Where are the Women?

Once upon a time there were women, and those women found mates and became mothers. As such, women were viewed as creators, as givers of life. There was Mother Nature, Mother Earth (Gaea), Athena, Aphrodite, Hera and many other female goddesses. There were also male gods and in some religions, like Greek mythology, the leader of the gods was male. But there were many female goddesses and they held a strong, prominent place in religion. And then along came the Roman Catholic Church, and there was only one God and He was male, and the women all but disappeared from religion.

I take major offense at the role women are given in the Bible. There is the lovely Eve who allows sin into the Garden of Eden. There is Mary Magdalene, was she a whore or wasn't she a whore? In some cases referred to as a devoted disciple of Jesus, aren't most of us conditioned to think of her as a prostitute? And then there's the pure and innocent Virgin Mary who I find more offensive than Eve, the bringer of sin, and Mary Magdalene, the questionable whore. There's nothing virginal, serene or innocent about being a mother and I resent motherhood being personified that way. Being a mother is hard, bloody, back-breaking work. It is not happenstance that the early religions related nature and earth to women, it was common sense. Women brought life into the world, it only made sense that the concept of "Creator" was female.

I'm no expert on religion, but I truly believe that Christianity is a religion created by men, for men. This is one reason I found "The Da Vinci Code" so compelling. Now I know it's a work of fiction and I certainly don't take it as fact. But doesn't it make a certain amount of sense? I love the concept that there were women playing an important role back in the day and that it was purposely and consciously taken away from us. Now maybe Mary Magdalene was a prophet and maybe she wasn't, maybe she had Jesus' baby and maybe she didn't. Honestly, those theories are only mildly interesting to me. What I find exciting about the novel is that it brings women back into the forefront of religion. Gives us back a little of the power that was stripped from us.

I loved "The Red Tent" for the same reason. It takes the biblical story of Jacob and his family, told in the voice of Jacob's daughter Dinah, and expounds on it giving the woman's perspective. Dinah is mentioned ever so briefly in the Bible. I'm not about to go look it up, but I believe it's only a few lines that state she was raped by the son of the ruler of Egypt. In the novel we get the whole back story of Dinah, the women that she comes from, the mother and midwife that she becomes, the love and loss she experiences in her life. It's the story or type of story the Bible seems to be so sorely lacking. One that shows a woman and her strength. Now, I suppose you could argue that "The Book of Ruth" does this, but really it seems more a story of how loyalty is rewarded than one that is about women and their strength. And this is just one story in the Bible.

What I'd really like to see in the Bible is an equivalent to the Greek goddess Athena. Athena, daughter of Zeus, goddess of wisdom, war and weaving. I want to see a strong, intelligent woman who plays an important role, a prophet perhaps. A woman who is unquestionably female but also strong and smart and fierce. But alas, this is only a hope, a dream, a fairy tale ending that does not exist.

Comments

[Liz]

Hey, I was just thinking. If Mary Magdalene and Jesus hooked up, maybe their baby was a wangsta? I'm feeling like that's a good guess.

Also, I think Mary Magdalene should have watched Oprah a few times before she went whoring around with my boy Jesus. If she would have just watched Oprah, she could have known the repercussions of being the "other woman".

I'm just brainstorming here.....

[Diosa]

Honestly, I think Mary Magdelene was screwed no matter what she did. She might have been Jesus' wife. She might have been a prophet. Maybe she was my Christian Athena. There's no better way to discredit a woman than to start a rumor that she's a whore, and it's the men who get to tell the story in the Bible.