What if the Bible Featured Feminists?

That’s a paraphrase of one of the questions featured in the book Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards.

It’s not a new book, but over at Globalizati, we get a snippet from it that could lead to an interesting discussion:

After the ladies loosen up around the table, Mary Magdalene would begin by talking about sex workers’ rights, and returning belly dancing to its origin as an exercise for giving birth. Leah and Rachel would resolve their longtime sisterly competition by ditching Jacob, the man their father married them both to, and agitate for women to be able to inherit their own property. Rather than being synonymous with evil, Jezebel would be lauded for her business acumen. Hagar would receive palimony and child support from her lover, Abraham. Sarah, Abraham’s wife, might even befriend Hagar, Abraham’s concubine and Sarah’s slave; at the very least, she would empathize. Bathsheba, tired of looking for love from a poetic boy who couldn’t commit, would have the presence of mind to leave King David. Delilah would teach them about orgasms and exhort her friends to make sure they got what they needed in bed. Lilith would be full of first wives’ club advice for Eve, and Eve would be pontificating about the politics of housework. Eve would also recognize that she had been framed, and refuse to take the Fall for her man or her God. Ruth wouldn’t be saying “Whither thou goest, I will go” to her mother-in-law or anyone anymore; she’d be blazing her own trails. Meanwhile, they’d all begin to question why the hell Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt when her husband was busy offering up their virgin daughters to the marauders. (And why the hell she didn’t have a name.)

All that, and they haven’t even discussed what God would be doing…


[tags]atheist, atheism, Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future, Jennifer Baumgardner, Amy Richards, Globalizati, Mary Magdalene, Jezebel, Bathsheba, Delilah, Eve, God, Lot’s wife[/tags]