User:Kaede Sonin/sandbox

= Gender and Religion =

Cultural effects on religious practice
Religious worship may vary by individual due to differing cultural experiences of gender.

Greco-Roman Paganism
Both men and women who practiced paganism in ancient civilizations such as Rome and Greece worshiped male and female deities, but goddesses played a much larger role in women's lives. Roman and Greek goddesses' domains often aligned with culturally specific gender expectations at the time which served to perpetrate them in many cases. One such expectation of women was to marry at a relatively young age. The quadrennial Bear Festival, known as Arkteia, was held on the outskirts of Athens in honor of Artemis and involved girls ages seven to fourteen. The girls would compete in public athletic events as Greek men sat as onlookers, observing potential wives.

Demeter, the goddess of fertility, was a prominent deity due to women's ability to relate to her. The myth surrounding Demeter involves her losing her daughter, Persephone, against her will to Hades and the grief she experiences after the event. Mother-daughter relationships were very important to ancient Greeks and the severance of that relationship by fathers and husbands created much strain in young women who were forced to leave their mothers and submit to their husbands and the patriarchal society. Demeter was honored through female-exclusive ceremonies in various rituals due to her general disdain for the behaviors of men. Aphrodite, too, was honored by similar means. To women during this time period, the thought of Aphrodite's attitude toward males was comforting as she refused to answer to any mortal man, exhibiting the control that mortal women desired to have in their own lives.

Wikipedia Pages I'm Considering
Gender and Religion

Gender Inequality in Japan

Sexual Minorities in Japan

Citation
Many Pagan religions place an emphasis on female divine energy which is manifested as The Goddess. The consensus is unclear on what is considered female and male.

Kraemer, Christine Hoff. “Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Paganism.” Religion Compass, vol. 6, no. 8, Aug. 2012, pp. 390–401. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1749-8171.2012.00367.x.

Annotated Bibliography for work on Gender and Religion
 Anczyk, Adam, and Joanna Malita-Król. “Women of Power: The Image of the Witch and Feminist Movements in Poland.” Pomegranate, vol. 19, no. 2, July 2017, pp. 205–232. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1558/pome.33300.

Anczyk, A., & Malita-Król, J. (2017). Women of Power: The Image of the Witch and Feminist Movements in Poland. Pomegranate, 19(2), 205–232. https://doi-org.echo.louisville.edu/10.1558/pome.33300 Anczyk is a researcher and lecturer in cultural and religious studies and the psychology of religion and spirituality. Malita-Król has written several articles surrounding the topic of Witchcraft and Wicca in affiliation with Jagiellonian University. In this article, the image of the witch and how it relates to social movements and politics in Poland are discussed. Through examples from Margaret A. Murray, Z. Buda-pest, and Starhawk and connections between feminism, spirituality, and Wicca are displayed. The article then goes on to discuss Poland and the image of the witch in art and media as well as the political-discourse surrounding it. Recent movements initiated by witches or surrounding the image of the witch are provided as examples of the prominence of the witch imagery even today.  Hedenborg-White, Manon, and Inga Bårdsen Tollefsen. “Introduction: Gender in Contemporary Paganism and Esotericism.” Pomegranate, vol. 15, no. 1/2, Jan. 2013, pp. 7–11. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1558/pome.v15i1-2.7.

Hedenborg-White, M., & Tollefsen, I. B. (2013). Introduction: Gender in Contemporary Paganism and Esotericism. Pomegranate, 15(1/2), 7–11. https://doi-org.echo.louisville.edu/10.1558/pome.v15i1-2.7 Hedenborg-White is a faculty member at Södertörn University and obtained a PhD in the History of Religions from Uppsala University. Inga Tollefsen is a PhD candidate in Religious Studies at the University of Tromso in Norway. This article discusses the long-standing balancing roles of masculinity and femininity as it translates to modern Paganism. In particular, the changes happening to ritual structure and theology are talked about. By mentioning the debate of gender and sexuality in contemporary Paganism, Hedenborg-White and Tollefsen are able to shed light on LGBTQ+ issues in Paganism as well.  Kraemer, Christine Hoff. “Conference Report: PantheaCon 2011.” Pomegranate, vol. 12, no. 2, Nov. 2010, pp. 276–280. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1558/pome.v12i2.276.

