Pride

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Talk Dirty to Me: An Intimate Philosophy of Sex (1994)

  The step between being casually sexually active and getting paid for sex is both quite narrow and very wide. At certain moments there is a bare whisper of difference. Yet the pay, not the sex, is the source of shame for many women, who are insulted at the offer of money, gifts, or support by a lover. “I’ll fuck you,” they reply in essence, “but don’t you dare try to pay me for it!” Taken at face value, this is rather absurd, and so there has to be more at stake, a deeper fear than insult—though the punishments meted out to women who are labeled whores are harsh and often irrevocable. Perhaps women fear that if they ever take money tied to sex, they will be seen as always available, always able to be bought. But prostitutes turn customers down all the time and may feel more in control of their relationships when they hold these purse strings. Women fear being labeled whores if the label is defined by men, because in male terms, the prostitute is outside the pale of male protection. What happens if we—if I, as a woman, and therefore a potential whore every minute of my life—see prostitution in another way, if I move through the looking-glass to the other side? “Part of my idea about getting into the business to begin with was to train men, to teach the men, get my hands on some men and teach them how we want them to be,” says Jackie Daniels. “To work with men around their sexuality, you have to go underground. And prostitution is a very clean relationship.” “My fantasy of it, before I got involved, was that there was this unlimited number of men and they would all want to see me once. And I was just amazed that men wanted to come back. I have people I’ve been seeing for years. I’ve had several boyfriends since, but I still have the same clients. It’s very much like a therapist-patient or doctor-patient relationship. You get to know the person, details about their life, but there’s the same sort of distancing. You sit all day and you listen to people’s emotional problems, and you talk to them and help them process it and do all this emotional work with people. You don’t then go have emotional problems at home. We will probably always need doctors, we will always need counselors, therapists, psychic healers, and advisers in the same way that we will always need prostitutes. These are sex experts, sexual healers.”

• From My Secret Garden (1973)

  On the other hand, deepest contentment occurs at those moments when we are fully accepting of ourselves. At such times we respect our actions, feelings, bodies, thoughts. Failure to accept any of these aspects of ourselves is synonymous with self-alienation. One of the highest states of consciousness attainable is that of the nonjudgmental observer. In such a state, freed from the distortions of needs and value judgments (“If a pickpocket sees a Holy Man he will see only his pockets”),1 he will begin to see WHAT IS, both in the world about him and within himself. Gurdjieff, the Russian philosopher-mystic, tried to teach people to develop “the Witness” within themselves. “The Witness” could detach itself and nonjudgmentally witness and thereby accept both inner and outer events. Zen Masters and Yogis try to teach a similar acceptance to their students. All of these thinkers appreciate the fact that you don’t think your thoughts, but rather that your thoughts think through you. They recognize that you are no more responsible for thinking than you are for digestion, breathing, for life itself. You may bear a certain degree of responsibility for what you do with your thoughts, but you certainly bear none for having them. My Secret Garden is a compilation of uncensored data on women’s most secret sexual thoughts. This is something that has not been done in our time. As a psychiatrist who has listened to such fantasies before, I consider it an honest accounting. It is also a useful book, for it can help other women witness and accept their fantasies and themselves. And yet I am certain that many people in our society will attack this work. They will do so by attempting to ignore it, condemn it, ban it, laugh at it, intellectually dismiss it, or psychoanalyze it. In doing so such critics will only reinforce their own and others’ self-alienation. The attacks on My Secret Garden will come from three directions. The most primitive charge will be that the women Ms. Friday interviewed are tortured or abnormal in some way and don’t represent the average woman. The second and more sophisticated attack will be the intellectual/psychoanalytic approach, which will attempt to demonstrate why certain fantasies are not “healthy.” Lastly there is the attack to be waged by the anti-Eros forces—those who regard such a frank sexual discussion as this work as either pornography or perversity. Both the nature of these lines of attack and the bankruptcy of such charges are themes I would like to explore more fully. 1. The Women Interviewed Are Not Representative2It might be argued that Ms. Friday’s respondees were not representative of the average woman; that those who would talk about their fantasies are by nature exhibitionists or sexually preoccupied; that only the most “sensationalistic” fantasies found their way into print; that the sampling leaves out women who don’t fantasize and therefore gives a misleading picture of female reveries.

