TY - CHAP
T1 - Gendering the Fronts and Fronts against Gender: Feminism and Political Theology in Post-Maidan Ukraine
AU - Zorgdrager, H.E.
PY - 2020/11/5
Y1 - 2020/11/5
N2 - Based on interviews with Ukrainian students and dialogue with Russian and Ukrainian scholars, this essay aims to investigate the roles of Ukrainian women in contemporary Ukrainian society considering the current “war on gender.” Whereas men and women participated in near equal numbers in the Maidan movement, the recent militarism now seems to sharpen gender dichotomies. Amid the military war with Russia, however, Ukraine also faces a renewed war on gender, led by churches and right-wing organizations. This consists of a well-structured campaign to misrepresent the concept of gender, creating an enemy image of “gender-ideology.” Both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate build upon an enemy image in their political theology based on a divisive ideology of victory and defeat, whereas the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church shows a more ambivalent perspective. It applies to all these churches, however, that in times of military and ideological war, family and nation are represented as patri-archal and sacrosanct institutions, leading to paternalistic, prolife, and homophobic tendencies. In conclusion, this essay seeks to contribute to an Orthodox (and profoundly ecumenical) political theology of reconciliation that goes beyond nationalist, anti-Western, and imperial schemes, proposing several building blocks for a feminist political theology in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
AB - Based on interviews with Ukrainian students and dialogue with Russian and Ukrainian scholars, this essay aims to investigate the roles of Ukrainian women in contemporary Ukrainian society considering the current “war on gender.” Whereas men and women participated in near equal numbers in the Maidan movement, the recent militarism now seems to sharpen gender dichotomies. Amid the military war with Russia, however, Ukraine also faces a renewed war on gender, led by churches and right-wing organizations. This consists of a well-structured campaign to misrepresent the concept of gender, creating an enemy image of “gender-ideology.” Both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate build upon an enemy image in their political theology based on a divisive ideology of victory and defeat, whereas the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church shows a more ambivalent perspective. It applies to all these churches, however, that in times of military and ideological war, family and nation are represented as patri-archal and sacrosanct institutions, leading to paternalistic, prolife, and homophobic tendencies. In conclusion, this essay seeks to contribute to an Orthodox (and profoundly ecumenical) political theology of reconciliation that goes beyond nationalist, anti-Western, and imperial schemes, proposing several building blocks for a feminist political theology in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
U2 - 10.1163/9789004440746_014
DO - 10.1163/9789004440746_014
M3 - Book chapter
SN - 978-90-04-43174-4
T3 - Theology and Mission in World Christianity
SP - 228
EP - 257
BT - Theology and the Political: Theo-political Reflections on Contemporary Politics in Ecumenical Conversation
A2 - Bodrov, Alexei
A2 - Garrett, Stephen M.
PB - Brill Academic Publishers
ER -