Sunday afternoon roundup

Imitation is a harmless form of non-bigotry?

Essentially Lindsey advocated a respect not just for Israel but also for the Jewish people, who were, after all, chosen of God. For many old-guard Protestants, who grew up hearing Jews described as “Christ-killers,” this shift was disorienting. It’s hard to overstate the traditional distrust, separatism and anti-Semitism that marked American fundamentalism until then.

We'll take it?

Protestant fundamentalists believe that the Jews are (at least until Jesus’ return) God’s chosen people. If Christ himself was Jewish, and followed Jewish tradition, the thinking goes, why shouldn’t Christians consider the ways their savior actually lived and practice the rituals he practiced? Many evangelicals have traded contempt of the past for a respectful, almost fetishistic view of Jews and, now, Jewish tradition. What this means in practice is extremely complicated. There’s a big difference between building bridges across cultures to foster understanding and building bridges so you can run across and ransack the other side.

I agree with the author (Maud Newton) and with Rabbi Rebecca Einstein Schorr:

“Belief in Jesus as a deity or savior is incompatible with Judaism. It takes a special kind of presumption to declare oneself a more authentic version of a religion other than one’s own.”

And,

The real problem is that, fundamentally, this fetishistic view of Judaism and the role of Israel in the advent of the end times sees Jews as a people to be herded together so that another group can achieve its eternal reward. To me that’s a troubling catechism. It’s ultimately not so far from the “Christ-killers” narrative of yore, just with an Israel-friendly varnish. 

 More on fat and feminism:

While I’ve been blogging about pernicious beauty standards, about the need for realistic images of women in media, about loving your body, I’ve been hating mine. I’ve been hurting myself. I’ve been starving.

The reasons it started are manifold and aren’t really relevant right this second. And in case you’re wondering, I’m doing much better now. The reason I want to ask your forgiveness is because feminist leaders are not supposed to fall down this hole. Feminist leaders, especially those who are former Presidents of the Princeton Eating Concerns Advisors for god’s sake, are supposed to know better. After all, we know all about the Beauty Myth and we know how photoshop works and we know that it is a radical act to resist the homogenized impossible unattainable commercial vision of what beauty is. We know all this.

And yet--I can tell you that knowing that you should accept yourself isn't the same as actually accepting yourself. I hated everything about wanting to lose weight, particularly the conflict and self-absorption. So what I'll add to the above is, it's all about accepting your feelings. That means, "even though I know that these are bullshit societal standards, and I can't believe I'm falling prey to them, I fully and completely accept the fact that I want to shed the fat." And of course, also accept your body as it is. But I also want to emphasize this: you are not going to hate yourself into a better body. I never starved because, let's face it, I love food too much and that love overcame any preferences about my body size, but I can still tell you that starvation and overexertion will get you nowhere. Love yourself, love your body, and love your food.

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OMFG, what is wrong with these people? This is the female equivalent of dudes shooting their packages off. Another thing we ladies can leave to the men as far as I'm concerned--as much as I love the acceptance--is naming that which doesn't need a personalized name. You know who could actually use more awareness with regard to lady parts? Whoever neglected to notice them here.