Sanctifying Misandry: Goddess Ideology and the Fall of Man

422 Pages·2010·2.7 MB·English

by  Katherine K. Young

SANCTIFYING MISANDRY
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Sanctifying Misandry
Goddess Ideology and the Fall of Man
KATHERINE K. YOUNG and
PAUL NATHANSON
McGill-Queen’sUniversityPress
Montreal&Kingston(cid:1)London(cid:1)Ithaca
© McGill-Queen’sUniversityPress2010
isbn978-0-7735-3615-9
Legaldepositfirstquarter2010
BibliothèquenationaleduQuébec
PrintedinCanadaonacid-freepaperthatis100%ancientforest
free(100%post-consumerrecycled),processedchlorinefree
Thisbookhasbeenpublishedwiththehelpofagrantfromthe
CanadianFederationfortheHumanitiesandSocialSciences,
throughtheAidtoScholarlyPublicationsProgramme,usingfunds
providedbytheSocialSciencesandHumanitiesResearchCouncilof
Canada.
McGill-Queen’sUniversityPressacknowledgesthesupportofthe
CanadaCouncilfortheArtsforourpublishingprogram.Wealso
acknowledgethefinancialsupportoftheGovernmentofCanada
throughtheBookPublishingIndustryDevelopmentProgram
(bpidp)forourpublishingactivities.
LibraryandArchivesCanadaCataloguinginPublication
Young,KatherineK.,1944–
Sanctifyingmisandry:goddessideologyandtheFallofMan/
KatherineK.YoungandPaulNathanson.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-0-7735-3615-9
1.Goddessreligion. 2.Fallofman. 3.Sin,Original. 4.Sexrole
–Religiousaspects. 5.Misandry. I.Nathanson,Paul,1947–
II.Title.
bl473.5.y662010 202'.114 c2009-904566-4
TypesetbyJayTeeGraphicsLtd.in10.5/13Sabon
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Prologue The Fall of Man ix
Introduction Pop Goes the Goddess 3
part one from goddesses to witches (and back):
rewriting the bible 17
Introduction 17
1 Paradise Lost: A Golden Age for Women 21
2 The Fall of Man: A Dark Age for Women 60
3 Paradise Regained: A New Golden Age for Women 125
part two from reform to revolution:
restoring the goddess 147
Introduction 147
4 The Green Goddess: Feminism for a Therapeutic Age 149
5 History, Herstory, or Heresy: Sophianity and the New
Reformation 183
6 A Hag for All Seasons: The Ultimate Revolution 216
7 Gynotopia: Goddess Ideology and Misandry 242
Epilogue Beyond the Fall of Man 257
vi Contents
appendix
Defining Religion 269
Notes 273
Index 377
Acknowledgments
We want to thank the Canadian Federation for the Humanities for
generously supporting the publication of this book. Thanks also to
Monique David for reading and commenting on the manuscript,
Maureen Garvie for editing it, and Jenna Preston for helping us in
many otherways.
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PROLOGUE
The Fall of Man
Wehavealreadywrittentwovolumesofatrilogyonmisandry.The
sexist counterpart of misogyny, misandry refers to the hatred of
men in secular forms – cinematic stereotypes, journalistic excesses,
legal manoeuvres, and so on. Still in the works is the third volume
of that trilogy. Meanwhile, however, we have found it necessary to
writethisfourthandmorespecializedbookonmisandryinthespe-
cificcontextofreligion.Beforeintroducingthisbook,hereisabrief
introductiontoourearlierworkonmisandry.
In the trilogy’s first volume, Spreading Misandry: The Teaching
of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture,1 we showed how the
entertainment, advertising, and even news industries have come to
depict men. During the 1980s and 1990s, misandric stereotypes of
menbecamepervasiveinAmericanpopularculture.Themalechar-
acters of popular movies and television shows, for instance, are
usuallyeitherinadequateorevil–orboth.(Exemptedfromridicule
orattack,sometimes,arecharacterswhorepresentminoritymenor
male feminists; they are, in effect, honorary women.) This was not
the only gender pattern, but it was – and still is – a very common
one. It is true that misogyny coexisted with misandry to some
extent, but the two phenomena were different in one important
way. Women monitored popular culture very carefully for signs of
misogyny,whichmadeitincreasinglyunlikelytosurfaceinthefirst
place. Hardly anyone watched for signs of misandry, which there-
fore remained “politically correct.” Negative stereotypes of men
(along with positive stereotypes of women), we concluded, are
symptoms of a much deeper and more pervasive problem. And we