The Strange Woman: Chapter 1
Chapters read: 1: Adultery and Other Sex Crimes
Page reached: 42 of 172 (24%)
Response:
Chapter 1 continues Streete's argument as established in the introduction. There is a blunt re-emphasis that women's reproductive capacity are sought after as a possession, not only by the group (because without women producing their lineage, obviously, their group can't survive), but also by any conquerors who seek to control or destroy said group.
Whose womb is it, anyway? The “Endangered Ancestress”
She first covers the “endangered ancestress,” a view I pointed out in my last review of Sarah and Rebekah, the poor wives having to put up with husbands who have them lie and claim sisterhood rather than wifehood to protect the patriarch’s cowardly asses.
In these instances, where a woman’s sexuality is used to protect the ancestor/patriarch, it is okay. Streete notes the major problem in these passages-there is no comment made about the morally reprehensible nature of Isaac’s and Abraham’s actions and when Abraham reveals to Abimelech of Gerar that Sarah, his wife, is actually his sister (half-sister), there’s no comment made about this despite incest’s condemnations in later Levitical code either. The summary here: As long as you’re continuing the line of the Israel patriarchy, shut your mouth, get raped if I tell you to get raped and if incest means we have babies and continue the line, let’s do it.
Another example of incest being okay: Lot and his daughters. Sodom is obliterated because it’s evil (Genesis 19). Lot’s wife turns back to see the city being destroyed and turns into a pillar of salt, so the continuance of the line now rests with Lot’s two daughters. They proceed to get daddy drunk and fuck him, each producing sons which became the ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites. So, again, if you’re a Jew and I’m a Jew and we can’t really see a Jew of the opposite sex wandering around, let’s just go ahead and reproduce, you know, Uncle Woody.
But, there is a turn.
“Among all of the Levitical laws prohibiting incest, father-daughter incest is not mentioned (Lev 20:10-21)” (27).
So, all you ladies unable to find someone like your daddy, look no further than your mother’s bed! (/cringe)
I also learned the origination of the term “sodomite.” Lot, Abraham’s nephew, lived as an alien in Sodom. Hearing that God was planning to destroy Sodom, Abraham sends messenger to warn Lot to leave, but before they can warn Lot, “men of the city” (19:4) demand to have the messengers sent out of Lot’s home so they can “know” them (in the Biblical “Adam knew Eve and Cain popped out” sense). Lot tries to appease the men by saying, “Hey, I have two hot virgin daughters. Want to gangbang them instead?” The men refuse. Demand to rape the messengers some more and then the messengers strike them with blindness and the men all run away.
Hence, because they refused to gangbang hot virgin girls and only wanted to “know” the men, sodomy was born.
Next is the varied endangered ancestress story (28). Quickly summarized: Sarah was barren. Abraham needed a male heir and Hagar, their maid, was both of theirs property, so Sarah gives Hagar to Abraham to have a child with. Hagar gives birth to Ishmael (which Islam views themselves as sprouting from) and, later, Sarah gives birth to Isaac, the “favored” and “correct” son (being that Hagar was Egyptian and, remember, the purebred Israelite line must continue). Sarah, with Abraham’s consent, sends Hagar away. In this case, the question is who really owned Hagar? Sarah, her mistress, but property of Abraham, or Abraham, the patriarch who seeded her womb? Then there is also the fact that despite Hagar’s “otherness,” she has the ability to threaten the integrity of the Israelite line by simply having Abraham’s heir. Therefore, she must be sent away in order for Abraham and Sarah to be the rightful Israelite ancestors. The story of Jacob and Esau also relates to this. Rebekah, their mother, favors Jacob because Esau takes two foreign wives and then finally, a Ishmaelian wife (she is closer to Israelite than the two strictly foreign wives, but still not Israeli).
As could be expected, rape is defined here as an attack on the man who possesses that woman’s sexuality, so when Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, is raped in Genesis 34, the problem is that their property was assaulted and not that she was actually raped. A defiled woman can not, under Jewish law, be married unless to her rapist, but specifically, in this instance, because Dinah is raped by a Hivite and not a Jew, no marriage can take place and instead, Simeon and Levi, her brothers, go in and kill all of the Hivites while they’re in “pain” from being circumcised (they originally said, “Hey, you can marry our sister/my daughter, as long as you cut off your foreskins!” and everyone was like, “okay! Sweet! Foreskin away!”) (31).
Sexual categories in the Law
Streete, at this point, is beating a dead horse. Yes, it’s obvious through the last 40 pages that women are the sexual property of men. Woot.
Oh, but here it’s explained that though the father does in fact own his daughter’s sexuality, he is supposed to ensure her virginity for her husband. So, don’t lie with your daddies, sorry.
It’s also forbidden to lie with a menstruating woman, man or beast (36). The idea behind this is that a guy can’t get a menstruating woman, another man, or a beast pregnant. Continue that Israelite line! Sperminate only in ovulating womens!
She also cites levirate marriage as an obvious contradiction to the above adultery laws, but also a not noted exception. In Ancient Israel, if a man died leaving a wife with no heir, under this tradition, his brother (or the next of kin) would have to go in and lie with his brother’s wife to continue his line.
If his brother refuses to do this, the widow could publicly shame him and the elders at the gate would have him ritually “shamed.” The shaming ritual comprises a public proclamation, spitting in his face, and pulling off his sandal.
“Since ‘sandal’ is sometimes a euphemism in the Tanakh for the female genitals, as ‘foot’ is for male genitals, this act may symbolize the unwillingness of the brother to ‘go in to’ his brother’s wife. The shame is also borne by his family, as they will be known as ‘the house of him whose sandal was pulled off” (41).
It is interesting that the widow in this case is actually given the freedom to pursue her brother-in-law for sex. Him having sex with her is her right and she has the option to completely and utterly shame him into doing it.
Status Report:
Been too long since I read the introduction, but I need to knock out the rest of the book by the 30th to finish out in appropriate NaNoReMo style. Streete’s prose is still pretty, but she definitely likes to beat a dead horse. It seemed through most of this chapter that she was just constantly rephrasing the argument she set up in the first 2 pages of the chapter and then constantly supporting this new, slightly changed argument. Sort of annoying. Hopefully, it’ll get better. I’m a 1/4th of the way through!
Favorite passages:
"The only legally autonomous, free women in scripture are those whose sexuality has already been 'owned' or enjoyed by a male…these…include the daughter who is legally outside of her father’s authority, having reached the age of twelve years, six months and a day without betrothal or marriage (a category more theoretical than actual); the divorced woman, no longer under marital authority(a potential adulteress in the New Testament); and the widow who has produced a legitimate male heir.” (23).
“If the patriarchs of Genesis own nothing else, they own their women, who may be exchanged, not only for the men’s lives and continued security, but for more possessions (Gen 12:16; 20:14-16)” (28).
“…there is Hebrew word for rape: the closest is “shame” (‘innah)” (31).
“Some sexual crimes, including adultery, are in the category of capital offenses, tantamount to murder. Other sexual crimes belong to the felony-misdemeanor category (37).”
“Men have no obligations to preserve their own chastity, other than avoiding intercourse with a married woman” (39).
Words looked up:
Autonomous (pg. 23): Not controlled by others or by outside forces; independent.
Liminal (pg. 24): situated at a sensory threshold : barely perceptible.
Exogamy (pg. 25): marriage outside a specific tribe or similar social unit.
Endogamy (pg. 25): marriage within a specific tribe or similar social unit.
Inimical (pg. 26): unfriendly; hostile