neither male nor female – mormon masculinity
Please take the following article with a tiny grain of salt, as I am ‘experimenting with truth’ rather than stating what is true or not true. The aim of the article is to challenge given ideas of gender and gender roles in the context of LDS theology, especially by defining what masculinity is and how it relates to war and violence.
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“there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus”
Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians 3:28
“Whatever is morally right for a man to do, it is morally right for a woman to do. I recognize no rights but human rights. I know nothing of men’s rights and women’s rights; for in Christ Jesus, there is neither male nor female.”
Angeline Grimke
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sexuality just is – gender is not.
When pondering on the issue of masculinity in the LDS faith and on its relation to violence and war, I spent the weekend with friends trying to understand the issue of gender that, LDS church leaders have suggested through recent statements, must be an integral part of our eternal identity. I was touched a few weeks ago by a presentation made by a gay mormon at a Sunstone Symposium on the issue of him being gay and that he believed strongly that “he was gay in the pre-existence, gay at birth and that he would remain gay in the resurrection”, with the underlying assumption that when gender is decided upon in the pre-existence as the LDS church teaches, our sexuality must be too. For me, there was something refreshing about that thought, something affirming.
Nonetheless, I have come to believe that the issue of gender is not as straight-forward, while I think on the other hand that the issue of sexuality is. Sexuality just is. Think about it: LDS church leaders say that gender is defined, or decided upon, or that it has always been part of who you are prior to birth and that homosexuality is a human construct and that you should not call yourself gay because there is no such thing as being gay. There is only sexual attraction (be it same gender or not). Then I would argue that church leaders should not be as categorical on the issue of gender either.
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some of us have a penis
Biologically, it is true that some of us have a penis and some of us have a vagina – God must have decided it that way – which in turn makes the human race able to reproduce. On the other hand the names we give to those with a vagina and to those with a penis is a man-made social construct to help us organize ourselves. We are socialized throughout our whole lives, day in and day out, to conform to societal expectations for us to act on what is “male” and to not act on what is “female” (if you are male), so much that gender is taken as granted based on your genitalia. I know that there is very little scriptural evidence for dismissing our male and female gender identities, except for the scripture above found in Galatians.
This particular scripture presupposes in fact a “gender transformation” from male or female into a person without gender or a person that is free from gender expectations after having embraced Christ in baptism. What I find liberating is that in Jesus we are all made one and that there is for that reason nothing that should divide us as followers of Christ. Even male and female categorizations are not helpful as we try to live as one in Jesus. This understanding would have enormous implications for the distribution of priesthood power and of other resources in the church community for example.
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Think of the scripture and of the social application of the first two categorizations used by Paul in Galatians. After a revelation given to Peter on the equal worth of human souls, the Gospel had to be preached to the Gentiles as well as to Jews. That way God taught Peter that God does not favor one above the other. In fact, as the Book of Mormon teaches: “he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile”. If all are alike unto God, shouldn’t we also see each other “through heaven’s eyes”?
In 4th Nephi, we learn that: “they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift”. As we know, slaves and masters were taught in the New Testament to treat each other as siblings in Christ and to serve each other, while the Book of Mormon is much more explicit as to the conditions of slaves in a liberated society: all were made free and all became partakers of the heavenly gift.
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to be set apart
Now, let us apply the same reasoning to gender – because the scriptures do too: if we are to treat each other as equals as we seek unity in Christ, gender is something that comes in the way of us attaining this unity – and gender roles and their accompanying division of labor are especially disruptive. As a human being, I refer to myself as a man (because I have a penis and because society says that I am), as a mormon (because I went to LDS church as a kid and because my beliefs follow a mormon logic), as a Norwegian (because I was born in Norway and because I speak Norwegian, and because my passport says that I am), as gay (because I am in love with a man – and I am also a man – because I have a penis and because society says that I am), etc. All these identities stand in the way of me finding unity with everyone else. They set me apart.
