Jane Stitt
Carleton College
This week, we traveled to Mexico City and learned about some of the positive--and even religious--aspects of sex and bodies. We heard from a range of people about this subject, from a group of young Catholic reproductive rights activists, to two feminist liberation theologians, to an excerpt from The Color Purple that illustrates some of our speakers' key ideas about sexuality.
In the excerpt from The Color Purple
[1], Celie and her lover Shug discuss God and what they must do to make God happy. Celie says that to please God, humans must lead pious lives--"go to church, sing in the choir, feed the preacher and all like that.¨ But Shug says that God loves it most when humans enjoy themselves and appreciate the world God made. In particular, Shug suggests that God wants humans to enjoy their bodies and having sex:
Shug: Oh, God love all them feelings. That's some of the best stuff God did. And when you know God loves 'em you enjoys 'em a lot more. You can just relax, go with everything that's going, and praise God by liking what you like.
Celie: God don't think it dirty?
Shug: Naw. God made it. Listen, God love everything you love....[and is] wanting to share a good thing.
Alendi and Ashlee, two CGE students, act out the conversation between Shug and Celie.
God created bodies, sex, and sexuality, Shug suggests, and wants humans to enjoy these things. Many of the speakers we met this week felt the same way. For example, feminist liberation theologian Rebecca Montemayor[2] explained that feminist theology strongly affirms human's physical bodies. Just like Shug in The Color Purple, these theologians "see the body as something positive, as something to be enjoyed, not as a source of guilt and shame"[3].
And not only is bodily pleasure a positive thing, some of our speakers suggested, but when society mistakenly represents sexuality as a shameful, sinful subject that should not be discussed, it puts humans in great danger.
One political activist group called Catolicas por el Derecho a Decidir (Catholics for the Right to Decide) also just called Catolicas, has discovered that young people in Mexico are extremely mis-educated about sex and condoms and are therefore at risk of HIV/AIDS. "[Young Mexicans'] ideas about sex are filled with myth and tradition," Catolicas explained, "and the majority of young Mexicans do not use condoms. Thus, 93% of youth with HIV/AIDS in Mexico are between 15-24 years old, mostly through sex"[4].
CGE Crossing Borders students enjoyed spending time with youth from ¨Jóvenes Católic@s por el Derecho a Decidir¨ in Mexico City
To combat Mexican society's harmful idea that sex is a sinful activity,
Catolicas launched a campaign "to reclaim from the Bible a new idea about sexuality as something pleasurable, which we should...enjoy in freedom, and responsibly"
[5]. Drawing on the Biblical book Song of Solomon,
Catolicas distributed hundreds of posters that say, "Pleasure is not a sin. Risking you and your lover's life is. Protect yourself. Use a condom
"[6].Sex and sexuality were created by God for humans to enjoy, these speakers suggest, and we should enjoy our bodies, understanding that God wants us to use them in joyful--and responsible--ways.
[1] Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. NY: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1982. Excerpt, pp. 175-179[2] Rev. Rebecca Montemayor López. Feminist biblical scholar & the 1st woman to be ordained in a Mexican Baptist church in March 2000. Talk about Latin American Feminist Liberation Theology & Feminist Interpretation of the Bible; Mexico City, Oct. 29, 2009. [3] Ibid
[4] Talk by Young Catholics for the Right to Decide: Minerva (“Mine”) Santamaria Hernandez, Juanita Mercado Alcantara, Flor Alegria Mar, and Jose del Carmen Ramos Samudio; representatives of Jóvenes Católic@s por el Derecho a Decidir (JCDD) Young Catholics for the Right to Decide; Mexico City, Oct. 28, 2009.
[5]Ibid
[6] Ibid