g. will understand this - all others, I AM AN ASSHOLE!
2006-02-04

Jews being oppressed again... for Y chromosome!

Apparently Jewish boys are being oppressed by the tide of estrogen that is swamping Reform synagogues. Of course, if you read the reasons that the one actual boy interviewed gives in the article, they have nothing to do with gender. The big problems seem to be that 1. he�s 16 and wants to do stuff other than sit around in a stuffy temple (a problem that�s pretty universal no matter your gender or age), 2. he grew up in an interfaith home, which didn�t really identify as Jewish and 3. when he goes to temple, he doesn�t understand what the hell is going on! I had the same problem when I was growing up, even though I don�t have a Y chromosome. For those of you who are (English-speaking) Christians, imagine going to a service where the minister or priest switches into Chinese halfway through, everybody stands up, and then he goes back into English and everybody sits down. I remember going to church with a friend and enjoying it purely because I could understand what the minister was saying (although I didn�t necessarily agree with what he said).

And yeah, the Orthodox movement of Judaism doesn�t have any problems with boys leaving. Could it be because women are treated as chattel? There�s nothing more appealing to me as a woman than knowing that my own mother was spat at when she divorced her first husband (because she got sick of him punching her in the face). Why? Because traditionally, she was the guilty party! Oh, but now Reform men have to suffer because they have to sing along to music a whole octave higher than their voices! Waah!

Sorry, but this angers me to the boiling point. God forbid (G-d forbid, I guess) that women would even threaten to take over any religious sect! (Going by the ratio of male to female rabbis, it�s not even a real threat.) I guess I wouldn�t have a problem if this wasn�t such a petty bandaid � the problem must be gender, not a totally incomprehensible religion that tries to appeal not based on such concepts as eternal life or heavenly rewards but on �People kept trying to kill us, so let�s talk about this for ages! Also, fundraising drives!� It�s awful to say but the idea of getting killed for speaking gibberish and not eating pork is not something I want to stake my soul on, much less give up a Friday night for. (And yes, I know that Judaism has a rich tradition and is a lot more than what I�m making it out to be, but you wouldn�t know it from a lot of Jewish education.)