THIS BLOG HAS MOVED

You can now find the postHoke's musings at http://questioningcertainty.wordpress.com.

Easier posting, better formatting, less spam. It's a win-win move!

Out of the Closet, Into the Kitchen?

I saw an ad in this week's NYT Magazine: it was a GE Monogram ad for kitchen appliances, featuring a gay couple--two older, affluent businessmen at home cooking in their nice new GE furnished kitchen. (I am trying to find an image of this ad online, but no success) My first reaction was sheer excitement: finally, non-heterosexual advertising! [Side note: I showed a straight friend: "That's a nice kitchen," he smirked. I wanted to smack him.]

But I'm having second thoughts about my excitement. Feminism has long decried the portrayal and use of women in advertising: usually for cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, being mothers. Here a gay man [or maybe both men?] has replaced the woman: but is this actually liberating for either? Are gay men simply being feminized, conforming further to social stereotypes of both male homosexuality and of femininity?

It seems to me that the heterosexual male is still holding reign over his kingdom. Gay men are being placed into advertising by pushing heterosexual women out. We are sharing the same space, but neither "group" is getting to move into the full realm that we should be (and have been) demanding.

Maybe this is a (very) small victory for affluent white gay men, who have finally peeked out from the advertising closet. However, I am skeptical. I don't think women, gay men, or anyone else are progressing much further with this ad.

Even further, it is telling that the ad depicts very affluent gay men who can afford such an expensive kitchen. This group--as long as they conform to certain stereotypes--have been pulled to the "inner margins." Not included, but more accepted, tolerated. [The show "How I Met Your Mother" calls them "G-CWOKs."] But what about lesbians? Transgendered persons? Gay men who aren't rich and don't fit into the "G-CWOK" box? I suspect we are a long time coming before we see anyone like this in mainstream advertisements. And we still need to see more gay men and heterosexual women in ads that don't only portray them as typical stereotypes. And that's just advertising; don't get me started on television (though I hinted at it in my HIMYM comment). We have a long way still to go.

Worship Revised: Thoughts on Feminism and Worship

This past quarter, having taken a required worship class, I spent a good deal of time thinking about feminism as it relates to how people formally worship G*d. Part of this reflection played out in a worship service that I was required to help plan at Bond Chapel (at the UofC Div. School). The service I helped plan was based around the themes of the sermon on Thecla found in an earlier post. Through confession, it took into account women's oppression and violence against women; through a litany, it highlighted the major roles women have played and continue to play in the church. The following is a broader reflection on what it means to bring feminist thought into the realm of worship.

The ultimate goal of bringing feminism and worship together is not to create “feminist liturgy” that is a distinct category from all other worship nor is it to merely "add women and stir" (a phrase taken from theologian Susan Ross). The goal is that liturgy will incorporate contributions from feminist ideology in order to make the liturgy more egalitarian. Our Bond Chapel service can serve as an additional resource for considering how to authentically bring feminist thought and women’s issues to worship, but more work must be done in order to fully bridge the gap between traditional liturgy and feminism. Traditional liturgy follows a form and structure created and written by men of privilege; a liturgy that “bridges the gap” does not entirely abandon the thought and theology that informs the traditional liturgy. However, this traditional thought and theology has to be reevaluated and its dominant role must be decreased in order that new ideas—such as feminist theology and ideology—have an equal role in the shape of liturgy. Like the new vision of spatial arrangement discussed above, an egalitarian liturgy that takes feminist ideas into account will differ significantly from traditional liturgy: new words and prayers will be introduced, and some liturgical pieces may be revised or removed while new pieces are added. Ideally, this new liturgy will take contributions from a multiplicity of voices and ideological perspectives and backgrounds while leaving open space for the addition of new voices.

Queer Worship: "(Not) Queer"

Check out my response to and critique of Peter Rollins' worship service "Queer" from his book How (Not) to Speak of God:

http://worshipincrisis.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/not-queer-by-james-hoke/

(Also feel free to read the rest of the blog as well and find out details about the conference which I have had a hand in planning.)

Tech-Tosterone? Really?

So, I came across an ad in the New York Times today that used the phrase “Tech-Tosterone.”

Seriously?

It was for E-Trade, and I have absolutely no idea what precisely was being advertised, but I about threw up. Maybe it is a creative little attention grabbing statement, but it is entirely male-centered. It screams “THIS PRODUCT IS FOR MEN.” But what is the product? Some online trading thing. I’m sure both women and men can use it, though I’m not interested enough in the product to find out.

But why is this appropriate? Why is this considered good advertising? Just because a company can come up with an edgy, “creative” phrase does not make it acceptable. It continues to perpetuate sexist advertising that dominates the media (watch just about any SuperBowl commercial). “Tech-tosterone” screams that technology is and is supposed to be dominated by men and by male sexuality. In a realm that has traditionally been dominated by men, it sends the wrong message. I can only assume women are not going to be drawn to “Tech-tosterone,” so it perpetuates the assumption that solely men are supposed to understand and use technology, which is (at least to some extent) the cutting-edge and the “future.” And that is why I find this ad both problematic, sexist, and disgusting.