• From Under the Banner of Heaven (2003)

  that the children of Ham, even the Negro race and all its peoples, should receive My holy Priesthood. . . . And have I not spoken to My servant Joseph Smith, even your head, that none of this race could or would be ordained to My holy Priesthood until the seed of Abel shall rise above the seed of Cain? . . . For Satan was the founder of this black race, for he came to Cain after God had taken away his power to procreate the children of righteousness, and showed him how he could place his seed into animals, and the seed of animals into other animals, for he did corrupt the seed of the earth in this manner, hoping to thwart the works of God. And for this reason the earth was destroyed by the flood, to destroy from the face of the earth these abominations which Cain created, for he had corrupted all flesh. . . . For Satan has infiltrated My church, and seeketh to become its head. But those who have heeded him shall shortly be exposed by their folly, for [neither] My name nor My church shall be mocked longer, for it shall shortly be cleansed and purged and tried in the fire, that all those who profess to know Me, and know Me not, will be exposed. The pamphlet further warned that God had dispatched Onias to “cleanse My house of its filthiness” and put the institutions of Mormondom back on the road to righteousness. God had revealed, I shall endow [Onias] with My Spirit, and the wicked he shall expose, and they shall not stand, and they shall gnash their teeth in anger, and their anger shall eat them up. For I am the Lord God Almighty, and My words shall not be mocked. . . . And what a great noise and commotion they shall make when they fall. . . . And My servant [Onias] who is held in derision, I shall place in him My Spirit, and he shall be as a fire that devoureth; and the words that he shall write and speak shall expose many and cause many to fall, for they repent not. By sending this pamphlet to the leaders of the LDS Church, Onias intended to give them the opportunity to make a choice: confess their errors and turn over control of the church to the Lord’s chosen prophet, the “one mighty and strong,” or face God’s wrath. To a detached observer this seems like an act of astonishing naïveté and hubris on Onias’s part, but the pamphlet’s text resonated with tremendous power for the Lafferty brothers. It had the ring of long-denied truth. They believed they had found, in Onias, a crucial ally in their struggle to restore the church of Joseph Smith to righteousness and prepare the earth for the Second Coming of Christ.

• From Naked Ambition

  - [Sarahjane] For however many faults he might have come to be associated with, Hugh Hefner was willing to take the input of a woman very seriously from the beginning in the voice and look of the magazine. Not only was she the first female photographer to shoot for Playboy, she was one of the first photographers to shoot for Playboy at all. - Hefner had a very special feeling for Bunny because she delivered and she delivered time and time again. The closest relationship he ever had to a photographer was with Bunny Yeager. [upbeat music] "Dear Bunny, I imagine you received our check for slightly over $1,000 for your September feature, Bunny's Honeys." - [Sarahjane] Her involvement with the magazine went deeper than just the centerfolds she shot. She would also bring models to their attention, who maybe their centerfolds would end up being shot on site and not by her. She was very involved in promoting the Playboy Club when it came down to Miami. Bunny Yeager really helps define the look and voice of Playboy in the early 50s and in the mid 50s. [upbeat music] As magazines like Playboy made it more culturally acceptable to take off your clothes in front of the camera, women started trying to get that notoriety, you know? Get that ability to use that as a career stepping stone. - Here were people, these housewives, with no agency, with no creative expression, who were not really allowed to go out and have a career. People were putting them in front of the camera and saying, "You are special." - It was just something exciting for them to do, it was a form of Hollywood for them. - I talked to my dad about that when I was a teenager. I berated him for looking at the Playboys, and I said, why would you look at Playboys when you have mom here? And he says, well, I read the articles. And it's like, who are you kidding? [pleasant music] ♪ You come home ♪ You come into my home ♪ And there's there's nothing more child ♪ ♪ I can say when you - When she started working for Playboy, she was making really good money. I mean, for those years, really good money. - What we think we know about Hugh Hefner is he loved women, and he wanted to own and control women. - But I must tell you, frankly, that I am being taken advantage of in this association. And that it is becoming more and more a very one-sided deal, with Playboy getting the short end of the stick. - And what we think we know about Bunny Yeager is she wanted more, and she needed more. - She told me that when she really felt that she'd made it was when she published her first book, "How to Photograph the Female Figure." That book sold close to 200,000 copies.

• From Under the Banner of Heaven (2003)

  Becoming my plural wife was her idea.” Ann, he adds, “was a lovely girl. I called her my gypsy bride.” Living according to the strictures laid down in The Peace Maker felt good to Dan—it felt right, as though this really was the way God intended men and women to live. Inspired, Dan sought out other texts about Mormonism as it was practiced in the early years of the church. It didn’t take him long to discover that polygamy wasn’t the only divine principle the modern LDS Church had abandoned in its eagerness to be accepted by American society. Dan learned that in the nineteenth century, both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young had preached about the righteousness of a sacred doctrine known as “blood atonement”: certain grievous acts committed against Mormons, as Brigham explained it, could be rectified only if the “sinners have their blood spilt upon the ground.” And Dan learned that Joseph had taught that the laws of God take precedence over the laws of men. Legal theory was a subject of particular interest to Dan. His curiosity had first been aroused when he was training to be a chiropractor in California, following a run-in he had with state and county authorities. At the time, he supported his family primarily by running a small sandwich business out of their home. Dan, Matilda, and the oldest kids would get out of bed before dawn every morning in order to make and wrap stacks of “all-natural” vegetarian sandwiches, which Dan would then sell to other chiropractic students during the lunch hour. “It was a very profitable little hustle,” Dan says proudly. “Or it was until the Board of Health closed me down for not following regulations. They claimed I needed a license, and that I wasn’t paying the required taxes.” Just before he was put out of business, Matilda had given birth to a baby boy. Money was tight. Losing their main source of income was problematic. It also proved to be a pivotal event in Dan’s passage to fundamentalism. “After they shut me down,” Dan recalls, “I didn’t know quite what to do. It didn’t seem right to me that the government would penalize me just for being ambitious and trying to support my family—that they would actually force me to go on welfare instead of simply letting me run my little business. It seemed so stupid—the worst kind of government intrusion. In The Book of Mormon, Moroni talks about how all of us have an obligation to make sure we have a good and just government, and when I read that, it really got me going. It made me realize that I needed to start getting involved in political issues. And I saw that when it comes right down to it, you can’t really separate political issues from religious issues. They’re all tied up together.” Upon completing his chiropractic training and returning to Utah, Dan went to work as a chiropractor for his father.