Interestingly, that is what we say about a person in the LDS church who is entrusted with a calling, the person is set apart to act in that calling: “Setting apart is an ordinance or ritual in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints whereby a person is formally chosen and blessed to carry out a specific calling or responsibility in the church [for a given period of time]. Once a person has accepted the responsibility of holding a calling in the church and has been accepted by the members of the church for that position, one or more Melchizedek priesthood holders “set apart” the person to serve in that calling” (source: wikipedia.org), until the person is “released”.
So you may say that gender is a necessary and useful categorization according to genitalia to set humans apart to function in a certain calling in society or in the community and to make sure that society is organized efficiently. These categories help us organize our lives and align ourselves with society norms and expectations. That way, as a group of people we ensure the perpetuation of our race and the safeguarding of family units, “because family roles and units represent the very fundament upon which modern society is built – God’s assembly line”. Remember, you are the last knuckle in a long chain of individuals from Adam down to our day!
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dogmatic interpretation of biological evidence
But is it correct then through the dogmatic interpretation of biological evidence (I have a penis, she does not) to define who has power and who does not, to define who works outside of the home and who does not, to define who cleans and cares for the children and who does not, to define who has the final say on economic decisions and who does not, to define who goes to war and who does not – and to affirm these power relations through additional social rituals and temple ceremonies that strengthen the individual’s sense of him or herself as a gendered human being in relation to other gendered human beings, all along while the ultimate goal is for such things to be done away in Christ?
Wouldn’t it be nice, even for just a moment, to liberate oneself from society’s expectations to us as males and females respectively? We assign genders and future gender roles to each other already before birth, as couples go to 3D ultrasound check ups at hospitals to find out, among other things, the sex of the baby – and to ascribe gender according to the sex of the baby. If he has a penis, “it’s a boy!” If he has none, he is a girl – or rather, she is a girl. In India and many countries around the world, due to the increase in use of 3D ultrasound, female fetuses are aborted before they see the light of day. Language is therefore very important in this socialization process as it helps us define what you are and what you are not, what we value and what we do not value in a modern society.
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I am a child of God
Well, personally I think God does not care what gender we are. It matters only that we are. I am a child of God and my gender does not matter to neither Him nor Her. It only matters here on earth at this current moment in time, because people want it to matter and because those with penises say that they are better and more valuable to society than those who do not have it and that many of those who do not have a penis agree. NO! Gender cannot be part of our eternal identity. The fact that my body (or spirit) has a penis does not mean that I am “a man” nor “a woman”. I just am.
I would go as far as to say that because we have genitalia, it follows logically that sexuality is part of our eternal makeup because our sex comes in all forms and shapes, and that gender is only a useful and sometimes oppressive categorization of those with different genitalia, and that the particular expression of our sexuality with a person with different genitalia may result in new human beings being born into this world with all their frailties and insecurities – but gender and the value we ascribe to it are human constructs on earth. So if gender does not matter to God (although it may matter to how we organize society), then the gender of the person I love does not matter either – and to God I am neither male nor female, straight nor gay:
I am.
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For an alternative look on gender roles and societal expectations from an LDS perspective, please read the article “a Good Reason Not to be a Feminist” at http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/?p=2693
TheFaithfulDissident 18:15 on October 12, 2009 Permalink |
Great post. Are you referring to the Sunstone speech that was featured on Mormon Stories about the “God Loveth His Children” pamphlet? I thought it was wonderful.
I think that the concept of gender is something that we’ve only scratched the surface on. I did a post about it a while back and it was interesting to hear the perspectives of some transgendered people. http://thefaithfuldissident.blogspot.com/2008/12/gender-state-of-mind.html
While listening to the Mormon Stories podcast with Claudia Bushman, I found it interesting that one theory that she personally held was that God had both male and female parts. So, coming from such an active and well-respected Mormon, I don’t think these are theories that we can automatically dismiss or declare with certainty as being untrue.