0120_ESWTR-15/07_06_Boasdot_AP 20-09-2007 09:54 Pagina 89 Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research 15 (2007) 89-102. doi: 10.2143/ESWTR.15.0.2022770 ©2007 by Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research. All rights reserved. Sólveig Anna Bóasdóttir Pleasure and Health Feminist Theological Discourse on Sexuality, Religion and Ethics1 For at least twenty years, Western feminist theologians working in the field of sexual ethics have been wrestling with questions about human sexuality.2 Crit- ical of oppressive, androcentric perspectives in Christian sexual ethics, femi- nist scholars have argued for a comprehensive revision of Christian thought in sexuality issues. In 1994, Christian ethicist James B. Nelson and his colleague Sandra P. Longfellow observed in their book, Sexuality and the Sacred: Sources for Theological Reflection, that a new theological understanding of sexuality had emerged. This understanding, they argued, was “largely spurred by feminist theologians and by gay and lesbian theologians.”3 Recognized as the pioneer of Christian feminist liberation ethics, Beverly W.Harrison was one of the first scholars to criticize traditional Christian sex- ual ethics for being oppressive for women, denying them the moral right to control their own bodies.4 This is especially evident in terms of marriage, 1 I want to stress that I am aware of some major differences regarding issues of sexuality and reli- gion between the North American context wherefrom my main sources come and the Scandina- vian context in which I stand. In this article, however, I am not focusing on the differences but rather on the similarities, arguing that feminist theologians in a Christian-Western context have an important contribution to make to global ethics and global health. Feminist theologians in the field of sexual ethics, whether their context is Scandinavian or something else, share a global moral vision of all women’s rights to well-being and health and mutuality in sexual pleasure. 2 My use of the the word Western in this article most often refers to feminist theological work within the Judeo-Christian context. The fact that most of this work derives from US feminist theologians does not necessarily reflect their normative status, but rather indicates that over the last twenty-five years North American feminist theologians have laid a foundation in the field of sexual ethics which cannot be ignored. 3 James B. Nelson / Sandra P. Longfellow (eds), Sexuality and the Sacred. Sources for Theo- logical Reflection (Westminster/John Knox Press: Louisville 1994), xv. 4 Beverly W. Harrison, Our Right to Choose: Toward a New Ethic of Abortion (Beacon Press: Boston 1983). 89 0120_ESWTR-15/07_06_Boasdot_AP 20-09-2007 09:54 Pagina 90 Thema Theme Thème sexuality and reproduction.Harrison finds the drive for rethinking human sex- uality, as well as resources for change, mainly in discourses of social justice movements, which affirm the goodness of sexuality, respecting women’s “bodyself” and “bodyright”.5 Harrison maintains that feminist ethicists should turn to critical theory in their analyses of women’s subordination.In its criti- cal approach to what is called “social reality”, critical theory is concerned with knowing this social reality from the perspective of the oppressed.In order to change the conditions of oppressed women, Harrison argues, one must know their social and material realities.Knowledge on these issues, however, requires interpretation.6 The theoretical impact of Harrison’s work is strong in recent contributions to feminist theological sexual ethics.7 She offers an inductive theoretical approach which does not abandon the notion of women as a universally iden- tifiable and frequently oppressed group. Such a feminist theoretical model, to be sure, does not doubt whether such a category as the subject exists.8 On the contrary, it stresses that without a unified category of “woman” there can be no political possibility of the ending of women’s oppression. Women exist, as do women’s experiences of oppression. 5 I build this claim on my knowledge of Harrison’s writings in theological sexual ethics over twenty-five years. 6 Carol Robb (ed.), Making the Connections: Essays in Feminist Social Ethics (Harper & Row: San Francisco 1985) 7 See e.g. Christine Gudorf, Body, Sex and Pleasure: Reconstructing Christian Sexual Ethics (The Pilgrim Press: Cleveland 1994); Marie F. Fortune, Love Does No Harm: Sexual Ethics for the Rest of Us (Continuum: New York 1995); Marvin M. Ellison, Erotic Justice: A Lib- erating Ethic of Sexuality (Westminster/John Knox Press: Louisville 1996); Sólveig Anna Bóasdóttir, Violence, Power, and Justice: A Feminist Contribution to Christian Sexual Ethics (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Uppsala Studies in Social Ethics 20; Uppsala University: Uppsala 1998). 