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Grounding Theology in Quotidian Experiences of Complex Gender: a Feminist Approach

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Grounding Theology in Quotidian Experiences of Complex Gender: a Feminist Approach GROUNDING THEOLOGY IN QUOTIDIAN EXPERIENCES OF COMPLEX GENDER: A FEMINIST APPROACH By JENNIE BARNSLEY A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Theology and Religion School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham February 2013 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis argues that theorising about the phantasmatic nature of binary gender, by commentators such as Judith Butler, provides fruitful openings for the formation of new metaphorical models for Divine-human relationship. I am concerned with what it means, at the level of each specific human life, to be imago Dei, particularly as this relates to genders that are ambiguous, fluid or otherwise complex. Expanding the feminist theological rubric of ‗experience‘ to include the individual and the quotidian, I apply the qualitative research method of grounded theory to data gathered from transgendered people, to develop a methodology of silent waiting: Grounded Theology. I analyse the experiences of each of three narrators as imago Dei, and generate three metaphors with which to discuss the nature of both genderedness and the Divine: Thinness, or numinous insubstantiality; Proteanism, or ceaseless mutability; and Opacity, or transcendent unknowability. I contend that a renunciation of attachment to binary gender is necessary for the establishment of justice for those rendered unintelligible by binary norms. I conclude that theologies that draw metaphorical models, whether androcentric or gynocentric, from binary gender alone are not wholly adequate either as descriptions of human gendered experiences or as satisfactory signposts to the Divine. The thesis is dedicated to Marguerite Elizabeth Barnsley. Thanks for everything. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Profound thanks are due to all those who have helped with the process of wrangling this thesis into coherence: the eleven patient, thoughtful and generous people who gave up their time to be interviewed; my equally patient, thoughtful, and generous supervisors, Pam Lunn and Ben Pink Dandelion; my mom, Marguerite Elizabeth Barnsley; my many friends, in particular Sharon Jones, Claire Penketh, Jenni Woodward, Peter Wright, Angela Galley and Anne Slater; friends, colleagues and fellow students at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre; my much-valued community at Othona Burton Bradstock; Mari Hughes-Edwards and Elke Weissmann and the Gender and Sexuality Research Group (GenSex) at Edge Hill University; and finally, and always, my Best Beloved, Roy Bayfield. CONTENTS FOREWORD: SPECIALIST TERMINOLOGY DISCUSSED Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 Epicene Pronouns ............................................................................................................ 1 Epicene Pronoun Use Defined ................................................................................ 1 Epicene Pronouns for This Thesis .......................................................................... 4 The Effects of Epicene Pronoun Use ...................................................................... 5 Epicene Pronoun Use as Thought Experiment ...................................................... 6 GOD/DE-Language .......................................................................................................... 7 The term ‗GOD/DE‘ Explained ............................................................................... 7 Pronouns and GOD/DE ........................................................................................... 8 Other Theological Terminology ..................................................................................... 9 The World ................................................................................................................ 9 Dominology ........................................................................................................... 10 Thea/ologies ........................................................................................................... 10 ‗Sibs‘ and ‗We‘ ........................................................................................................ 11 Gender Terminology ..................................................................................................... 11 Transgender ........................................................................................................... 11 Genderqueer .......................................................................................................... 14 Trans/genderqueer ................................................................................................. 15 Cisgender/Cissexual ............................................................................................... 15 My Choices ............................................................................................................ 16 CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION: THEOLOGISING AROUND THE COMPLEXITIES OF GENDER Introduction ................................................................................................................... 19 Personal Gender Background ....................................................................................... 21 Constructivist Critique of Binary Gender .................................................................... 27 Monique Wittig ..................................................................................................... 27 Judith Butler .......................................................................................................... 28 Scientific and Medical Analyses ........................................................................... 33 Trans and Genderqueer Analyses ......................................................................... 35 Multiplying Gender Expressions Beyond the Binary .................................................. 38 Gender Schemas .................................................................................................... 38 A New Gender Schema ......................................................................................... 40 Gender Aspects: Looking Like a Gender .............................................................. 41 Gender Aspects: Feeling Like a Gender ............................................................... 42 Gender Aspects: Performing Like a Gender ........................................................ 43 Gender Aspects: Judged as a Gender .................................................................... 44 Male and Female .................................................................................................... 45 Metagender ............................................................................................................ 45 Contesting Metagenders ........................................................................................ 46 Purpose of the New Gender Schema .................................................................... 48 Renouncing Binary Gender .......................................................................................... 49 The Possibility of Gender Renunciation .............................................................. 49 Against Gender Renunciation .............................................................................. 51 The Category ‗Women‘ as Experiential ................................................................ 52 Expanding the Boundaries of Imago Dei ...................................................................... 54 Binary Gender as Idolatry ..................................................................................... 54 Thea/ologies and Women ..................................................................................... 56 Thea/ologies and Renunciation .................................................................................... 57 Thea/ological Critique of Renunciation ............................................................... 57 Sarah Coakley‘s Work on Renunciation .............................................................. 59 Other Feminist Voices for Renunciation ............................................................. 61 Renunciation and Decreation ....................................................................................... 64 Simone Weil and Renunciation ............................................................................ 64 Weil: Biographical Details .................................................................................... 65 Decreation Defined ............................................................................................... 67 Decreation as Ethical Pursuit ................................................................................ 72 Feminisms and Decreation ...................................................................................
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