Isaiah 20-25

The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)

Isaiah 20 - No mention of any women.

21:2-3 - "A stern vision is told to me; the betrayer betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam, lay siege, O Media; all the sighing she has caused I bring to an end. Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor."
21:9 - "Then he responded, 'Fallen, fallen in Babylon; and all the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground."

Isaiah 22 - No mention of any women.

23:4 - "Be shamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken, the fortress of the seas, saying, 'I have neither labored nor given birth, I have neither reared young men nor brought up young women.'"
23:7 - "Is this your exultant city whose origin is from days of old, whose feet carried her to settle far away?"
23:12 - "He said: You will exult no longer, O oppressed virgin daughter Sidon; rise, cross over to Cyprus - even there you will have no rest."
23:15-18 - "From that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the lifetime of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song about the prostitute:

Take a harp, go about the city, you forgotten prostitute! Make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered.

At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her trade, and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. Her merchandise and her wages will be dedicated to the Lord; her profits will not be stored of hoarded, but her merchandise will supply abundant food and fine clothing for those who live in the presence of the Lord."

24:2 - "And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with the master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor."

Isaiah 25 - No mention of any women.

My Comments

More violence against cities that are considered female. Are they female because they are being conquered and destroyed? I would bet yes.

If you are female you should feel shame for not bearing any children at all. Even if you are a city.

And I don't think I'm quite getting the part about Tyre. Is this one instance where being a prostitute is considered a good thing? It's never been considered a good thing so far, so why does it suddenly seem to be put into a good light? Is prostitution only good when you're doing it for the Lord, but how does that make it any different? Does God really not care what you do if you just happen to dedicate your life to him and give all of your profits and business to those who serve him? And why is a city's normal trade and business considered prostitution, anyway? Is a woman/female city conducting business considered prostitution no matter what that business may be? Or is she a prostitute because there is, of course, no other business a woman could actually conduct?

I just... I don't know here. There is just so much here. Women are inherently weak and made to suffer great pain and violence, whether by men or by natural causes like child birth. Women are nothing without children and should feel great shame if they live their life without producing any. Prostitution is the only business a woman could possibly conduct and the only way to be praised for prostitution is to do it for God and give up all your earnings. If a woman goes into prostitution with the goal of keeping herself alive with what little money she may get from her business then she is a bad prostitute because only women who give all of themselves will be praised.

I'm just amazed that even the cities cannot escape this horrible sexism.

I found this blog this other day, My Teen Mania Experience, and it's really shocking stuff. I know this is the more extreme fundamentalism type thing, but my heart breaks seeing how out of hand religion can get and how damaging it is to people. A lot of these stories are based around this Christian camp that is set up like Navy Seals hell week. The participants ("interns") are basically beaten, sleep deprived, tortured and ridiculed throughout the entire experience, and they claim to do this for God and in the name of God. Really, it makes me sick.

One of the videos in particular stuck out to me. Here a man is being humiliated by having to yell out that he is not a man. Apparently making men dress up in dresses and act like women is something that happens often at places like ESOAL. Listen for the part at the end where he explains why he is not a man.



Really made me think of these passages here. Women are weak. Women are conquered. Women are made victims.

To be a man is to be none of those things. To be a woman is so bad that just saying you are a woman or having to dress like one is considered humiliating and degrading.

I highly recommend reading through some of the back posts of that blog, if you can stomach it. Just a warning it is pretty intense stuff, and some of the videos are hard to watch.

Friday: Isaiah 25-30

Just as an FYI, I now have a Tumblr mostly because I was super bored at work and figured why not, it would give me something to do. Pretty much just random posts of interesting stuff I find online, not all of it feminist/atheist related but all of it awesome. :)