Becoming Men, Staying Women
Gender Ambivalence in Christian Apocryphal Texts and Contexts
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14948932 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Blossom Stefaniw (0000-0003-1721-207X, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 341-355 |
| Publication date | 2010-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Feminist Theology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0966-7350 • E-ISSN: 1745-5189 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0966735009360432 |
| OpenAlex | W1988328164 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
The motif of women becoming men, taking on manly characteristics, or being made male appears in several Christian Apocryphal texts. This essay investigates the reasons behind this motif in terms of the cultural context without evaluating whether the attitude towards women which this particular motif might be understood to reflect demonstrates that Christian communities were more or less misogynistic than the rest of society. The ‘becoming male motif can reasonably be expected, because of its oddity relative to modern views of gender and its distinctly late-antique roots, to help to reveal the relevant social and cultural assumptions about the relationship between gender and spiritual authority which lie behind its appearance in Apocryphal texts. These assumptions in turn explain why the motif is one of ambivalence rather than equality or neutralization
Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Antique · Art · Sociology · Visual arts · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classical Antiquity Studies · Gender Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,25 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2025 (12) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |