Many negative images of women are derived from biblical stories in our culture. Whether people are religious or anti-religious, or were raised in a faith tradition or not, the silently pervasive biblical framework of the feminine condition is unrelenting, still creeping stealthily among the shadows of our secular story and contemporary popular mindset. However, modern forms of backlash to the oppressive narrative describing the roles and lives of women in biblical times have been just as damaging to today's women. It is imperative to begin to change these negative images by exploring this "swinging of the pendulum" as it were. For my part, I do it by re-imagining the biblical female and projecting her into modern day. For the sake of doing so, I have embodied a mythical "universal" woman (which is, of course, just a "placeholder" for the impossible!) in the form of the mythical original female, Eve. Please read on and view the video below.
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Once upon a time, out of the deep, creation began to unfold. Just as a suspenseful story builds up through each twist and turn, each newly developing layer of life was more astonishingly beautiful than the last, and each rising crescendo evolved to unveil a brilliant display of life, color, form, sound and movement in millions of intricate variations. In time, man stepped from the dust into the light, and it was good. But the artist who caused all this to burst forth in its diverse array, knew that it was not yet complete. The creator put the finishing touch on the greatest masterpiece of all time in the image of her glory, endowing this creature with God’s own mystery and unspeakable grace, as the crowning of creation. The finale in fulfilling the glorious universe was...Eve.
Throughout the New Testament, we see the glory of our Eve reflected in the wise, elderly prophetess Anna and in the leader Phoebe, worthy of honor among God’s people [Romans 16:1-2]. We read on to see Eve as the chosen one Mary the mother of Jesus[Luke 1:26-55, et al.], as a Samaritan woman at a well who makes a worthy partner for deep discourse [John 4:1-26], and as the trusted and able Mary Magdalene [Matthew 27:56, et al.].
Yet with much more infamy, we see Eve through the first century Apostle Paul’s eyes as submissive and quiet in learning and not fit to teach men. This influential author wanted to see her modest in appearance, not drawing attention to herself with adornments, but “made” to seem attractive by the good things she would strive to do. Eve, in Paul’s world, was not the grand finale of creation, but rather an afterthought made to reflect man’s glory [1 Timothy 2:13]; here she did not reflect any glory of her Creator God. The core of Eve was stolen, and her agency was raped.
She was made for man, Paul said, an insidious argument dreamed up to usurp her design and deep instinct to be man’s ezer kenegdo, or “life-saver and sustainer with him” - a description given to Eve by God at creation and only otherwise used to describe Godself throughout the the Bible. Instead, in the New Testament , it was Eve alone whom Paul would have us believe, was deceived and lost paradise for all; "sin" was the result of her very existence. Only childbirth could save her [1 Timothy 2:9-11]. Paul saw our heroine Eve as too offensive and unwieldy for angels to look upon, and hence, she should cover her head to assure them she is under authority [1 Corinthians 1:7-10]. Peter’s image of Eve was mandatorily pure, requiring a gentle and quiet spirit in order to be deemed beautiful, as she unquestionably cowed under the authority of her husband, concealing her unique feminine beauty under her veil [1 Peter 3:1-6].
Many feminist scholars and theologians acknowledge that biblical authors and religious leaders alike often suppress the gifts, contributions and strengths of biblical women by claiming they were prostitutes or whores, in order to forcibly take their prestige and honor. One of the more recent examples of this toxic storytelling came against the character of Mary Magdalene, made famous as the most beloved and trusted disciple of Jesus via the popularity of The Divinci Code, and falsely recounted as a prostitute by later storytellers (this is found nowhere in the biblical accounts of Mary Magdalene) . In other words, purity was demanded of women in order for them to be recognized as "legitimate," but then their sexuality was exploited and maligned in order to de-legitimize their rising value or prominence. When the abilities of women became a threat to the power of men, they were re-named in literature and popular collective memory as sexual objects who could not be taken seriously because of their "innate" and "uncontrollable" lasciviousness.
This leads me to wonder...in view of her New Testament past, where and how do we most prominently see "liberated" Eve today in society?
Modern American Eve, Unveiled.
From mythical origins to a myth in totality -
I can’t see Eve’s beauty for hyper-reality.
It appears she is still quite deceived by the way
that the eyes of society view her today.
The first century was infamous for female suffocation,
The twenty-first positions girls in greedy stimulation.
Paul once said “be quiet, cover up, ask no questions;”
Now America says “go ahead and scream, I’ll pay you for your confessions.”
Eve’s vacuous stare from the modern page is not quite what it seems,
she’s captured in the slavery of the great American Dream.
This exchange renders her unceremoniously dismembered,
distorted, contorted and crudely disremembered.
Eve was tasting freedom when she swallowed digital submission,
The tyranny of falsity outwits her pained contrition.
A "Holy burden," her purity was a gentle, quiet confection,
replaced today by expectations of a new unattainable perfection.
It’s not enough to re-sculpt her God-created body
She’s repurposed everywhere as a high-profit commodity.
Selling magazines and high lifestyles, pushing these vain wares,
Modern Eve’s body is the laden slave I see in my nightmares.
Mothers, sisters, daughters, please...
How are we to reclaim Eve?
I will reclaim my body, reclaim my mind,
reclaim the image of God that was mine.
From the first century stories to the millennium times
From silence to salacious loud, continue human crimes.
From overprotected to over-penetrated, from hidden to over-exposed,
From no control, to a soul that loathes the twisting of what I chose.
You must unveil Eve to see her, but you steal her glory as such, (you tell her)
she is just not enough, and at the same time, she is just too much.
I am she. I am Eve. Do I have to change my name?
I refuse to support this ruse and renounce both traps of shame.