• From Talk Dirty to Me: An Intimate Philosophy of Sex (1994)

  [image file=image_rsrc10D.jpg] Jackie Daniels has never been arrested. “There was a shift in me, personally, where I realized I was doing sex work and that it was fun. I was making people happy, I was contributing to their lives, and I didn’t see anything wrong at all with what I was doing. I was deeply confused about why this would be illegal. Then I realized some people just have this very small mentality. ‘Well, it’s illegal.’ ‘Because I’m the mommy, that’s why!’ There’s no good reason. ‘Because I said so.’ Because God said.” The age of consent in Victorian England was twelve. One reason for the traffic in virgins was the prevalence of venereal disease. The Contagious Diseases Act of the mid-1800s set up a system whereby working-class women seen talking to soldiers on the sidewalk—or simply reported as having been seen doing so by a single citizen—could be arrested, imprisoned, subject to forced medical exams, and sentenced to hard labor for refusing to comply. If diseased, women could be kept forcibly hospitalized for up to nine months. Men were not examined or isolated even after contact with a prostitute found to have a venereal disease; they simply went to the next whore or the next town and infected another one, who would in turn be punished for “spreading” disease. This sounds like the brutal ignorance of history. But today, in England and in various parts of the United States, women thought to be prostitutes can be prohibited from talking to men on the street. Anyone who thinks the “legalization” of prostitution—that is, government regulation by ordinance—is a good idea either harbors hostility toward prostitutes or hasn’t taken a good look at Nevada, where this is the case. In the parts of Nevada where prostitution is regulated, prostitutes aren’t allowed to live in the same town where they work. They aren’t allowed to go into casinos or bars at all or be in the company of men in public—any men. They are tested weekly for venereal diseases, including AIDS, though their clients are not. A recent law requires clients to wear condoms. Condoms are, in fact, evidence of prostitution; both in England and the United States possession of a quantity of condoms is considered enough reason to arrest a woman. In England it’s been the sole evidence cited in court when a woman is found guilty.

• From Real Sex for Real Women (2008)

  [image file=image_rsrc3AB.jpg] Self-esteem and your Partner’s Sex LifeWomen aren’t the only ones who are at the mercy of poor self-esteem. Men are just as likely to suffer a lack of confidence in their own abilities, but they tend not to talk about it. All sorts of events and emotions will contribute to low self-esteem, but their power can be defused with some positive thinking and emotional boosts. A man with high self-esteem is confident in his skills as a lover and provider, which results in a healthy emotional and sexual relationship with his partner. The obstacles to his self-esteemThe main obstacles to a man attaining high self-esteem tend to be connected with his traditional, and still relevant, social role of provider. Failure to achieve his goals, being dominated by a partner, poor fertility or sexual problems, financial worries, ill health, and feeling unattractive and unfit can all lead to poor self-esteem. Losing his job or being passed over for promotion will also deeply affect his feelings of self-worth and may have a negative impact on your sex life until they are resolved. These are difficult challenges for any couple to face. Pledge your supportNot surprisingly, men experience the same deleterious effects of low self-esteem that women do—low energy, low motivation, and low sex drive. What’s more, if his self-esteem has taken a beating, it is easy to damage it further by being critical or anxious. Help him find ways to rebuild his confidence. Support him and give him ideas to resolve his work problems, if he asks. Maintaining some form of intimacy is very important during these times. Lift his confidenceIf you want to enjoy a healthy sex life, it is vital your man knows you find him attractive. Write yourself a mental note to compliment your partner every day. Tell him he is looking handsome, healthier, or more toned. Your emotional boosts will make him feel happier and consequently improve his sex drive. And if he is feeling good about himself, he is more likely to reflect the positive ego boosts back to the source—you. It is also important to compliment his sexual prowess. Many men associate manhood with being a knockout in bed, so praise him on his staying power or genital appearance. Keep your compliments specific and genuine, such as “I love how tender you are when we make love,” or “I love how you always hit the right spot.” Focus on the good thingsAccentuate the positive in your relationship and ignore the negative. In other words, thanking your partner for his compliment will remind him to do it more often. Knowing that you appreciate his effort goes a long way to making him feel good about your relationship and sex life. The more you build up this feeling of positivity, the more it becomes a reality—helping to squeeze out the negative in the process.

