Tough Cookies in Herstory – Mary Magdalene
The idea of Jesus being married intrigued me at first sight, but then I dag deeper and discovered this really cool woman of Christianity : Mary Magdalene.
Doing the research on this subject I ran into the hypothesis that there were actually two or even three Mary in the stories about Jesus. One who was the sister of Lazarus, the other one that was the redeemed prostitute and another one that was a rich woman giving up her belongings to follow Him.
But what most drove the anti-sexual sexualizing of Mary Magdalene was the male need to dominate women. In the Catholic Church, as elsewhere, that need is still being met.
If we take a logical path then who else but a rich and independent woman like Mary Magdalene could follow Jesus and and to smart question His teachings, so smart and educated that she made the other disciples who were coming from poor and uneducated families be jealous and take it so far: the need to disempower the figure of Mary Magdalene so that the succeeding sisters in the church would not compete with men power meshed with the impulse to discredit women generally. The most efficient way to do this was by reducing women to their sexuality.
Note that
Jesus had a secret dynastic marriage with Mary of Bethany and that she was a daughter of the tribe of Benjamin, whose ancestral heritage was the land surrounding the Holy City of David, the city Jerusalem (source 1)
Thus Mary of Magdala, who began as a powerful woman at Jesus’ side, “became,” in Haskins’ summary, “the redeemed whore and Christianity’s model of repentance, a manageable, controllable figure, and effective weapon and instrument of propaganda against her own sex.” There were reasons of narrative form for which this happened. There was a harnessing of sexual restlessness to this image. There was the humane appeal of a story that emphasized the possibility of forgiveness and redemption. But what most drove the anti-sexual sexualizing of Mary Magdalene was the male need to dominate women. In the Catholic Church, as elsewhere, that need is still being met.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/magdalene.html#ixzz2jZhcqwtI
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With all this, guess who brought Christianity in Europe? Yes it was Mary Magdalene.
In Old French legend, the exiled “Magdal-eder,” the refugee Mary who seeks asylum on the southern coast of France, is Mary of Bethany, the Magdalen. The early French legend records that Mary “Magdalen,” traveling with Martha and Lazarus of Bethany, landed in a boat on the coast of Provence in France.
Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Movies/The-Da-Vinci-Code/Mary-Magdalenes-Secret.aspx
Let us celebrate this Tough Cookie in Herstory with this song :
Stay Tough, Cookies!
Ana Vlad
Anca Raluca
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