Collie's Bestiary

In a brilliantly re-creative intellectual thread, in 1993 feminist lesbian poet Judy Grahn re-members and reclaims the sacrality of women and menstruation in her Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World. She notes with startling clarity that, "All origin stories are true" (7), as she offers us a radical new origin myth for [...]

Reflecting on spirituality vs. ethics, I was fascinated to realize I'd made one of the mistakes the author notes: considering non-violence as equivalent to passive resistance — as nothing more than yet another tactical tool to be used in accomplishing social justice. Instead, Fernandes refers extensively to Gandhi, noting his belief that non-violence is a [...]

This is a review of Leela Fernandes'  Transforming Feminist Practice: Non-Violence, Social Justice, & the Possibilities of a Spiritualized Feminism. The title of the book was the basis of an interesting personal challenge: as a friend put it to me, why apply women's spirituality to feminism or issues of social justice? For that matter, why [...]

Finished a book and two articles so far; two somewhat disturbing and one very encouraging. M. Shawn Copeland's article "Body, Representation, and Black Religious Discourse" I found disturbing for several reasons. For a single example, she has actual, chilling quotes from women, or relatives of the women, who were violently sexually abused as slaves. Like [...]

After Patriarchy: Feminist Transformations of the World Religions, edited by Paula M. Cooey, William R. Eakin, & Jay B. McDaniel Conclusion In closing, this book interested me for a number of reasons — primarily that of why intelligent and educated women stay in religions which effectively exploit them. I say "intelligent and educated" because I [...]

After Patriarchy: Feminist Transformations of the World Religions, edited by Paula M. Cooey, William R. Eakin, & Jay B. McDaniel Judaism Continuing with the quick review of the articles contained within this provocatively titled book, we move to Judith Plaskow's "Transforming the Nature of Community: Toward a Feminist People of Israel." She argues that Jewishness [...]

Interrelatedness One of the precepts of ecofeminism (at least as I attempt to practice it) is the recognition of not only the value and beauty of both human bodies and the physical world, but also of our deep spiritual and genetic connections with all that is. This is, I think, a serious issue with most [...]

The Divine Feminine The entire modern concept of Goddess (whether omnipotent or not) is still relatively new and shocking to many, though it has much more ancient roots than most of us imagine. Nevertheless, when faced with even a modest conceptualization of Goddess, most members of the modern androcentric world religions react with quick anger. [...]

Talking with male friends, the general consensus I hear seems to be that manhood is more about taking care of yourself so others do not have to do it for you, and then meeting all your other obligations as well – to family, to society, to work, and so on. What most strikes me about [...]

What's even more weirdly interesting is that we've seen this sort of social upheaval in gender roles happen before — though we didn't recognize it at the time – in the inner city black communities. It started in the 1970s as manufacturing started closing the inner city factories, and then too, "the men who lived [...]