Patriarchy and Politics
Friends, I’ve been harping on the political for many months in this column, and I’m afraid I need to return to it. Some reasons why? The GOP appointed Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House. He is a troglodyte of the nth degree. I recently saw a report that shows Trump leading Biden in polls in all the key battleground states. We can only hope and pray that he is convicted in one of his felony trials before the election. Otherwise, we may yet face another Trump presidency, which will have a cascading evil effect in this country. Even if he is convicted, the GOP will respond out of spite in many bad ways. And last week, Nevada governor Joe Lombardo showed his true colors, going up against the NCAA to ban trans athletes from women’s athletics.
Christians might argue that God doesn’t give us more than we can handle. As a Jew, I do not buy into that theology. In modern Jewish theology, we don’t believe that God directly intervenes in the world, and hasn’t since the second century BCE (BC). My personal theology is that God presents us with opportunities, and we need to recognize them. It’s kind of like walking down a hallway with several closed doors. That’s what God has given you. But you have to be wise and bold, and make a decision about which door to walk through, and be ready to accept the rewards or consequences of whatever happens when you transgress that threshold. I’ve crossed many thresholds in my life, and there have been bumps in the road, but I’ve never once regretted doing so.
On November 14, just a few days from when I write this, I will be defending my doctoral dissertation, “Saving Trans Lives, a Holy Obligation.” The whole point of this dissertation is to show how religious orthodoxy, Jewish and Christian, have corrupted biblical and other religious texts to defend their oppression of trans people.
The reality is that according to the Hebrew Bible and the rabbinic commentaries that follow it, sex and gender have ALWAYS been non-binary. Any one who is intellectually honest can accept that. The problem is that people cherry pick biblical texts and rabbinic texts to prove their points. My work seeks to undo that and show how for almost 2,000 years, rabbinic Judaism has recognized non-binary sex/gender. From the original Adam being androgynous to the Talmud having more than six sex/gender identities, rabbinic Judaism has always known this.
The difficulty is getting modern orthodoxy to see and accept it. And even in orthodox Judaism, they don’t accept it. They hold fast to the binary, even though their own texts disprove it. Why? Because the patriarchy depends on it. Without patriarchy entire institutions would fall apart.
For over half a decade, feminism has been working hard to disestablish the patriarchy. This is a common goal in the trans community, the BIPOC community, the disability community, etc. The patriarchy’s need to maintain the status quo causes horrid social stagnation. The sooner we can disestablish it, the better the world will be.
So, back to the political. California appointed a Black, queer woman to replace Dianne Feinstein when she passed. We need more politicians like that in Washington. We need to push the DNC to remove Biden from the ticket and get a strong alternative candidate who can actually win, and have a cascading effect to disestablish the GOP and their corrupt patriarchy. Because, if the DNC stays the course, they are ensuring GOP wins in far too many campaigns, and that can only hurt the trans community and every other marginalized community in our country.So, GET OUT THE VOTE!
Peace, Rona
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