{"id":1650,"date":"2018-09-18T21:46:28","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T01:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/?p=1650"},"modified":"2018-09-18T21:46:28","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T01:46:28","slug":"feminism-through-we-need-a-god-who-bleeds-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/?p=1650","title":{"rendered":"Feminism through \u201cWe Need a God Who Bleeds Now\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a Women\u2019s Studies major, I\u2019ve been trained to conduct readings with a feminist lens in mind. Ntozake calls for a God who \u201cbleeds\u201d in her piece, \u201cWe Need a God Who Bleeds Now.\u201d This was my favorite piece from her collection of poems entitled <em>A Daughters Geography<\/em> because it not only challenged traditional, male-oriented ideas about religion, but it pushed back against the historically negative perceptions surrounding menstruation. It suggests that bleeding is a sign of strength rather than weakness. In times past, menstruation was seen as shameful, in some cultures a reason to be sent away from the community, and on an everyday basis, a cause of anxiety and discomfort. Our contemporary climate is not entirely void of this conception, but it has since improved. However, Ntozake\u2019s evocation of menstruation in her piece \u201cWe Need a God Who Bleeds Now\u201d suggests that \u201cthat time of the month\u201d should not be something shameful, but rather something to be idealized. She writes, \u201cI am\/ not wounded I am bleeding to life.\u201d This line resonated with me because it opposes the idea that menstruation is a sign of \u201cdying\u201d within the body but rather, that it is an indication of fertility and femininity\u2014not something that would be hated but rather an characteristic that we should want a God to emanate.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, to state that society <em>needs<\/em> a female God means that in this particular moment, there is nothing more crucial that to have a female leader. To specifically necessitate a female God rightfully challenges the dominant religious God, a Protestant and Christian religion deeply entrenched in hegemonic, masculine ideologies. I would also go so far as to say that this God is not strictly religious, but rather a governing figure over the world that we require. The message that this piece sends to readers is both powerful and brave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a Women\u2019s Studies major, I\u2019ve been trained to conduct readings with a feminist lens in mind. Ntozake calls for a God who \u201cbleeds\u201d in her piece, \u201cWe Need a God Who Bleeds Now.\u201d This was my favorite piece from her collection of poems entitled A Daughters Geography because it not only challenged traditional, male-oriented [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,57],"tags":[430,429,431],"class_list":["post-1650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogpost-1","category-student-blogpost","tag-feminism","tag-ntozake","tag-weneedagodwhobleedsnow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1651,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650\/revisions\/1651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}