Good Sex and Religion: A Feminist Overview

Feminist scholars have made enormous strides in deconstructing patriarchal religious understandings of sexuality and developing new, more inclusive, female-friendly alternatives. We approach this work from a Catholic feminist starting point, cognizant of the multiple layers of race, class, nationality, sexual identity, and physical ability that have implications for our perspective. In this article, we present an overview of the field by focusing on both the processes and the results of an international, interdisciplinary, interreligious study that we co-edited (with Radhika Balakrishnan), Good Sex: Feminist Perspectives From the World's Religions (Jung, Hunt, & Balakrishnan, 2001). We mention some of the most salient findings and hint at strategies necessary to move these insights toward acceptance in a variety of cultures across the global. Feminism is a term we use often and with enthusiasm. Hence, its early clarification is important. By feminism we mean the theory and practice of overcoming sexism as part of a larger effort to dismantle interstructured forms of domination including racism, colonialism, economic injustice, and discrimination on the basis of sexual identity, nationality, or physical ability. Biblical scholar Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza has aptly called these interlocking forms of oppression "kyriarchy," or structures of lordship using the Greek word for lord as the basis of her neologism (Fiorenza, 1992). We come from a religious tradition (one among many) that is structured in this hierarchical, top-down way; therefore, for us, the notion of kyriarchy has extra resonance.