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Religion, Misogyny, and Homophobia
Last edited Thu May 31, 2012, 04:51 PM - Edit history (1)
I thought this was an interesting essay, and also thought it might be of interest to folks participating in the Religion Group. I posted this in the LGBT forum, along with my own (long festering) diatribe on the effects of dogma upon individuals and societies. Since this is basically a post about religion and the effect of religion upon individuals and societies, I re-posted it here, hoping for input/feedback from members interested in discussing religious phenomena and noumena. I'm not a Catholic, but I think the Catholic author of the essay below nails the fundamental root cause of misogyny, homophobia in the excerpt below, and also nails the root cause for much of the hatred and bigotry inherent within, and being expressed by, many believers in dogma today, and throughout the ages as well.
(If anyone finds it imperative to alert on this post, I strongly urge them to re-evaluate their belief system)
Misogyny and Homophobia
by John McNeill
There was and continues to be a profound connection between misogyny and homophobia in our culture. Misogyny is defined as a fear and hatred of women. It manifests itself psychologically in the repression of everything in the psyche that is tradition- ally connected with the feminine. Among other things, this includes all emotions, feelings of compassion, all spiritual feelings, all dependency, and all need of community. In the future I would prefer to refer to misogyny with the word “feminaphobia.”
Over sixty years ago, G. Rattrey Taylor in his classic book Sex in History (New York: Vanguard Press 1954, Chap. 4, pp.72ff.) attempted to expose some of the culturally conditioned attitudes on sexuality. He found a universal phenomenon in cultures based on a patriarchal principle. These cultures with few exceptions tend to combine a strongly subordinationist view of women with a repression and horror of male homosexual practices. The institution in today’s culture which continues to hold on to the clearest expression of that form of patriarchy, including its homophobia, is the Roman Catholic Church.
In contrast, those cultures based on a matriarchal principle are inclined to combine an enhancement of the status of women with a relative tolerance for male homosexual practices. Taylor concludes that the tradition of the Christian West has been fundamentally based on patriarchal culture. This may help to explain certain striking anomalies from an ethical viewpoint in that tradition.
One of the most remarkable of these anomalies is the almost complete disregard of lesbianism in western Christian tradition. Although the Holiness code in the Old Testament, for example, explicitly condemns under penalty of death male homosexual practices and female bestiality, no mention is made of female lesbian practices. (This should not be surprising when we recall that King David had reputedly a harem of nearly a thousand women.) Apart from a disputed reference to unnatural female acts by Paul in Romans 1:26, there is no other reference to female lesbian activity in Scripture and scarcely any at all in all the other documents of Christian tradition.
by John McNeill
There was and continues to be a profound connection between misogyny and homophobia in our culture. Misogyny is defined as a fear and hatred of women. It manifests itself psychologically in the repression of everything in the psyche that is tradition- ally connected with the feminine. Among other things, this includes all emotions, feelings of compassion, all spiritual feelings, all dependency, and all need of community. In the future I would prefer to refer to misogyny with the word “feminaphobia.”
Over sixty years ago, G. Rattrey Taylor in his classic book Sex in History (New York: Vanguard Press 1954, Chap. 4, pp.72ff.) attempted to expose some of the culturally conditioned attitudes on sexuality. He found a universal phenomenon in cultures based on a patriarchal principle. These cultures with few exceptions tend to combine a strongly subordinationist view of women with a repression and horror of male homosexual practices. The institution in today’s culture which continues to hold on to the clearest expression of that form of patriarchy, including its homophobia, is the Roman Catholic Church.
In contrast, those cultures based on a matriarchal principle are inclined to combine an enhancement of the status of women with a relative tolerance for male homosexual practices. Taylor concludes that the tradition of the Christian West has been fundamentally based on patriarchal culture. This may help to explain certain striking anomalies from an ethical viewpoint in that tradition.
One of the most remarkable of these anomalies is the almost complete disregard of lesbianism in western Christian tradition. Although the Holiness code in the Old Testament, for example, explicitly condemns under penalty of death male homosexual practices and female bestiality, no mention is made of female lesbian practices. (This should not be surprising when we recall that King David had reputedly a harem of nearly a thousand women.) Apart from a disputed reference to unnatural female acts by Paul in Romans 1:26, there is no other reference to female lesbian activity in Scripture and scarcely any at all in all the other documents of Christian tradition.
Below is the re-post of my festering diatribe; I totally welcome all comment, challenge, and criticism from anyone so inclined. Thanks.
I really believe the very root of the hate speech and practice of believers in some dogmas is illustrated in the excerpt of the essay sourced above. Misogyny and homophobia/transphobia are so deeply rooted in the collective consciousness of the religious dogma based general cultures of many societies. Those who believe in these dogmas often have a major short circuit in their cognitive processes when faced with a conflict between reason, logic. common sense, and reality, and their need to support and cling to the irrational beliefs of their instilled and/or chosen dogma.
They have a crippling fear of challenging the authority of those (usually people that profit on creating fear in individuals in order to perpetuate their sources of profit) who have told them that they must accept what they have been told without question, or they will burn in hell forever. Often, they have had this idea repeatedly and consistently hammered into their consciousness since they were born. They may be afraid of uncertainty. They may be afraid of no longer belonging. They may be afraid of taking responsibility for their own thoughts and actions. They are afraid of the punishment of the omnipotent deity of their respective dogma, and his power to burn them in hell forever. Most often, it's all of the above.
But the most crippling fear of all is the fear of thinking for themselves. They believe what they have been told about what is "right", and are deathly afraid to challenge what they have been told is "right" and subsequently figuring out what is right for themselves.
Thinking is, literally, a mortal danger to their impostor identity. "I don't want to hear anymore! I believe in my bible, and that's all I believe."
It's a box. An authoritarian prison. There are some spiritual folks that actually understand the relevance of their respective scripture as it relates to higher understanding and consciousness. These folks are tolerant, self-actualized people who have some understanding of love, and how to manifest love. You can recognize these folks by what they do. And what they do does not ever include harboring, preaching, or manifesting ignorance and hatred.
The rest are hateful, bigoted religious people. Their belief system forbids them to think thoughts that are not written in their book, a book that they do not even have the faculties to comprehend, and that book is literally their god. They basically worship the respective book of dogma that they use to justify and maintain the comfort and security of their crippling, devastating fears...
...and the subsequent comfort and security of their hate.
This is why they hate women and LGBT persons.
This is why they murdered Christ.
"There's no such thing as security in this life, sweetheart; and the sooner you accept that fact, the better off you'll be. The person who strives for security will never be free. The person who believes that she's found security will never reach paradise. What she mistakes for security is purgatory. You know what purgatory is, Gwendolyn? It's the waiting room, it's the lobby. Not only does she have the wrong libretto, she's stuck in the lobby where she can't see the show."
---Tom Robbins
---Tom Robbins
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May all your good dreams and wishes come true!
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