January 15, 2013
“The ‘war on women’ meets social media”
In an “On Faith” essay for the Washington Post, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite once again applies her theological and biblical insights to current events. This time she talks about the failure of the U.S.House of Representatives to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, the insensitive and cruel comments of politicians about rape during the last election season, and the recent protests over the gang rape and subsequent death of the medical student in India. Thistlethwaite draws upon Phyllis Trible’s Texts of Terror to highlight the biblical account of the rape of Tamar, which “reveals a power struggle where women’s voicelessness and powerlessness in a society makes them vulnerable to male violence.” Thistlethwaite points out that“Tamar is speechless for [the] first 11 verses of this biblical passage about her rape.” But, says Thistlethwaite, “Women, in the 21st century, will not be Tamar any more. Through social media they are finding effective ways not only to raise their voices, but also exact a political price for this moral callousness. Those who will not recognize that women’s health and safety should be priorities are shown not only to be ethically foolish, but they are shown to be more and more politically foolish.”
