Chaoskampf

Excerpt: The road to Camp On High was a two-lane highway that snaked uneasily up the side of Cedar Mountain. Quinn sat in the back of the van, next to a window that looked out into empty space. Somehow, the other kids were sleeping through this, three neat rows of lolling heads, ear buds dangling. Earlier in the ride, sturdy evergreens had covered the mountainside, jutting upward and waiting to catch the van that would, any second-Quinn was convinced-careen over the edge. But by now the trees had grown fragile and sparse, exposing gashes of red-orange rock and promising nothing

Phallus/Phallocentrism

Excerpt: In psychoanalytic theory, the phallus serves as the supreme symbol of masculine power and, concurrently, of feminine lack. “Phallocentrism” is a term used primarily by feminist theorists to denote the pervasive privileging of the masculine within the current system of signification

Wittig, Monique

Excerpt: Monique Wittig was a novelist, theorist, and feminist activist, known primarily for her fictional works and theorization of feminism from a materialist, lesbian perspective. Wittig was a central figure in the feminist movement in France, and her writings on heterosexuality and the oppression of women have greatly influenced feminist thought and queer theory

Maria Redux: Incarnational Readings of Sacred History (Chapter 7 of Building a New World)

Noah and the Ark. Jonah and the Big Fish. Mary\u27s yes to the Angel. Jesus\u27s yes in the Garden of Gethsemane. Pilot\u27s no and his wife\u27s please, don\u27t. Lot\u27s wife and her last, homeward look. To whom do these sto- ries belong? And how should we read them, each from our particular corner of incarnate humanity? Here is what my corner looks like: I am a woman; I am a feminist; l am a literary critic; I am a product of Westernized Christianity. I write and read from the space where these words overlap, but what does that mean when it comes to Scripture, to the stories that my tradition holds sacred? Should I be exempted from rereading, rewriting, re-spinning these stories because they are sacred? Or, is it because of their sacredness that I must continue rereading and retelling them

The Totality (Chapter in Into the Deep: An Unlikely Catholic Conversion)

Excerpt: For over a decade, the maleness of the priesthood kept me away from the Catholic Church. By the time I was a junior in college, my feminism was in full swing, and the ordination of women had become my litmus test for whether or not I could be part of a particular church or denomination