Week 5: Virgin of Guadalupe

 

Being raised in a Catholic family, I consider myself to be pretty familiar with the Virgin of Guadalupe. I was born into a white family, and am more familiar with this figure as being referred to as the Virgin Mary. From what I know about this figure, what was taught to me and what I learned in Bible studies growing up, the Virgin of Guadalupe or the Virgin Mary represented motherhood, purity, innocence, a blessing. 

As a child, I found the story of the Virgin Mary magical. I must add that I was much more in tune with my Christianity and my relationship with God at the time. Presently speaking, this relationship doesn't really exist anymore. No hard feelings, I have just learned more about myself and holding a strong faith isn't in the cards for me right now. But anyways, as a young girl, I found the story of the Virgin Mary as one that is very special, and I always studied it every Christmas, given that December 25th is often recognized as Jesus' birthday. 

I want to note that I respect everybody's personal religious choices and beliefs. Personally, I just had some qualms with many ideas in the Christian/Catholic religion, with the story of the Virgin Mary being one of them. It is no secret that Catholicism features sexist ideologies and one of the most significant examples of sexism is the shame/conservative legislation on birth control and abortion. As I educated myself more on feminist topics, I found the story of the Virgin Mary problematic as Mary is praised and made so famous being the mother of Jesus; she was able to become a mother and get pregnant without even having sex! She is so pure and so innocent that she birthed the son of Christ while simultaneously remaining a virgin. 

With the risk of being called a radical feminist, I think the story of the Virgin Mary promotes the patriarchy and sexist beliefs in the Catholic religion, a religion that I followed for about fifteen years. On a lighter note, I think the Virgin of Guadalupe statues are beautiful historical pieces of artwork that I will always admire.