• From Naked Ambition

  [upbeat music] - Writing was definitely one of her passions. She, I think, published like 20 books in her lifetime. - [Announcer] From New York, "The Tonight Show," starring- - [Sarahjane] She had an incredible drive to be respected for how hard she worked and how good she was. - A photographer, Bunny Yeager. - [Anchor] We have a young lady with us who's made a reputation in this country as one of the fine photographers of gals. Would you welcome Miss Bunny Yeager? Bunny. [audience applauding] But now you photograph yourself also, don't you? - [Bunny] Oh yes, of course. Doesn't everyone? - [Anchor] Not that I know of, I mean, how do you know that you have the expression that you want? - [Bunny] Sometimes I use a mirror, I put a full length mirror right next to the camera and then I can see just what I want. Now that I'm more experienced, I don't need a mirror, I just know what I'm doing. - [Anchor] You take mostly glamour photography, don't you? I mean, would that be the correct terminology? - That's right. Facial expressions for glamour photography, amused, laughing, grinning, giggling, playful, animated, contented, tranquil, charming, seductive, sensual, surprised, serene, coy, wanting, interested, calm, provocative teasing, awe-inspiring, modest, flirty, alluring, wistful. You mean a good model can do that? - [Bunny] A good model has to do that. Anyone can smile, but how many people can do those expressions? - [Anchor] I really don't know. [audience laughing] - Bunny was always trying to look ahead and see, you know, where culture was going. [upbeat music] - [Ed] And, of course, at that time with the Supreme Court ruling about nudist films, everyone decided, I'm gonna do a nudist film. ♪ You come home People like Doris Wishman, she did, of course, "Nude on the Moon," which Bunny helped cast some of the models for that. [upbeat music] She loved being on film sets, she was an extra in many films just because she loved movies so much. - Will you take care of Mr. Norman? - Certainly, come on, Mr. Norman. - Oh boy, how are you? - And why don't you just call me Bunny? - Oh, I can. [upbeat music] - [Holly] My grandma took all of the white swimsuit photos of Ursula Andres on that set. They were used for the movie posters. - Bunny worked on a lot of movies in Florida. She helped write script, she did casting, she did production, she did acting. - Tom was still working with another model, and since we had time to spare, we paused to watch this willowy blonde in a series of calendar poses. [pleasant music] - Bunny and her husband, they saw what was happening in the film business, that a lot of people were making money. So they decided they were gonna make some films.

• From Real Sex for Real Women (2008)

  Make your surroundings sensualYour environment, especially the bedroom, should help you channel the carefree, sexy woman inside of you—but this can’t happen if you’re surrounded by dirty laundry, work documents, and baby bottles. Clear the clutter: keep office-related items such as your laptop out of the bedroom, along with any childcare paraphernalia. Alternatively, keep a lidded basket or box where you can store any non-bedroom items before you go to bed. Replace old sheets with more luxurious items in sensual colors or patterns—every time you sink into them, you will feel glamorous and relaxed. Remove any family pictures hanging on the wall—looking up at an old photo of your parents won’t put you in a sexy mood. Install a dimmer on the bedroom light, or use candles when possible. Romantic music and aromatherapy can also help your room feel more inviting and sensual. Try something newOur sexy selves often go into hiding because we are too shy or self-conscious to give our sexuality free rein. You may feel you lack the confidence to wear sexy lingerie or to initiate sex with your partner. To bring your vixen back to the surface, you have to leave your comfort zone. Challenge yourself: try a bold new move in the bedroom, such as dirty talk, fantasy role-play, or a new design on your pubic hair. Embrace—and flaunt—the fact that you are sexy. Seductiveness is in the mind, not the body. It is about feeling open, adventurous, and confident. If you don’t feel confident, fake it until you do. Sexiness is the one thing that is okay to fake—and it’s guaranteed to help you access your inner vixen. So let down your guard, put your fears aside, and break out your most daring pair of heels—then let your vixen take the lead. Turn the tablesNothing is sexier than a woman who is in charge of her sexuality. Maybe you have always played the submissive role but now want to have sex your way. You don’t have to break out the latex body suit and a whip. Flirt with him, pamper him, and tease him. Then climb on top of him, flaunt your body, and tell him he is going to get laid—lucky guy. Play the flirt A little flirty smile at your doorman or waiter is harmless, and it boosts your confidence throughout the day. And just because you have been with your partner for a couple of months, years, or more, it doesn’t mean you can’t flirt with each other—wink at him across the dinner table, send him an X-rated email, and be vocal about your pleasure in the bedroom. Caress his bottom as you pass in the hall, show him a little thigh, or a lot of cleavage. He will love the new, daring you, and your obvious attraction to him will boost his self-confidence, too.

