Theology of the Body
When it comes to human embodiment, some appear to see the body as determinative and closed by intrinsic limits, while others see it as creative and open to possibilities.
Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
January 17, 2011
Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
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5 comments:
Says the genderqueer: THANK YOU!
Much of the so-called theology of the body I've read looks a lot lot like scriptural or magisterial fundamentalism. It reads a singular meaning or function into bodies, something that any observer of bodies quickly realizes is untenable.
Yr welcome, JCF.
Christopher, my sentiments exactly. It is a kind of narrow "literal" reading of text and nature: as if there could only be one meaning; when in fact the multiple readings, meanings, and possibilities are so plainly evident -- if only from the fact that disagreement exists!
Not sure what Theology of the Body you're responding to. If it's the appeal to function -- "Men and Women are made to fit together" -- it doesn't bear much thought. The clitoris notoriously is badly placed for the woman's pleasure in intercourse; whereas the male has a major sexual organ just inside the anus. The anus isn't made for sex? Do you reserve the penis for either sex or urination? Same-sex relations aren't natural? Zoologists have noted that most giraffes are queer (at least, most of the time). Some brands of "look for justifications for what you want to believe" are too obviously illogical. (Prooftexting gone wild.)
Murdoch, I was thinking explicitly of John Paul II's work of that name, though it is only one instance of a general tendency to idealize and idolize, even while misreading and misrepresening, the body.
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