ABSTRACT
The continued assertion of an eternal and natural form of (cis)sexed and gendered bodies relies heavily on biblical imagery and motifs. The characters of the patriarchal biblical narratives of Genesis, in particular, serve as representative figures within whom we can and do recognise ourselves. They endure in contemporary discourses of gender and sex, reproduced as quintessential examples of maleness and masculinity, femaleness and femininity; they are timeless and enduring, functioning as eternal figurations of fixed and binary gender presentation. The perception of a naturalised and normalised bi-gender framework has been identified by Michel Foucault (1979) and Judith Butler (1991, 1999, 2004) as socially constructed and contingent with a discernible history and which is inseparable from the concurrent social and political discourses. These discourses integrate the biblical models of sex and gender as a source of authority, while also reinforcing that same authority by alluding to the innate naturalness of sex and gender it presents. Using a cispicious reading strategy, that is, one which challenges assumptions of cisgender characters and the normality of cis-experiences, the complex interrelationships between the Bible, gender and sex are foregrounded and challenged. Informed by the work of Jack Halberstam (1998, 2005, 2011) and trans-activist Julia Serano (2016), this work playfully uses inconsistencies and ruptures in the narrative to liberate one of the ‘patriarchs’, Jacob (Genesis 25–50), from fixed gender conformity, and reconfigure models of biblical embodiment. In so doing, I argue that we can challenge the assumptions embedded in biblical representations of gender in contemporary discourse.
