I’ve pulled a few quotes from this essay that caught my eye, and explored one a little deeper:
“I mean to call this endeavor feminist studies of religion, not feminist studies in religion, to re-emphasize feminist scholarship on non-Christian topics, to stress feminist work that is critical of religious authorities in a wide variety of ways, and in order to raise questions about the absence from this forum of feminist scholars of religions such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, as well as those feminist scholars who treat Christianity not theologically but as a historicized religion that demands critical attention.”
“What are Jewish feminists to do when many of us use the terms gender, sex, sexuality, construction, and culture in very different ways?”
“It risks adopting a metaphor without inquiring critically into the power relations in which it was produced, or to which it may contribute and without considering the complexities of masculinist gender culture.”
#2 – I don’t understand why only one paragraph in this article was devoted specifically to Jewish feminist studies. The author does not return to this topic, nor does she give the same treatment to feminist studies of another religion. It seems entirely out of place in the article. This quote particularly raises questions for me, because I want elaboration from it. What different ways are these terms used in regards to Jewish feminism? What challenges do these different definitions bring up? This quote and the paragraph as a whole require much more elaboration in general.