• From Adam, Eve, and the Serpent (1988)

  But orthodox Christians of the second and third centuries, from Justin and Irenaeus through Tertullian, Clement, and the brilliant teacher Origen, stood unanimously against the gnostics in proclaiming the Christian gospel as a message of freedom—moral freedom, freedom of the will, expressed in Adam’s original freedom to choose a life free of pain and suffering. In the name of that moral freedom, Justin and Origen, among many others, chose to endure torture and death. Still others, in the name of that freedom, renounced all that the majority of their contemporaries believed made life worthwhile—home, family, wealth, and public reputation. So long as Christianity remained a persecuted movement, the majority of Christian preachers proclaimed the plain and powerful message of freedom that appealed to so many people within the Roman world—perhaps especially to those who had never experienced freedom in their everyday lives. Finally, in the name of that freedom, as the Valentinians must have noted with irony, the orthodox suppressed gnostic teaching, and rejected their subtle reflections on the scope and limits of human choice. For as the churches, scattered throughout the world, became increasingly institutionalized, their leaders attempted to strengthen them against the pressures of persecution by joining them into a common doctrine and discipline. Irenaeus boasted that each group, however vulnerable on its own, belonged to a movement that was universal, or, in the Greek term, “catholic.”80 To the bishops, nonconformists and dissidents, even when they seemed to be sincere Christians intent on striking out on their own spiritual paths, were dangerous to the movement. The bishops may have been right; as Tertullian said, gnostic Christians agreed only to disagree. While certain groups demanded celibacy of all members, others may have encouraged people to decide these matters privately. Furthermore, some gnostics ridiculed those who died as martyrs, while others advocated martyrdom; a third group, like the Valentinians, urged people to accept martyrdom only if their sole alternative was to deny their faith in Christ. Equally divisive were the gnostic Christians who revered Eve, or the divine spirit they took her to represent, and accorded to their women members respect and participation increasingly denied to women in the institutionalized churches of the second and third centuries.81 Above all, their opponents charged that these dissident Christians challenged what the majority regarded as the fundamental theme of the Christian gospel: that human beings, created by God and endowed with moral freedom, received in baptism the power to live transformed lives, the power to overcome evil and death. Let us turn next to see how some of the boldest of these orthodox Christians actually put the “angelic life” into practice.

• From Introduction to the Hebrew Bible and Deutero-Canonical Books (2018)

  Bronze coin issued under Antigonus II, last of the Hasmonean kings, showing the sevenbranched menorah from the Temple. Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Second Maccabees dwells at length on the deaths of the martyrs, those Jews who refused to violate their religion and suffered death instead. Second Maccabees 6:18-31 tells the story of an old man named Eleazar who refused to eat swine’s flesh. The people supervising the persecution urged him to pretend to eat it, but he refused on the grounds that such pretense was not worthy of a man of his age. Eleazar then chose death over dishonor as a matter of dignity. Second Maccabees tells in gruesome detail the story of a mother and seven sons. The first brother invokes Deuteronomy 32 by affirming that God will have compassion on his servants. The second is more specific: “The king of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life because we have died for his laws” (2 Macc 7:9). The faith of the brothers, then, is essentially the same as that of the “wise” in Daniel: they give up their lives in this world in the hope of exaltation after death. In 2 Maccabees, however, the resurrection has a distinctly physical character. One brother offers his hands to be cut off because he is confident that he will get them back again (7:11). The emphasis on bodily resurrection seems to be inspired by the circumstances of the story, where the bodies of the young men are subjected to torture. The words of the sixth brother shed light on another aspect of the situation. He tells the king that “we are suffering these things on our own account because of our sins against our own God” (7:18). Nonetheless, the king should not think that he will escape punishment. The theology of the brothers here follows a pattern familiar from the Hebrew Bible. Suffering is assumed to be a punishment for sin. Antiochus, like Assyria in Isaiah 10, is the rod of YHWH’s anger. But his own motivation is evil, and he will not escape punishment. Second Maccabees 8 proceeds with the story of Judas Maccabee. In this account, Judas begins by imploring God to respond to the blood of the innocent victims of the persecution. Then God’s wrath was turned to mercy. Chapter 9 reports the death of Antiochus Epiphanes. As in 1 Maccabees, the dying king realizes the mistake he made in attacking the Jews. According to 2 Maccabees, however, he even vows to become a Jew if he recovers. His promises, however,