"Our Thecla" (Preached 2/24/10)

After reading The Acts of Paul and Thecla for five different religion classes at our undergrad institution, a good friend told me she hated Thecla so much that she was going to turn Thecla into a swear, “Oh dear Thecla, it’s freezing cold outside.” Thecla evokes strong reactions from those who have heard her story. Perhaps having read the story less than five times, Tertullian wrote, “But if the writings which wrongly go under Paul’s name, claim Thecla’s example as a license for women’s teaching and baptizing, let them know that, in Asia, the presbyter who composed that writing…was removed from office.”

Tertullian echoes the prohibitions of the author of 1 Timothy—“let a woman learn in silence and in entire submission”— He uses the voice of Pauline authority to limit women’s autonomy, reacting to women like Thecla who were taking Paul’s letters to instead authorize their ministry.

Thecla was and is a problem. To our modern ears, Thecla’s story seems a little too wild. There are flashes of lightening, wild seals, fantastic escape after miraculous escape. In the passage we just read, not only is Thecla saved from wild beasts, but the beasts are pitted in an epic male versus female struggle—with the female lioness coming out on top. She then baptizes herself—in a pool filled with deadly seals who are miraculously killed moments before she hits the water. This is not the story we expect to find in the traditional New Testament canon.

But does that mean that there is nothing of spiritual worth in this text? Absolutely not. While the story of Thecla may have been used to authorize women’s leadership, the story was also popular enough to circulate—and Thecla came to have shrines and cults devoted to her. She is officially a Saint. For many early Christians, Thecla and her story had spiritual value.

Thecla, the first female martyr with a radical faith in God, drew people to her story. Thecla gives up everything: her fiancé, her mother, her home, her security—in order to follow Paul and his teachings about chastity, Jesus, and God. She faces adversity and seems to be abandoned by Paul—her teacher—yet she persists in her following of God. And she survives and is finally authorized to teach God’s word.

Though Thecla’s image is inspiring, it is profoundly difficult to preach on this text. God’s activity is fairly clear within the story—Thecla professes her belief and her desire to teach—and God acts to save her so that she can finally achieve this end. What can this story teach us? How can we faithfully read this text when God’s action rarely seems so active or miraculously obvious in our lives?

We don’t live in a world like Thecla’s—where to publicly proclaim the Gospel as an unmarried woman was a dangerous and radical action; but we do live in a world filled with vast inequalities and oppression.

As in Thecla’s story, in order to make our voices heard, many of us have to clothe ourselves in the “fashion of men”—or whatever majority we may not be a part of:

Though women’s rights have improved tremendously in the past fifty years—and though women’s preaching and teaching is no longer forbidden—men still hold more leadership positions, dictate most societal norms, and make more money than women. Some churches still refuse to ordain women—even churches in denominations that legitimate this practice.

Though we no longer live in a society that allows for legal segregation, we live in a world still divided by race, where judgments—whether for a job or who to search at an airport—are made solely based upon the color of one’s skin.

And even though homosexuality is no longer an illegal practice in the U.S., we live in a world where LGBTQ people are still mistreated, looked down upon, and told our relationships cannot legally be recognized. Many of us still clothe our identities from others in order to pass as straight.

We live in a world where people live in the aftermath of tremendous disaster—disaster which strikes hardest in areas inhabited by the most desperately poor.

To all of us, Thecla’s words send a message of hope:

“To the storm-tossed [God] is a refuge, to the oppressed relief, to the despairing shelter, in a word, whoever does not believe in him shall not live but die forever.”

Thecla, a woman marginalized by her gender, her faith, and her desire for independence, believed that God was especially with her at the margins. And though God’s action is rarely miraculously apparent in our lives, we too believe that God stands for and with voices long clothed or silenced. We tell Thecla’s story for the same reason that early Christian women told it for generations: because it represents our faith and our hope that God does and will always act in our world to relieve and comfort the oppressed.

We proclaim Thecla’s story for the same reason that we pass on the stories of faithful women who have come before and after her: Mary, Joan of Arc, Sojourner Truth, Dorothy Day, Rosa Parks. They stand for us as models of women who stood against oppression and proclaim God’s radical love. They remind us that even those who may seem powerless in society can wield much power when they stand and proclaim their radical faith. Through them and their stories, we come to recognize and believe that God can and does work radically through Her faithful people. And we learn to proclaim their message, Thecla’s message—that God is a refuge to the storm-tossed, is shelter to the despairing, and offers relief to the oppressed—as we continue their work to build a more equal and just world. Amen.

Coming Soon (I swear)

So, I fell off the blogging bandwagon. I guess that's what happens when summer ends...

But, more is to come because I have six months worth of queer feminist rants to publish at some point.

But, for now, a preview of what I will post soon:

(1) Sermon on The Acts of Paul and Thecla (non-canonical text, often claimed by feminist interpreters)
(2) Reflections on feminist worship and liturgy
(3) A link to my blog post on queer worship--a response to Peter Rollins' worship service "Queer." This post is in conjunction with the University of Chicago Ministry Conference, "Worship in Crisis," which will bring speakers Siobhan Garrigan and Peter Rollins to the Chicago area for what should be a thought-provoking conversation. Mark your calendars for April 23, 2010. (More info coming!)