Feminist Critique Part 1: Androcentrism: Taking that which is associated with the male to be normative and/or superior to that which is associated with the female.       Hugo van der Goes Temptation (detail c.. 1470 Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

Aristotle: "A female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities. We should regard the female nature as afflicted with a natural defectiveness."

Sally on Third Rock from the Sun "Why did I have to be the woman?"

Dick (note he chooses his own name), "You lost."

The habit of treating the male experience as normative has a myriad of implications for the study of religion, biblical literature and theology. The following is not an exhaustive list but is perhaps a sufficient list to convince the student of these disciplines that the feminist critique is warranted.

Androcentrism leads to the tendency to see men as the central players in history, as the agents of human history. History is the march of great men.

Androcentrism and the Text:

One consequence of this myopia is that the role women play in history or in stories is not preserved in the written record.

• Mark 14:9 Jesus on the anointing at Bethany, "Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her." Unfortunately the author does not bother to record her name.
• Regarding the Lord's Supper, common sense dictates that one ask, "Were there really no women present at the meal." (Anecdote about my mother and the Free Masons)
• 1 Cor 15:3-8: Paul leaves out the names of the women who were witnesses to the resurrection.

Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenze points to the creation story, in which a man gives birth to a female, as andocentrism taken to an absurd extreme.

The critique of androcentrism in the Bible tends to run into conflict with the doctrine of the authority of scripture. Anyone who treats the Bible as authoritative must contend with the fact that passages within the Bible presuppose an understanding of science and anthropology that the modern reader does not share.

For example, the metaphoric language of the barren wife is based upon the idea that conception occurs when the man plants his seed in a woman's womb. Women contributed no "genetic" material to the pre-natal infant according to this understanding. The language of woman as the weaker vessel (cf. 1 Thess 4:4; 2 Tim 2:21; 1 Pet 3:7) and the pacivity implied are based on bad science.

Jason David BeDuhn in "'Because of the Angels': Unveiling Paul's Anthropology in 1 Corinthians 11" JBL 111 (1999) 295-320, argues that "Paul is attributing the separate formation of woman from man to a creative act of angels, not God. (308)" Paul also attributes the gift of the law to angels. This argument may upset some readers and seem outlandish to others, but I find it persuasive.

Androcentrism and the Reader:

Androcentrism resides in the data, but it also resides in the ideology of readers. Give yourself a test by answering the question, "Who are the first five women to be named in Genesis?"

Even when the text preserves a tradition that seems to counterbalance androcentrism, the androcentric reader can read androcentrism back into the text.

The following have been signficant examples:

• Rom 16:1-3 identifes Phoebe as a diakonos prostatis in the church in Cenchreae, a sea port of Corinth. While this is the same term that Paul uses to describe Timothy and Tychicus, translators use the word deacon for the men and the diminuitive deaconess for Phoebe. One prominent scholar writes, "These is no way of being sure that there existed an "order" of deaconesses in the church at this period." But Phoebe is a deacon not a deaconess. Wherein lies the problem? Another, following the same leap, wonders if Phoebe had some special ministry to women.
• Rom 16:7 indentifies Juna as an apostle. Although this is a female name, commentator after commentator has concluded that this must be a man because there were no female apostles. This is tautological at best.
• Qadesh in the masculine form means priest. Translators frequently use the word prostitute to translate the feminine form. I will leave you to figure out the logic.

The Inclusive Language Issue

Does the use of man to refer to all people reinforce androcentrism?

Does the use of man to refer to all people lead to the association of that which is specificially female with that which is inferior?

Why does anthropology refer to the study of human beings and gynecology refer to the study of women's reproductive organs?

A humorous anecdote about a blind review for SR.

I once submitted an article for publication using inclusive language for the most part but I tended to use male metaphors and examples. The blind reader pointed this out and suggested some alternatives all the while refering to the author of the article as "he."

Does the use of the masculine pronoun for God lead people to think that God has a gender?

Some of the more devastating consequences of Androcentrism

The Electra Complex: Women are neurotic by nature; Normalacy is accepting a secondary destiny.

Drug testing and modern medicine.