• From Introduction to the Hebrew Bible and Deutero-Canonical Books (2018)

  districts called satrapies (cf. Dan 6:1). Daniel, however, would have been a very old man when Darius I came to the throne. The story in chapter 6 strongly resembles that in chapter 3. Here Daniel is the hero, and he is thrown into the lions’ den rather than the fiery furnace. The charge against him arises from his religion but is contrived by his professional rivals at court. The king, typically, is gullible and passes a foolish “law of the Medes and Persians” that cannot be changed. He is entirely sympathetic to Daniel, however, and even prays that Daniel’s God may save him. He is scarcely surprised when Daniel is found alive. He promptly orders Daniel’s accusers thrown to the lions. Since the beasts have been abstaining from Daniel, they promptly devour the Chaldeans, together with their wives and children. Here again the power of this story lies in its striking imagery. The lions’ den has become proverbial for any situation of adversity. The Purpose of the Tales The tales in Daniel 1–6 have been aptly said to present “a lifestyle for the Diaspora.” Their message to the Jews in exile is twofold: participate in the life of the Gentile world and be loyal to the king, but realize that your ultimate success depends on your fidelity to your God and his laws. These tales have much in common with Esther but are much more overtly religious. They were most probably composed in the Diaspora, but if so they must have been brought back to Israel at some point. The second half of the book of Daniel was certainly composed in or around Jerusalem. These stories probably developed over time. Daniel 2 presupposes a setting no earlier than the Hellenistic period. The iron mixed with clay in the statue is taken as a reference to interdynastic marriage, between the Seleucids of Syria and the Ptolemies of Egypt. There were two such marriages: one in 252 B.C.E. and one in 193 B.C.E. Daniel 2, then, can be dated no earlier than 252 B.C.E. The late third century is a reasonable guess as to the date of composition. In the context of the book, the tales in chapters 1–6 establish the identity of Daniel, the figure who presents his own visions in chapters 7–12. The way

• From Introduction to the Hebrew Bible and Deutero-Canonical Books (2018)

  The Polemic against Idolatry For Judeans in Babylon, one of the galling aspects of their situation was the apparent failure of their God and the superiority of the Babylonian deities. One aspect of Babylonian worship that attracts a lot of attention in Second Isaiah is divination—the prediction of the future by ritual means. With the fall of Babylon and the restoration of Jerusalem, however, the situation was reversed. Second Isaiah claims that this is what YHWH had predicted all along. So he challenges the Babylonian gods: “Set forth your case . . . bring your proofs. . . . Tell us the former things, what they are, so that we may consider them, and that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come. Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. . . . You indeed are nothing and your work is nothing” (41:21-24; cf. 41:26-27). The Jewish prophet claims that YHWH had predicted these things beforehand: “The former things I declared long ago, they went out from my mouth and I made them known; then suddenly I did them and they came to pass” (48:3). It is not clear what prophecies he has in mind. Some scholars think he is alluding to some of the oracles of First Isaiah. It is also possible that some of Second Isaiah’s own prophecies were delivered before the actual fall of Babylon. In that case, the success of the prediction confirms both the legitimacy of the prophet and the superiority of his God. The prophet boasts that it is YHWH “who frustrates the omens of liars, and makes fools of diviners; who turns back the wise, and makes their knowledge foolish; who confirms the word of his servant, and fulfills the prediction of his messengers” (44:25-26). The claims that Second Isaiah makes for his God are stronger than any we have hitherto encountered in the Hebrew Bible. He categorically denies that any other gods have power, and comes close to denying their existence: “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the L ORD , and besides me there is no savior” (43:10-11); “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god” (44:6; cf. 46:9: “I am God, and there is no other”). Because of statements like these, Second Isaiah is arguably the first real monotheist in the tradition. Earlier Yahwism was henotheistic in the sense that only one God was

• From The Journals of Sylvia Plath (1982)

  M. left, she showed us the garden in a high wind, then the upstairs, the stark white rooms, large built-in cupboards, Garnett’s room with a beer-bottle lamp & trophies from pubs, a set of literature in matched jackets. Her own room with framed photos of a fat shy boy and a Pekingese, a gas ring by the bed, a telephone. Modern lavatory. Her wired kennel of Pekes, jumping, praying, the babies a fat beary gray, toddling endearingly. Saw just-hatched blackbirds in hedge, a luminous martian green, pulsing like hearts. Arranged for luncheon at Mrs. Macnamara’s in a fortnight. Because only work notes survive from this last section of the journal, it almost gives the impression that Plath died long before she actually did end her life—on February 11, 1963, in her thirtieth year . In the fall of 1962, just after the end of her marriage, Plath came to write her great work, the poems of Ariel. They were written in a flood of incandescent energy, thirty poems in one month; the first drafts came pouring out, but she worked over each one carefully later. No one else had seen these poems, but she knew with great certainty that she had made the leap. As she wrote to her mother on October 16, 1962, in the middle of her extraordinary month: “I am a genius of a writer; I have it in me.

