Sigh.
I am depressed that it appears that sections of the church don't understand what consent is. Especially as the notion of free will and free choice is central to our understanding of who God is. This is the main reason it has taken me 3 weeks to write this post.
There is a lot of sexual violence in the old testament. And as was said the bible does talk about it plainly. But we do not see plainly, we see through a glass darkly and our perception is coloured by our underlying assumptions and our circumstance. So yes there are incidences in the bible where rapists use physical force like in the rape of Dinah. We see these as sexual violence because they fit with our narrative of rape not because that is the bibles narrative of rape.
So the word rape is not used to describe Esther's encounter with Xerxes and indeed all the other women who where 'brought' and 'put' in the harem. I don't think I am reading loads into the text if I conclude that they didn't do this voluntarily. They didn't 'come' to the palace.
It may not have been called rape by the person who penned the book of Esther but it is clearly not consensual which therefore makes it rape.
Is maybe the problem people have with Esther is the book does not define her as a victim? She doesn't get rescued, she's not pitiful and pathetic so she doesn't fit our perception of how someone who has been raped behaves.
So we are left with a problem in order to cast this as consensual we have to either construct a loving relationship between Esther and Xerxes as many have done, or cast Esther as 'totally up for it'.
There is so much sexual violence in Esther, from Vashti to the eunuchs to the harem to Esther. It is very clear to those who will see it. Esther is not the only place where sexual violence is reported by the bible but not read by many Christians. David did not commit adultery with Bathsheba he raped her. But Esther should be able to operate as a piece of consciousness raising literature.
It is true it talks very little Esther's motivations or feelings. There is much about her we do not know. But why should that matter. In its almost pantomime like way the book holds the kierarchy of the world up to display and gives a very clear account of what happened and clearly in this patriarchal world there is a lot of sexual violence.
Whether Esther was a godly woman at this point to me is irrelevant. Even asking this question is problematic. Especially when we were told in sermon 1 that there aren't good people and bad people there's people and Jesus.
Esther was raped because she did not have the freedom to consent. Saying this is not the case and then explaining why she was not 100% godly implies (whether meant or not) that its not real rape unless the women is a picture of femininity. It is essentially the same as saying - but look her facebook has loads of pictures of her in short skirts and she once had sex with some guy I know.
If we're honest Esther just doesn't fit our princess narratives she explodes them and we have to deal with that. Esther was raped and Sleeping Beauty and snow white where sexually assaulted.
I am depressed that it appears that sections of the church don't understand what consent is. Especially as the notion of free will and free choice is central to our understanding of who God is. This is the main reason it has taken me 3 weeks to write this post.
There is a lot of sexual violence in the old testament. And as was said the bible does talk about it plainly. But we do not see plainly, we see through a glass darkly and our perception is coloured by our underlying assumptions and our circumstance. So yes there are incidences in the bible where rapists use physical force like in the rape of Dinah. We see these as sexual violence because they fit with our narrative of rape not because that is the bibles narrative of rape.
So the word rape is not used to describe Esther's encounter with Xerxes and indeed all the other women who where 'brought' and 'put' in the harem. I don't think I am reading loads into the text if I conclude that they didn't do this voluntarily. They didn't 'come' to the palace.
It may not have been called rape by the person who penned the book of Esther but it is clearly not consensual which therefore makes it rape.
Is maybe the problem people have with Esther is the book does not define her as a victim? She doesn't get rescued, she's not pitiful and pathetic so she doesn't fit our perception of how someone who has been raped behaves.
So we are left with a problem in order to cast this as consensual we have to either construct a loving relationship between Esther and Xerxes as many have done, or cast Esther as 'totally up for it'.
There is so much sexual violence in Esther, from Vashti to the eunuchs to the harem to Esther. It is very clear to those who will see it. Esther is not the only place where sexual violence is reported by the bible but not read by many Christians. David did not commit adultery with Bathsheba he raped her. But Esther should be able to operate as a piece of consciousness raising literature.
It is true it talks very little Esther's motivations or feelings. There is much about her we do not know. But why should that matter. In its almost pantomime like way the book holds the kierarchy of the world up to display and gives a very clear account of what happened and clearly in this patriarchal world there is a lot of sexual violence.
Whether Esther was a godly woman at this point to me is irrelevant. Even asking this question is problematic. Especially when we were told in sermon 1 that there aren't good people and bad people there's people and Jesus.
Esther was raped because she did not have the freedom to consent. Saying this is not the case and then explaining why she was not 100% godly implies (whether meant or not) that its not real rape unless the women is a picture of femininity. It is essentially the same as saying - but look her facebook has loads of pictures of her in short skirts and she once had sex with some guy I know.
If we're honest Esther just doesn't fit our princess narratives she explodes them and we have to deal with that. Esther was raped and Sleeping Beauty and snow white where sexually assaulted.
No comments:
Post a Comment