Bodies of Christ: Women, Sexual Pleasure, and (What Looks Like) Feminism in Evangelical Christianity

• In Event: 237 - Section on Body and Embodiment Paper Session. Power, Pleasure, and Sexuality in Embodied Relations

Abstract

In recent decades, both mainstream and evangelical culture have popularized the topic of women’s sexual pleasure—vibrators, for example, are sold in chain pharmacies like Walgreens and are also discussed in most contemporary best-selling evangelical sex advice books. Drawing on data from these books and from users of Christian sexuality websites, I analyze how evangelicals navigate sex within seemingly incompatible terrains: “sexually saturated” secular culture and conservative evangelical theology. I contend that evangelical women draw from feminist ideas about sexual entitlement to sexualize their own bodies, while at the same time limiting how women may interpret this pleasure. Women’s stories suggest that women’s bodies and the pleasure they experience are deeply connected to others—God and their husbands—and that they must balance their own needs with selfless acts that prioritize their marital relationships and family. This maintains gender imbalances between men and women and restricts women’s sexual expressions.

Author

• Kelsy Burke, St. Norbert College