This series discusses how Christianity often categorizes women as either the Virgin, the Mother, or the Whore, with sexuality being the deciding factor in how they’re viewed. It looks at the contrast between “pious” women and those labeled as “disobedient,” tying it all back to the idea that God controls man, and man controls woman. Through collages that showcase these restrictive categories, I hope to show how these rigid tropes limit women and start a conversation about why sexuality plays such a big role in defining their worth.
Healing The Virgin and The Whore – Presentation by Adelyne Jareo
I wanted to include both my art walkthrough and my presentation as published works, and here is my slideshow in downloadable format! A chaotic exploration of how to heal from the boxes we have been born into and how they shape us. I hope you enjoy!
Healing The Virgin and The Whore by Adelyne Jareo
“Mother, Daughter, Holy Slut.” For my first collage, I wanted to illustrate the Virgin vs. Whore Complex itself. The complex represents a categorization of women into two binary categories: Virgins and Whores. Virgins are sweet, reserved, and nurturing; while whores represent almost anyone outside of that description. It is important to note that “Virgins” don’t […]
The Dark Side of Bollywood
To untrained eyes, it’s easy to get caught up in the glamour and glitz of Bollywood movies, but what lies under the copious amounts of colorful silks and catchy dance numbers are harmful societal expectations for women that date back thousands of years to the creation of Hinduism. To understand how Hinduism influences the Bollywood […]
I FORGIVE YOU FATHER FOR YOU HAVE SINNED ME – Maggie Syrett
Introduction to the piece: Growing up Irish Catholic, I was taught from a very young age that if I do wrong, I must ask for God’s forgiveness so that when I die I can go to heaven. As I grew up and realized more of the realities of the world, it seemed crazy to me […]
Modern Deviation from Traditional Marriage
In the dawn of major social change regarding lifestyle ideals, gender roles, and normalizing secular beliefs, marriage is slowly gaining a different reputation than it had centuries, or even mere decades ago. Many people today have begun to overlook the religious origins of marriage and its historical context. In the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam), […]
Christianity’s Effect on Queer Youth Identity
For many, the Christian Evangelical church is a place of love, hope, and healing but for others, it is a place of hurt, judgment, and feelings of inferiority. Growing up in any religious household can be a trying, and often traumatizing experience. For anyone, the pressure to conform to and follow religious rules and codes […]
The Hows and Whys of Egypt’s FGM and its Increased Medicalization
By Julia Schiavoni Throughout the course of history, cultural practices have ebbed and flowed alongside regional societal norms. In more recent decades, the promotion of women’s rights has increasingly become a global issue, however, not all countries have prioritized it to the same extent, specifically in regard to FGM. FGM, which stands for Female Genital […]
Purity Culture v.s. Hook-Up Culture and its Effects on Women in the United States
Attached below is my presentation on the complexities of purity culture, specifically in the Evangelical church, and how this culture influences hook-up culture in the United States (specifically in relation to women). Both of these cultures are incredibly harmful to women. While they perpetuate very different standards for women in the U.S. they are both […]
Contraception in Islam
Religious views on contraception vary from being completely prohibited to being allowed under certain circumstances. While Judaism displays more tolerance for contraceptive methods when the health of the pregnant woman is threatened, traditional Catholic views are much more stringent because procreation is viewed as the one and only goal of marital sex. Therefore, it follows […]