Seeking theological input

[lady_kishiria]

So I'm up to the part where I interpret the apparitions of Our Lady of Ocotlan and Our Lady of Guadalupe theologically. In other words, what do they say about God? The answer that comes to me is, "Ocotlan and Guadalupe present the feminine face of God."

Does anyone have any ideas to mix into this? I do have one problem in that I'm a radical feminist, which means I don't believe that "masculine" and "feminine" traits exist outside of societally-imposed gender roles. If it is okay to do so, a man will be as tender and nurturing as any woman towards his children or lover. Women can be powerful and dominant. Women such as Victoria and Elizabeth I give us images of female rulership.

I believe that Mary should be, like her son, a liberator. Locking her into traditional gender roles by saying she's expressing God's "feminine" attributes seems to me a way of foisting the "girly stuff" away from God. So I'm thinking of Mary as being speaker for God, expressing God's perfection and attractiveness.

Comments?

Comments

[swestrup]

I dunno. IIRC the original worship of Yahweh also included that of his wife Asherah. They were, together, seen as the masculine and feminine outward manifestations of one divine being. Later groups tried to erase Asherah and demonify her, and I think she got renamed Lilith at some point. Later gnostics tried to reintroduce the feminine aspects of God by asserting that the Holy Spirit was female, and referred to her as Sophia. Nowadays I think worshippers of Mary are doing the same thing as the Gnostics: they see that God as HE is currently worshipped today in much of the world is an incomplete deity, and in Mary they see all the things that are lacking in the current popular view of God. Its an unconcious attempt to bring balance back to a deity that has been seriously over macho for far too long now.

[taxlady.livejournal.com]

...I don't believe that "masculine" and "feminine" traits exist outside of societally-imposed gender roles. If it is okay to do so, a man will be as tender and nurturing as any woman towards his children or lover. Women can be powerful and dominant. Women such as Victoria and Elizabeth I give us images of female rulership.

I do believe that feminine and masculine traits exist. But, I don't think we have more than the vaguest clue of what they are. I think feminine and masculine traits are on a continuum and that it is only a probability whether or not you will have any particular one of them based on your gender. E.g., I got driving directions form a woman yesterday. The whole time she was giving them I was thinking, "God, I hate girlie directions."

There are studies that show that most men tend to map differently than most women. I seem to map more the way men map. But, I don't know if this is more nurture or nature. I suspect some of each. Little girls with no ovaries have no sense of direction. Give them some testosterone and they develop a sense of direction.

So, I think that there can be a feminine face to God. Society has defined feminine and masculine with so little regard for reality and with unjustified exclusivity, so it is hard to relate.