have been better understood, for of course the custom is prevalent in many parts of that continent, often practiced on both males and females. Physiological and political issues aside, why is it that the Jews seemed to take it for granted that their males could have their wee-wees sliced, but that their women were spared without a second thought? Where is the equality for God’s sake?!
My answer is that the men were circumcised for the same reason the tower of Babel was left unfinished (without a top, that is): the organ of man’s pride must bow before the razor of God’s wit. And women were, structurally speaking, innocent to this pride. Does that mean they were less prideful? No, it means they filled the role (in language) of being God’s beloved, as opposed to God’s rapist (reference is of course to the men of sodom, who are the first mentioned homosexuals in Biblical history. Why does the Bible connect homosexuality with raping God?) In terms of gender men and women could be equally sinful and prideful. In sin there is both Adam and Eve. But in salvation it is not question of both/and but of either/or. Will we raise the tower of Babel to dethrone God? Or will we have the humility to accept God’s love and our status as beloved? This is what is meant by becoming woman, and by identifying with the wound in Christ’s side, even taking refuge in it, for mater ecclesia issues forth from there (the wound in the thigh of the fisher king and the virginity of the knights stems from this stigma). This sex talk is not only about intimacy over act but it is also about humility topping pride. Hopefully it prepares us for Lacan’s sexuation graph
A.D.: Fascinating post. Don’t forget that the body of Christ is gendered feminine in Ephesians 5, in the long passage about marriage being a mystical sign of the union of Christ with his Body the Church. Even in his earthly male body, Jesus of Nazareth gave up the exercise of male sexuality in favor of dying for the church. “Isaiah” on the suffering servant is so poignant. By his death we are healed and so forth. It also says that in that suffering “he rejoiced to see his seed.” The children begotten of the travail of the suffering servant.
The passion of Christ on the cross is a “travailing in birth,” one of the most beautiful images in all of scripture, if I may say so as a woman. This set up for centuries the tradition of the humility of the true Christian as opposed to the pride of the culture of male virility in the Greco-Roman world. (This conflict between blood revenge and Christian values is going on in the background of “Hamlet,” and Hamlet’s indecision, I think.)
The first martyr in Britain was killed by his co-legionaires because they worshipped the god Mithras, born of a virgin, who slew the world bull and shed its blood, but here Alban worshipped this effeminate sissy Christ who just let himself be sacrificed for others. (This choice in following Christ comes up powerfully in Shusako Endo’s “Silence,” btw, which as you know, we’ll started discussing soon, in November.)
Finally, isn’t the powerful distinction between the rapists of Sodom and molesters of boys on the one hand, and on the other hand, faithful committed love between two men or two women, at the heart of the cultural work that we need to do in the coming decades? The film American Beauty was so good because it tackled the difference between taking advantage and not taking advantage…. These are really not well worked out in our society. And we sometimes glamorize as “romantic,” behaviors that are destructive….