Lesbian Rites by Ramona Faith Oswald

Author:Ramona Faith Oswald [Oswald, Ramona Faith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, LGBTQ+ Studies, Gay Studies, Sociology, General, Women's Studies
ISBN: 9781317992349
Google: pW-4AwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-06-03T05:56:43+00:00

Her comments suggest that the exclusion of sex and alcohol was a kind of ritualistic performance through which the group attempted to repudiate stigma. By associating sex and alcohol with heterosexuality, and then defining them as profane and off-limits, the couple attempted to signify the shower and holy union as sacred celebrations of spiritually transcendent love.

On one hand, these ritualistic separations of the sacred from the profane sought to challenge stigmas against gay and lesbian people as hypersexual and threatening to traditional morality. On the other hand, they created symbolic boundaries that distanced ritual participants from those who engaged in drinking or premarital sex. Through the exclusion of these so-called profane elements, the couple intended to signify their shower (and later the holy union ceremony) as different from-and in turn more respectful and authentic than-analogous heterosexual rites such as bachelor and bachelorette parties. However, it might be also said that the couple distanced themselves from supposedly deviant LGBT people who rejected traditional morals around sex and/or drinking. To the extent that these rituals reinscribed symbolic boundaries concerning what kinds of people-heterosexual and non-heterosexual-are to be considered virtuous and allowed full membership, their potential to create a truly inclusive communitas was undermined.

Another way the couple sought to show that sacredness characterized their relationship and to reinforce traditional Christian morality as the path to sacredness was through their veneration of Biblical texts in the holy union ceremony. The couple chose two readings: Song of Songs 4 and 1 Corinthians 13, both of which emphasized the spiritual transcendence of love and the “appropriate” expression of sex in marriage. Because of space limitations, I will focus on Song of Songs 4 as an allegory of the lesbian relationship being celebrated and sanctified by God’s blessing.

Song of Songs features a dialogue between a simple Jewish woman and her lover, King Solomon. It is a highly intimate expression of their feelings for each other and longing to be together, a dialogue that places sex in its “proper, God-given perspective” (Life Application Study Bible, 1991, p. 1152). It paints their love as ecstatic-Solomon focuses on his lover’s beauty and purity and his strong feelings of admiration for her. Using eloquent imagery Solomon tells her:

You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride/you have stolen my heart/ with one glance of your eyes,/with one jewel of your necklace. (4:9)

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