Sexual politics of Esther: Kids Church

Which bible stories we do and don't think are appropriate for children would be a fascinating subject for a PhD. Here are just some brief musings that resulted from me waking up one Sunday morning and scrabbling around in a caffeine deprived haze trying to work out what I was meant to be doing for kids church and discovering, two weeks after preaching it to the 'grown-wrongs' it was Esther. 

Hmm...do I focus on the sexual violence or the genocide? Jael and the tent peg suddenly feel's like a breeze, though oddly I've never come across resources for teaching that. A few google searches however and it was very apparent that Esther is seen as a highly appropriate story to miss-tell children. 

My googeling informed me that the key messages for children from the book of Esther are:



Godly women have proportionally very tiny wastes. 


Godly women need to try and become 'queens'. Which can be a bit like navigating through a maze. Particularly as you must simultaneously be passive but also take full responsibility for not only your own but all men's behavior. 



The most important and significant thing that happened to Esther was that she became queen. 



Look you can even get an Esther Doll and you can look like her too!

And of course my least favorite (and I know this wasn't developed for children but there is no such thing as children's media all media is children's media if they are going to see it).

I'm relatively broad shouldered and they would have to be twice as wide to fit these proportions.

Esther seems to be fulfilling the role of both Barbie and sleeping beauty, normalising sexual violence and instilling body dysmorphia in all our girls. 

The emperor is wearing no clothes and these images are grotesque and should be banished from our churches. Let's stop feeding our children rat poison.