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I’ve been excited about willful girls and feminist killjoys—two important guiding pictures in feminist scholar Sara Ahmed’s e-book Residing a Feminist Life (Duke College Press 2017).
The thought of the willful lady (or willful woman, or willful particular person) is one thing I can simply get behind. The way in which I perceive it, it has to do with girls getting in contact with our personal wills and being prepared to talk and act and stay out of our wills. Notably if these wills end up to exist in opposition to the issues different individuals would possibly will for us.
It’s about studying to face up for ourselves, studying to affirm our full humanity in a world that usually expects…much less. It’s a manner of consciously, deliberately being prepared to be known as “willful” as a detrimental factor—as in, cussed, egocentric, antagonistic, tough—as a result of the affirmation of our personal wills is price it.
I like all of this and discover it useful. Be willful. Anticipate pushback and penalties for it. Be willful anyway.
Biblically talking, I might say that the unnamed Canaanite who had a tough dialog with Jesus in Matthew 15:21-28 was a willful lady. She argued with Jesus, pushing again in opposition to Jesus’ statements that centered his personal ethnic group at her expense. That takes some guts. That’s how badly she wished her daughter healed and effectively.
By the tip of the back-and-forth, Jesus stated to her, “Lady, you’ve nice religion! Your request is granted.”[1] Or, translated extra actually from Greek, let or not it’s executed for you as you’ll.
This lady’s will was robust. It was willful. And Jesus noticed her will, revered it, affirmed it. He noticed her, revered her, affirmed her.
After I consider willfulness, I additionally consider Glennon Doyle’s reflections on the issues girls have instructed her they want most. Some examples: “relationships with no lies,” “pleasure and security for my kids and for everybody else’s kids,” “justice for all,” “assist, group, and connection.”[2]
These are good issues. I really like that ladies will these items, and I need to see girls prepared to grow to be willful in pursuit of those sorts of issues. Our willfulness is a present to ourselves as girls and to our world as a complete. I’m all for willful girls.
Ahmed’s second picture, then again–the feminist killjoy–is just a little tough for me. It isn’t a picture I heat as much as instantly and assume, sure, that is what I need to be.
I don’t actually need to kill pleasure. I like pleasure. I like group concord. I like being favored, and I like getting together with individuals. The killjoy flies within the face of those needs.
What I like about Ahmed’s tackle this picture, although, is the concept that feminist killjoys are solely stating issues which might be already there. For instance, if somebody makes a sexist or racist joke, and everybody laughs besides one particular person—and so, by not laughing, she turns into a killjoy—the killjoy solely identified the difficulty. She made it seen the place it was invisible. She didn’t create it. It was already there.
Put that manner, I see how killjoy work will be necessary work. It’s the work of exposing issues that in any other case would possibly stay hidden. It’s the work of inviting different individuals to see and confront the issues that had been already there. It’s the work of resisting the urge to behave like all the pieces’s okay when it isn’t. The one that speaks up about racism or sexism and turns into a killjoy is providing a present to the group.
To return to the Bible as soon as extra, maybe we will consider Jesus as a killjoy. Definitely the gospel tales reveal Jesus as a joyful particular person, typically consuming and consuming and celebrating with others. However, simply as definitely, the gospels additionally reveal that Jesus was prepared to kill the vibe when want be—or at the least drastically change it when it wanted to be modified.
There was the time, for instance, when a bunch of male non secular leaders dragged earlier than Jesus a girl caught in adultery—stones of their fingers, able to throw (John 8:1-11). Jesus refused to play their video games. After which he requested them to look inward at their very own wrongdoing quite than enact judgment on the lady for hers.
Jesus stated, Let any considered one of you who’s with out sin be the primary to throw a stone at her.[3] One after the other, they walked away.
Or, I consider the time a girl often known as a “sinner” crashed a cocktail party hosted for Jesus by one of many male non secular leaders (Luke 7:36-50). Her uncouth habits probably had the male dinner friends muttering and griping and possibly smirking to at least one one other. One in every of them thought to himself, If Jesus had been a prophet, he would know what sort of lady she is.[4]
Jesus didn’t grumble or giggle together with the group. As a substitute, he affirmed the lady’s religion. And he wished the male non secular leaders to study from her instance.
Is Jesus a feminist killjoy? Possibly this isn’t precisely what Sara Ahmed is pondering of—nevertheless it’s not terribly removed from it, both. And, definitely, Jesus sees and affirms the willfulness of willful girls.
In these methods, Jesus set an instance of what dwelling a feminist life can seem like. For many who search to observe his lead, that is vital. That is highly effective. Jesus’ affirmation of girls and their wills—our wills—doesn’t solely exist within the gospel tales of biblical occasions however, simply as certainly, comes alive in our world in the present day. Jesus is each pro-willful-women and prepared to kill the enjoyment. That is the Jesus I need to observe.
[1] Matt 15:28 (NIV).
[2] Glennon Doyle, Untamed (The Dial Press 2020), 120-1.
[3] John 8:7 (NIV).
[4] Luke 7:39 (NIV).
BIO: Liz Cooledge Jenkins is a author, preacher, and former faculty campus minister who lives in Burien, WA. She usually shares justice-minded biblical reflections, poems, “tremendous chill e-book evaluations,” and extra at lizcooledgejenkins.com. When not writing or studying, yow will discover her swimming, mountain climbing, trying to develop greens, and/or consuming numerous tea. You may as well discover her on FB (Liz Cooledge Jenkins, Author) and Instagram (@lizcoolj).
Classes: Feminism, Feminism and Faith, Feminism and Spirituality, Common, Girls’s Spirituality, Girls’s Voices
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