In many cultures and traditions, religion is the root and the source of morality and ethical values. It is commonly associated with divinity, spirituality, and purity. Religion provides purpose and reasoning, as well as offers ways in which we can become righteous and pure beings.
We are often introduced to religion at a very young age. Many religions share the common custom of blessing or purifying a child when they are born or a few months after. An example of this is called a “Christening” or a baptism, these terms are commonly used within Christian/Catholic faith. In most cases, it used to admit/welcome a child into the faith practiced by their families. From then on, the child becomes familiar with a divine being, who they must love and fear; they must habitually practice the folkways of being to align with their family/cultural function.
This pattern relates to the development of our childhood, this is where our social learning about our sex, gender, concepts, and gendered base habits are formed. Social Learning is a theory on we acquire information by watching and imitating the people around us. In our development stages, we are hardwired to adapt to Binary systems and heteronormative culture. In other words, a system or culture that says our sex and our gender is invariable and that we only have two genders, men and women. It also assumes that these two gendered bodies are assigned to one another and that they have a masculine and feminine role to perform. Religion, in most cases, reinforces these gender regulations and that it is sinful to go against the methodical practices.
Women are generally ridiculed of challenging these methodical practices. We have been taught to be seen and not heard, and that our bodies are meant to be kept sacred and pure until marriage. Since childhood, we’ve been trained to not belong to ourselves and that our bodies were made for public enjoyment and scrutiny. We were designed to be mothers, wives, laborers, fetishized, humiliated, frail, and dehumanized within a pious patriarchal society.
The poem “Her Kind” by Anne Sexton and the short story, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The film, The Color directed by Steven Spielberg based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel of the same name by Alice Walker, and a speech delivered by Sojourner Truth and unveils the impact of religion, patriarchy, prejudice on women, otherness, and gender. When Anne Sexton states, “I have found the warm caves in the woods, (/) filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves, (/) closets, silks, innumerable goods;(/)fixed the suppers for the worms and elves: whining, rearranging the disaligned (/) A woman like that is misunderstood”(Sexton 8-14). In these lines, Sexton highlights the societal expectation of a woman during the 1920s. Sexton describes herself complying with these standards while feeling unfulfilled. The author suggests that women are often misunderstood and are voiceless in a male-dominated society. This has led women to conform and to carry out, “feminine” and domestic gender roles projected unto them to keep the society functional.
In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, the author uses a character who is a very old man with enormous wings to show how society cast boundaries and create categories to understand the otherness. This short story shares the concept of Social Constructionism and the one drop-rule. According to “An Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies”, Social Constructionism the human interpretation and definition that is shaped by cultural and historical context. This character was frequently referred to as an Angelic messenger based on its enormous wings. When Marquez states, “The town priest comes out too, and tests the man to see whether he’s an angel. He decides he’s not, since he doesn’t understand Latin (obviously the Lord’s language). Plus, there’s the issue of the smell.” He is highlighting senselessness of categorization, the egotistical nature of human behavior. The priest rejects the old man as an angel because of his own perception of divinity. He mentions the smell of the old man to suggests anything that is transcendental must be pure and clean and must be aligned with his methodical convictions.
The short story also aligns with the way society perceives Transgender and Non-binary individuals. Our societies and institutions frequently cast members of the LGBTQ+ community as other or as a threat to the Binary concept. Similar to the main character “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” the LGBTQ+ community is here to reveal and inform our society that the implementation of labels, roles, and categories is oppressive and unnatural.
Historically shown, Black women specifically, were even deemed as chattel. Our Bodies were seen as inanimate objects, which justified the rape, the exploitation, and the vandalism that took place upon us. We are regularly, if not always, placed on the bottom of the pyramid. Malcolm X would concur he stated, “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman.” The most neglected person in America is the black woman.” from his 1962 speech in Los Angeles. Sojourner Truth would second that concept when she delivered her “Ain’t I a Women” speech at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention. This speech was a reminder that one, Black women are human beings and two, that was in fact, women. The intersectionality of being Black and a woman in American was and still is a double whammy.
The film, “The Color Purple” directed by Steven Spielberg based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel of the same name by Alice Walker, provides insight through the lens of the main character, Celie of the mistreatment of Black women. In the film, I was able to pick up on the use of symbolism through the characters. A Black woman by the name Sofia is a perfect example of this. She is an Alpha woman, and that refuses to be beaten down by Black men/men, misogyny, and racism. However, when her timid husband decides to lay his hands on her, she becomes protective and on edge and defensive with everyone. Now, it is easy to use the term, “Angry Black Woman” to describe Sofia’s character but she has the very right to be defensive and on edge in a world that is threatened by her proudness and strength. As mentioned in the film she has been fighting off men her whole life and I can only assume why she chose Harpo as her husband. He was unlike the toxic men she came across and the men shown during the film. So, when he finally decides to establish and reinforce his masculinity with an attempt to hit her, he has violated the trust within their marriage. He has also informed her by his actions that she is no longer safe in her own home.
Black women like many other women want to feel loved, respected, and protected. Very often, we see the narrative in the media about underrepresented groups “acting out” or protesting/ causing “havoc” in our society, it is up to us and the dominant group deciphers the meaning/reasoning behind it.
“These monsters ask us how we perceive the world, and how we have misrepresented what we have attempted place. They ask us to reevaluate our cultural assumptions about race, gender, sexuality, our perception of difference, our tolerance towards its expression. Then ask us why we have created them.” (Cohen 20.)
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. “Monster Culture: Seven Theses.” From Monster Theory: Reading Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996. 3-25.
McKissack, Pat, 1944-2017. Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman? New York: Scholastic, 1992
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.” North Dakota State University, translated by Gregory Rabassa, 2007, https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/CreativeWriting/323/MarquezManwithWings.htm.
The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. Copyright © 1981 by Linda Gray Sexton.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. London: Women’s Press, 1992. Print.
Stephen Spielberg, director. The Color Purple. Warner Brothers. 1985.