8 Here I am referring to the feminist theoretical debates of the late 1980s and the 1990s concern- ing postmodernism, deconstruction, identity and difference. See e.g. Luce Irigaray, Ethique de la Différence Sexuelle (Editions de Minuit: Paris 1984); Judith Butler, Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France (Columbia University Press: New York 1987); Rebecca S. Chopp, “Feminism’s Theological Pragmatics: A Social Naturalism of Women’s Experience”, in: The Journal of Religion 67, 239-256; Sharon Welch, “Sporting Power”, in: C.W Maggie Kim / Susan M. St.Ville / Susan M. Simonaitis (eds), Transfigurations: Theology and The French Feminists (Fortress Press: Minneapolis: 1993); Mary McClintock Fulkerson, Changing the Subject. Women’s Discourses and Feminist Theology (Fortress Press: Minneapolis 1994); Susan J. Hekman, Moral voices, Moral selves: Carol Gilligan and Femi- nist Moral Theory (The Pennsylvania State University Press: Pennsylvania 1995). 90 0120_ESWTR-15/07_06_Boasdot_AP 20-09-2007 09:54 Pagina 91 Sólveig Anna Bóasdóttir Pleasure and Health. Feminist Theological Discourse on Sexuality, Religion and Ethics Harrison’s theoretical legacy then, which, in my view, is apparent in recent feminist theologians’ sexual ethics, implies at least two things: one on a the- oretical level, another on a practical level.Firstly, global ethical systems and universals, applied to sexual ethics, can exist.This point does not mean that feminist ethicists have to give up their powerful critique of particularistic eth- ical theories masquerading as ethical universalism.On the contrary, while doing so, they can continue to support a genuine, rather than a false, universalism in ethics, which includes everyone, both women and men, in moral and social life.9 Secondly, feminist politics is possible and it is imperative to develop it.10 This means that concrete legal and political solutions concerning women’s oppressive conditions can and ought to be fought for.One powerful instru- ment to use is the notion of universal human rights.Many feminist scholars use human rights approaches to address oppressive features of institutions and tra- ditions within which women’s agency may be limited.11 The conceptual frame- work of human rights, I am convinced, can and should be developed more by feminist theologians working in the field of sexual ethics.This, I would argue, includes us feminist theologians in a Scandinavian context.As an Icelandic feminist, working in the field of theological sexual ethics, I want to emphasize the global thinking in Western feminist theological ethics that stresses that major structural injustices tend to override local boundaries.A feminist goal has always been to advance the well-being of women across diverse cultures and traditions.Awareness of local and contextual experiences and knowledges does not necessarily mean that one should turn away from global thinking. In this article I focus on some crucial issues in recent analyses of sexuality, religion and ethics put forward in the field of Western feminist theological sexual ethics. However, much will be left out in the interest of space. In the first section, I discuss the recurrent feminist view that sexuality is socially and 9 A good example can be found in feminist bioethics, see e.g. Rosemarie Tong / Anne Donchin / Susan Dodds (eds), Linking Visions: Feminist Bioethics, Human Rights, and the Developing World (Rowman & Littlefield: Oxford 2004). 10 Over more than ten years feminist scholars and activists have been extending the human rights discourse. Especially important in this regard are the two conferences: the United Nations Con- ference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in 1993, and the Fourth World Women’s Confer- ence in Beijing in 1995. At these conferences, feminists urged that human rights must be recon- ceptualized in crucial ways if they were to address the multiple and serious ways in which the rights of women were violated because they are women. 11 The work of feminist ethicist Susan Moller Okin, Is Multiculturalism Bad For Women (Prince- ton University Press: Princeton 1999), is particulalry important in this area. 91 0120_ESWTR-15/07_06_Boasdot_AP 20-09-2007 09:54 Pagina 92 Thema Theme Thème culturally constructed.Then, I illustrate how feminist theologians in the field of sexual ethics have been working to reconstruct the concepts of justice, sexual pleasure and well-being, challenging the patriarchal legacy of West- ern Christian culture.Finally, I consider grounds for the inclusion of a human rights framework within feminist theological sexual ethics, reflect- ing on how feminist theologians can strengthen their work