Men Only, Bibles Wrapped in Black String. 8 x 10 x 13.
@Jamietubbsart | I have a complicated relationship with this book. I memorized large sections of this book, sang about it, and studied its history, context, language, and various interpretations and applications. I’ve had tears fall on its familiar thin pages. I’ve received it as a treasured gift many times in my life, with various versions and covers, and fresh margins to fill with my notes and underlines. I’ve had friends who dreamed about it, felt magic through it, and saw visions of it. I based my life on it and tried to live its principles and then I didn’t touch it for years. Seeing it now, I wonder- how did I do all this for a book that was only for men? The men only who wrote it, claiming to be the voice of a god, the men only who are allowed to interpret and teach it, the men who make a living off of it, let alone the men it is entirely about. Like a divorce from a love who hurt me, I miss its voice but can’t stand to look at it. ” I do not permit a woman to teach,” it says in its pages,” for Adam was created first and then Eve. It was not Adam who was deceived but Eve. And, “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.” It’s not as though I didn’t know these things were there, but I excused them. Now with the distance I see their effect on me and I can no longer overlook its role in the sustaining Patriarchy