From Spiritual Descriptions to Legal Prescriptions: Religious Imagery of Woman as "Fetal Container" in the Law
In law, as elsewhere, the role of symbolism is of more than symbolic importance. Religious symbols of women help to reinforce prevailing gender ideologies about the proper place of men and women and women's appropriate roles and status in society. In American society, religious symbols of women...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
1993
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| In: |
Journal of law and religion
Year: 1993, Volume: 10, Issue: 1, Pages: 73-93 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In law, as elsewhere, the role of symbolism is of more than symbolic importance. Religious symbols of women help to reinforce prevailing gender ideologies about the proper place of men and women and women's appropriate roles and status in society. In American society, religious symbols of women and the feminine have functioned to shape legal views of women. These views essentialize women's role and status to that of reproductive vessels, or what I will here refer to as "fetal containers." This view of women as fetal containers has hindered the ability of women to secure either equal rights or equitable treatment under law.Despite the general secularization of the law over the last century, the religiously-grounded image of woman as fetal container has persisted in legal doctrine, especially in laws concerning employment discrimination, abortion, and, most recently, fetal protection policies and surrogate motherhood contracts. Because such imagery of women has become a "naturalized" part of our secular cultural symbolism, its religious derivations are not always evident. Yet, law reform efforts need to address not only the more obvious forms of sex and gender discrimination, but also the pervasive influence of such religious symbols and their influence on the status of women. |
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| ISSN: | 2163-3088 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of law and religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/1051169 |