Kraemer, C. H. (2010). Conference Report: PantheaCon 2011. Pomegranate, 12(2), 276–280. https://doi-org.echo.louisville.edu/10.1558/pome.v12i2.276 Christine Kraemer is a scholar of religious studies with particular focus in contemporary Paganism, sexuality, and theology. She works as an instructor in Cherry Hill Seminary's Theology and Religious History department. This report includes an incident which occurred at this particular conference in which trans women were excluded for not being biological females from a Dianic ritual. Even though Paganism as a whole is a relatively inclusive religion, incidences like this show that queer people are not always accepted or validated through Paganism. 

Christine Kraemer is a scholar of religious studies with particular focus in contemporary Paganism, sexuality, and theology. She works as an instructor in Cherry Hill Seminary's Theology and Religious History department. This piece includes incidences of both discrimination and acceptance of various gender expressions and sexualities which serves to display the complexity of gender definitions in modern Pagan religions. 

Kraemer, R. S. (1992). Her Share of the Blessings : Women's Religions among Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Greco-Roman World. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. Ross Shepard is a professor in the Religious Studies department at Brown University. She has conducted research there on the intricacies of women's religion in ancient Greek and Roman civilization. In the section of the book I studied, Kraemer discusses ancient women in Rome and Greece and their relationship with specific gods and goddesses in their daily lives. Through her analysis of a large variety of scholarly sources, she collects many different thoughts about women during this time period to give the reader a broad view of what it might have been like to be a religious women during the height of Roman-Greco Paganism. Lepage, M. (2013). A Lokian Family: Queer and Pagan Agency in Montreal. Pomegranate, 15(1/2), 79–101. https://doi-org.echo.louisville.edu/10.1558/pome.v15i1-2.79 Martin Lepage is affiliated with Université du Québec à Montréal and has done two other research papers on the topic of how sexual identity relates to Paganism and Neo-Paganism. This article discusses the modern Pagan scene in Montreal and the extra effort required by queer and transgender individuals to be included within it. Lepage also analyzes how this sometimes makes Pagan transpeople withdraw from the Pagan community as well as how they conform rituals and the like to align with their identities. Oboler, Regina Smith. “Negotiating Gender Essentialism in Contemporary Paganism.” Pomegranate, vol. 12, no. 2, Nov. 2010, pp. 159–184. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1558/pome.v12i2.159.

Oboler, R. S. (2010). Negotiating Gender Essentialism in Contemporary Paganism. Pomegranate, 12(2), 159–184. https://doi-org.echo.louisville.edu/10.1558/pome.v12i2.159 Regina Oboler is a cultural anthropologist who has written other titles in association with Ursinus College. In this piece, a main point made by Oboler is "Contemporary Paganism... has the potential to impact the gender ideology of the larger culture." This is because modern Pagan religions are beginning to veer away from the gender-essentialist views that previously dictated their practice. Sources for information come from "ethnographic fieldwork and interviewing, survey questionnaires, and core Pagan texts." Oboler points out the importance to Pagans of having a balance between masculinity and femininity in the Divine and the gender-essentialism propogated in early texts. She then discusses how contemporary Pagan religions are moving away from this rhetoric thanks to modern practitioners changing the dialogue to incorporate the move away from gender-essentialism into their practice. Zwissler, Laurel. “Witches’ Tears: Spiritual Feminism, Epistemology, and Witch Hunt Horror Stories.” Pomegranate, vol. 18, no. 2, July 2016, pp. 176–204. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1558/pome.v18i2.29886.

Zwissler, L. (2016). Witches’ Tears: Spiritual Feminism, Epistemology, and Witch Hunt Horror Stories. Pomegranate, 18(2), 176–204. https://doi-org.echo.louisville.edu/10.1558/pome.v18i2.29886 Laurel Zwissler is an assistant professor of Religion at Central Michigan University. This article discusses how Witches/Wiccans have been viewed in a historical context. Included are stories of brutal and sometimes sexual torture of witches whose religion, the author claims, could be traced back before Paganism to "Neolithic, Goddess-centered matriarchy." Accounts from spiritual feminists, Mary Daly, Zsuzsanna Budapest, Starhawk, and Matilda Joslyn Gage which retell such stories of witch hunts and torture reveal the hardship of Pagan-practicing women throughout history.