• From Escape (2007)

  I looked at him with what felt like fire blazing from my eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself with all the abundance of your power. I don’t have to have this baby at Hildale. I may choose a more private place, like on a public highway, off to one side!” I turned and walked away. I would not be humiliated by him. My due date was a few weeks later. I decided I would tell no one when I went into labor. I knew that Rosie, my father’s second wife, knew how to deliver babies because she was a nurse. I asked her if she would be there when I gave birth, but explained nothing else. She agreed. My plan was to call her when I went into second stage later. She’d come and pick me up. I knew that even if I had the baby in her car, it would still be better than starring in one of Merril’s freak shows. Merril and I had not spoken about my delivery since that angry confrontation after Cathleen gave birth. As my due date drew near, he did not return to Page after the weekend as he usually did. I felt my labor was imminent but tried to will it away for a few more days so he’d have to return to Page. It worked. The night he left I knew I had my chance. I walked for several miles after dinner, willing my labor to begin. In the middle of the night, it did. I could feel the first of the contractions begin, but they were faint and far apart. It was July 24th, or Pioneer Day, our biggest Mormon holiday. It was the day the entire community turned out for a parade through town. As soon as our house emptied out, I called Rosie. I sent Betty and Arthur to the parade with the family and told them I didn’t feel up to going. Then I called Merril in Page and got the answering machine. What a miracle! Now I knew that I had time to have the baby in private. Rosie came right away and had already alerted Aunt Lydia to meet us at the clinic. She and one of her assistants were waiting for me in the delivery room. The other woman said, “We’re supposed to be on the float in the parade. If we deliver this baby, we’ll miss the parade.” Aunt Lydia told me to push and turned to her whining assistant. “We can deliver this baby and still be in the parade.” “Not unless she has the baby in the next ten minutes,” she said. “This baby is going to be here in ten minutes,” Aunt Lydia said. She was right. LuAnne was a screaming, beautiful baby with a thick mass of dark hair. I smiled when I looked at her exquisite features. She was a triumph, and her birth, for me, a small victory for me over Merril’s oppression. Marrying into the Jeffs’ Family

• From Escape (2007)

  I vowed never to surrender to either Merril or Barbara. I quietly began to figure out a survival strategy. I filed my tax return without telling Merril. I’d never done that before. I started to do a few extra things on the side to make money. I began selling NuSkin cosmetics. Merril knew about my venture but had no idea of my success. There were months when I sold $5,000 worth of cosmetics in a community where makeup was strictly forbidden. A banner month could net me $1,000. There was so much competition in the community among wives that when a man took one wife on a trip, the others would come and blow a few hundred bucks on cosmetics to stay competitive. I could even accept credit card payments by calling the number in to NuSkin. No one in the family suspected how much money I was making. It was one of the most empowering experiences I’d ever had. I was able to do it because I was married to Merril. Merril paraded me around town as his young trophy wife. Men would give their wives permission to buy cosmetics from me. Doing my own taxes and hiding money was the first time I’d ever gone against the teachings of the prophet. I didn’t care. I felt no guilt, no shame. This was the beginning, the fragile, tentative beginning, of mentally breaking free from the control of my “religion.” I still basically believed in the FLDS but thought Merril was corrupting and distorting its values for his own selfish and narcissistic ends. While I began putting energy into staying ahead of Merril and Barbara’s dirty little games, the rest of the family was intent on pampering Merril’s ego. Every year around Merril’s birthday on December 27 the family would perform a play or put on a program in his honor. His daughters usually took charge and orchestrated everything. For Merril’s birthday in 1994 one of his daughters did a new version of The Sound of Music. In those pre–Warren Jeffs years, we still watched movies and listened to the radio. Some families had TVs and their children watched videos. We were all familiar with The Sound of Music. Our extravaganza was going to be staged, in honor of Merril, at the community center, which could hold a thousand people. Margaret’s version of the musical was based on several polygamous families. She wrote parts for every child in Merril’s family, and by then there were more than forty. Margaret called it The Resound of Music.

• From The Whole Lesbian Sex Book: A Passionate Guide for All of Us (2004)

  Safer Sex and Gynecological Health I have herpes. I’m very up-front about it. DO YOU THINK THAT IF YOU’RE NOT SEXUALLY ACTIVE with men, you’re not at risk for STDs? If so, you’re not alone. Many lesbians think that living an exclusively “lesbian lifestyle” immunizes them against sexually transmitted conditions—and, for that matter, most gynecological concerns. Not so! Unfortunately, when it comes to sexually transmitted diseases, some health-care practitioners think the same thing. Knowing very little about lesbian sexual practices, they make assumptions—that lesbians don’t have penetrative sex, or anal sex, or that lesbians don’t have sex at all. More troubling, those who research STD transmission may not know much about lesbian sex either. They may use terms like oral sex and vaginal intercourse in safer-sex guidelines without defining them. Does oral sex refer to cunnilingus? Or just fellatio? Does penetration with a dildo count as intercourse? How do you know what’s safe? Relatively few clinical studies have been conducted of woman-to-woman transmission of STDs. Can chlamydia be transmitted by sharing a dildo with an infected partner? Can you give your partner herpes or trichomoniasis through frottage? Can you get HIV by going down on a menstruating woman who has the virus? What about hepatitis? A cautious physician will tell you that, yes, all of these scenarios are quite possible—but that not enough studies have been done to offer conclusive answers. Since women who have sex with women are often left out of health research, our health-care needs are neglected. Jeanne Marrazzo, of the Lesbian-Bisexual Women’s Health Study at the University of Washington, says that because “lesbians do not fit the very narrowly and poorly defined risk profile, they are being told that as lesbian/bisexual women they do not need Pap smears or STD screenings.”1 None of which inspires confidence when you’re sitting on the examination table in a paper gown and your health-care practitioner cheerfully asks whether you’re sexually “active” and what kind of birth control you use. No wonder few of us feel comfortable speaking candidly about our sexual histories and practices. But if medical research skirts the issue of woman-to-woman transmission of STDs, and if you don’t feel comfortable coming out to a physician, how will your gynecologist know what to look for? Talking to Your Doctor About SexAs Tristan Taormino says, “Your gynecological visit is no time to play ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ If they don’t ask, it’s your responsibility to tell.”2 It’s important for your health that you come out to your health caregiver. Find a physician you feel comfortable with. Look for someone you think you can talk to. Even a lesbian gynecologist can’t guess what you do in bed.

