Creation

Humankind first makes its entrance into the story of the Bible in the creation account. The creation story of Genesis is actually two creation stories, the first told in Genesis 1-2:4, and the second told in Genesis 2:5-25. In the first story (see sidebar, Genesis 1:26-27), humankind is created after the earth and its non-human inhabitants. Male and female are created simultaneously. In the second creation account (see sidebar, Genesis 2:18-19; 20b-23), man is created first, and woman is created from his rib. Genesis 2 has been interpreted as a subordination of women to men, in disregard to Genesis 1. The reasons given for this subordination are that man was created first, woman was created from man's side, woman was created to be man's "helper," and woman was named by man (Brown, 75).

Each of these reasons is inadequate for justifying the subordination of women. First, woman is not inferior to man because she was created after man; rather, man was incomplete without woman (Brown, 87). God was not yet satisfied with creation while the man was alone (Genesis 2:18). Furthermore, no creature yet created was suitable to complete the man (Genesis 2:20). Only after the creation of woman was the man complete: "Therefore a man...clings to his wife and they become one flesh" (Gensis 2:24; NRSV). Indeed, the Hebrew word translated as "helper" means counterpart or complement (Brown, 88). The verbal form of the Hebrew word is used in Genesis 49:25, where God is said to "help" humankind. So, the woman being created as a "helper" to the man does not make her inferior, unless God is inferior to humanity because God "helps" humanity. Nor is woman inferior to man because the story recounts her being formed from the man. The main point of both creation accounts is that woman and man were formed by God (Brown, 90). Paul writes in II Corinthians (see sidebar) that woman is formed from man, but man comes from woman. Thus neither is complete without the other. The naming of woman further indicates the unity of man and woman, rather than the superiority of man over woman. His name was the Hebrew 'ish; hers is the Hebrew 'isha (Brown, 91). In both Genesis creation accounts, man and woman are created by God and are unified by their common humanity. Neither is subordinate to the other.

Temptation, Sin, and The Fall

After the creation of the earth and humanity, the state of perfection does not last for long. Genesis 3 recounts the first sin (see sidebar). This passage, like Genesis 2, has been used to support the subordination of women in part because the woman is seen as being more easily swayed by temptation than the man (Brown, 101). The story might suggest that man in turn is swayed in order to please his wife; hence the story becomes sexual (Brown, 105). Genesis does not explicitly state that this is the case. However, the Genesis story came to be viewed as a story of "sexual corruption, human moral impotence, and a 'sexualized interpretation of sin'" (Tessier, 59). Both the man and the woman sinned. Both are equally guilty, and both are punished (Genesis 3:16-19).

Despite the equal culpability that God places on both the man and the woman, the woman takes more of the blame in Christian thought. Since the woman is seen as being more temptable, she is seen as being ruled by the sensual body, whereas man is ruled by the rational mind (Brown, 102). The first sin is a sin of the flesh over the spirit (Tessier, 60). The man and the woman desired the knowledge of good and evil, and followed that desire despite the spiritual consequences (death). Although both the man and the woman ate the fruit, thus attaining knowledge, the woman, and consequently, all women, is the one to whom the desire is attributed and is seen as being ruled by desires of the flesh. Since women are controlled by the flesh, they need redemption of their bodies (Manlowe, 70).

Redemption of the Body

The need for redemption of the so-called sinful female body arises from misogyny in religion (Manlowe, 59). Christian misogyny is charecterized by the values of suffering, self-sacrifice, repentance, sexual purity, redemption, and obedience to authority. These are called "feminine" values (Manlowe, 63). These values often are distorted, so that a victimization of the believer occurs, an effect that can be extremely harmful if the believer has been victimized in other ways (for example, by rape). This is especially true for women, since Christian values are acted out in relation to a male God and a male Savior (Malowe, 60). Since, in most churches, the clergypeople are male, women come to relate those values to earthly men, not just a male deity. Such a patriarchal basis of Christianity leads to objectification of the female (Manlowe, 61). Women thus come to be inferior to men within Christianity.

Inernalization of distorted Christian values has led to perfection being sought not in spiritual terms but in cultural terms (Manlowe, 74). Eating disorders often arise in women within this religious context and are fueled by cultural expectations as complex ways of self-redemption. As an act of redemption from her "sinful" female body, a woman with an eating disorder will seek to destroy the female characteristics of her body, including her round hips, stomach, and breasts (Manlowe, 74). She will achieve this through ultimate thinness, in the cases of anorexia and bulimia, or ultimate fatness, in the case of compulsive overeating. Eating disorders in particular and disordered eating in general thus aquire religious connotations as methods of redemption.