Our Places, Ourselves

Chelsea Garbell wrote for the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance blog on how "Our Bodies, Ourselves" helped remove the shame once attached to the word "vagina" and other references to women's bodies.

A revolutionary text in a revolutionary time when the idea of a woman naming and claiming her body and her sexuality for herself was just beginning to flourish, Our Bodies, Ourselves openly diagrammed reproductive organs and discussed abortion (which was illegal), virginity, orgasms, sexuality, birth control, childbirth, consent, and more.

A lesser known part of this story is that nine of those twelve women were Jewish. In the forty-eight years since the book was conceptualized and embedded in a movement, the world and women’s place in it has changed dramatically; deep, lasting, institutional change takes the work of generations. Those nine women have modern emanations in the many women slowly, but powerfully, coming to own their bodies and sexuality within the Modern Orthodox community. In the past five years or so, a myriad of Jewish initiatives have emerged that are dedicated to claiming space for women’s bodies, ranging from JOFA’s The Joy of Text Podcast, to women and sexuality book clubs, to mikvah salons, to the innovative work of ImmerseNYC, and beyond.

In all things, Judaism returns to text. To claim vagina in a modern religious sense, the Modern Orthodox community needs a custom text of Our Bodies, Ourselves to address the specific and intimate issues that the bodies of observant Jewish women encounter. Many communities over the years have done the same – most recently, Jewish and Palestinian-Arab Israeli women crowd-funded to create their own editions, customized to Israeli society and containing new Hebrew and Arabic terms for experiences like menopause. In Bereshit, where words created worlds, Adam named creation. A custom text is needed to name the mekomot, the hidden and powerful places, the struggles and the politics, the laws and customs that govern the lives of Jewish women. Bringing new language and new ideas to the fore will continue this biblical tradition, and carry the work of those nine Jewish activists forward.