"I was at Bryn Mawr – Katharine Hepburn went to Bryn Mawr – and I am in this room with the elite of American society and I did one of the stories, Mary and Martha. And one of the women said, ‘I had a little trouble with Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet’, and I said, How wonderfully ironic that you would have problems with that, because Mary dared to sit with the other male students, to listen to the rabbi. This was a huge social embarrassment – the other (male) students were going, ‘There’s a woman sitting here with us, could you tell her to go away?’ – and Martha came to the rescue and said, ‘Could you just tell her to come back in the kitchen and help me like a woman should?’. And Jesus didn’t just say, ‘Oh, let her go this one time’; he said, ‘She’s chosen the better part.’ And Jesus’ treatment of women, especially in listening to the rabbi, could well be one of the foundations of Bryn Mawr coming into existence. It was Christians who said women need to be educated and treated equally, because Jesus in the first century Middle Eastern culture treated women as equals. Radical, radical in that culture!”
Bruce Kuhn, Broadway actor/storyteller/teacher speaking to Rachael Kohn on ABC Radio National's 'The Spirit of Things', October 9, 2011. So you might say, Jesus was a pioneer of The Girl Effect (education = empowered women with choices) and, Kuhn, like him, is passing the batten on to women (men who are champions of women should be applauded).
After watching Kuhn perform (his current act is The Gospel of Luke), one female drama student (Nina Thiel) took it upon herself to bring the women of the Bible to life in the same theatrical way. In the hands of some men with self-interest in power and domination, the Bible for women often become corrupted; but you leave the women and girls out of the picture, and you miss half of the Gospel of Christ.
After watching Kuhn perform (his current act is The Gospel of Luke), one female drama student (Nina Thiel) took it upon herself to bring the women of the Bible to life in the same theatrical way. In the hands of some men with self-interest in power and domination, the Bible for women often become corrupted; but you leave the women and girls out of the picture, and you miss half of the Gospel of Christ.
Girl With a Satchel
2 comments:
I love this!! Love it to bits! It is so true. A lot of people criticise the church for being backward, in particular, the catholic church is criticised because it is not a place for feminism, but the church recognised the efforts and talents of women in education and the social sphere, it decreed the writings of St Hilary, from 307 AD or something, as remarkable and she, together with saints like Catherine of Siena, as DOCTORS of the church. Moreover, it had no qualms of handing a big job over to St Catherine of restoring the papacy to Rome after a brief and tumultous period in France, back when women were seen as complete inferiors. St Catherine managed to do something that not many men could!
But only as long as the women toed the party line. Anything that was outside the direction & vision of the male catholic hierarchy right down to the length & style of their habits was suppressed.
Post a Comment