All about Eve
What is it with religion and sex?
Fear, perhaps? Fear in particular, of women...
All the 'big three', monotheistic, Abrahimic religions have misogynistic aspects; many of their leaders continue to preach anti-women and anti-sex messages to the faithful, as well as using political clout to attempt to influence the lives of non-believers as well.
Yet puritanism is growing, particularly in Islam. Where puritanism grows, people find ways for outlets, as an article in Der Spiegel shows. But as the writers illustrate, puritanism also produces results other than frustration.
The common thread is women and female sexuality. It needs to be repressed. Women are to blame for 'The Fall' – Eve tempted Adam with the apple (knowledge). You want to keep men obedient and faithful? Then keep them ignorant. And you know, it's not a man's fault if he can't resist the temptations of a woman – so she wears a veil or a burka to stop the man being tempted.
Not that such an idea is unique to Islam; after all, it's not that many years ago that, if a female rape victim was prepared to press chanrges and go to court, she'd be treated as the criminal – her sexual history (if any) would be scrutinised and blamed; the question of what she was wearing would be analysed to see if she provoked the assault.
Christianity, of course, likes its women to be a bit like the Madonna – although a dose of the whore helps, if only for the sake of maintaining (and increasing) the numbers of the faithful. Ideas of monogamy and marriage and anti-abortion and anti-contraception (some of these varying across the Chritsian sects) help to avoid the faithful woman's inner whore escaping too much.
To (slightly) paraphrase Bertrand Russell: "religion... has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world."
Or, as the Spiegel article points out, it's downright immature and unhealthy.
Fear, perhaps? Fear in particular, of women...
All the 'big three', monotheistic, Abrahimic religions have misogynistic aspects; many of their leaders continue to preach anti-women and anti-sex messages to the faithful, as well as using political clout to attempt to influence the lives of non-believers as well.
Yet puritanism is growing, particularly in Islam. Where puritanism grows, people find ways for outlets, as an article in Der Spiegel shows. But as the writers illustrate, puritanism also produces results other than frustration.
The common thread is women and female sexuality. It needs to be repressed. Women are to blame for 'The Fall' – Eve tempted Adam with the apple (knowledge). You want to keep men obedient and faithful? Then keep them ignorant. And you know, it's not a man's fault if he can't resist the temptations of a woman – so she wears a veil or a burka to stop the man being tempted.
Not that such an idea is unique to Islam; after all, it's not that many years ago that, if a female rape victim was prepared to press chanrges and go to court, she'd be treated as the criminal – her sexual history (if any) would be scrutinised and blamed; the question of what she was wearing would be analysed to see if she provoked the assault.
Christianity, of course, likes its women to be a bit like the Madonna – although a dose of the whore helps, if only for the sake of maintaining (and increasing) the numbers of the faithful. Ideas of monogamy and marriage and anti-abortion and anti-contraception (some of these varying across the Chritsian sects) help to avoid the faithful woman's inner whore escaping too much.
To (slightly) paraphrase Bertrand Russell: "religion... has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world."
Or, as the Spiegel article points out, it's downright immature and unhealthy.
posted by Amanda Kendal at 3:00 pm
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