• From Escape (2007)

  I didn’t have many cards left to play. I couldn’t have Jeremy bring my two children back to me. That had already been tried once. I began calling my friends to see if I could find someone who’d make the three-hour drive out with LuAnne and Andrew. I offered a night at the motel and said we could also hang out in the mineral springs. Two days later, LuAnne and Andrew returned. Merril was livid. He told me that there would be consequences for my behavior. “Carolyn, if you are going to insist on doing things the way you want, then you’re not someone I can have confidence in. You’re throwing your future away only to satisfy yourself.” I tried to be calming and told Merril I was so sorry and had no idea he would be so upset. But secretly I was pleased because I had outmaneuvered him to keep my children safe. Jeremy and I worked nonstop on cleaning up the motel, which was infested with roaches and scorpions. The linens were filthy and the rooms needed repainting, but I didn’t care. We were safe and out of Colorado City. After two months, I think Merril began to notice that I wasn’t begging him for time off and didn’t act as though I missed being at home. Merril ordered me to start coming home every other weekend, which I did. Betty missed us and—with Merril and Barbara’s approval—came to spend a week at the motel. I think they encouraged her to report back to them about me. It was an awful time. Betty was nine and came with her two half sisters. All three of them were deliberately rude and refused to clean up any of their messes. I had no control over Betty because whenever there was a conflict between us she went running to her father and used him to sabotage me. Warren Jeffs had strictly forbidden television and movies once he took over. Betty told Merril that I let the younger kids watch TV, which was true. It was the only way I could keep them occupied while I was cleaning rooms. I would turn it on, and when Betty came into the room she turned it off and the kids would get into trouble because they then had nothing else to do. It was madness. She was out to sabotage me whenever she had the chance Arthur was eleven and came to see us during the summer. He was tanned and getting taller. I was proud of the way he was developing. Arthur was the classic type-A personality who always did well in school and prided himself on being a hard worker. Like many first-born children, he was highly motivated and very determined to do whatever was necessary to reach his goal. He had a quiet but steadfast ability to persevere. I always marveled at him because even as a little boy he’d known which way he was headed.

• From Adam, Eve, and the Serpent (1988)

  Clement knew, of course, that self-control was the practical gospel of Platonic and Stoic philosophers. But Plato considered self-control the rarest of all accomplishments, attained by Socrates alone, whereas Christians announced that this virtue was within reach of every convert, although not every convert could achieve perfect celibacy. The Christian teacher Origen called the teaching of pagan philosophers fine meals prepared for sophisticated palates, but “we [Christians] cook for the masses.” Yet while Christian teachers popularized such philosophic attitudes, they also threw out much of what these philosophers taught. Methodius, a celibate Asian Christian who served Christian churches in Asia and Greece as bishop and died a martyr (c. 260), wrote a famous polemic against the “great lie” of Greek philosophy and education—namely, the conviction that destiny, fate, and necessity are actual, external forces in the universe that control human affairs, and that sexual desire, like destiny, is beyond human control. Methodius’s polemic was a deliberate parody of Plato’s Symposium, in which Plato praised the power of Eros—sexual desire—as one of the great cosmic forces. As Methodius saw it, Plato’s Symposium epitomized false philosophic education. Where Plato showed in his Symposium a group of men fighting hangovers from the night before by praising the glories of erotic—and especially homoerotic—love, Methodius presents his anti-erotic Symposium of the Ten Virgins through the dramatis personae of ten women ascetics who compete with one another in praising virginity! Thecla, that famous ascetic, is the star debater, whose speech in praise of virginity wins the laurel crown. The first speaker in Methodius’s dialogue, Marcella, describes the whole course of human history as a progression toward freedom. Although marriage and procreation were necessary “in the beginning” to multiply the human race, they now represent only a crude and archaic relic of human origins, a kind of dinosaur age preceding the evolution of the true human being, the celibate.24 But the second speaker, Theophila, objects to Marcella and articulates instead the viewpoint of the many Christians who favor marriage and procreation and claim for both God’s blessings. In the beginning, Theophila says, the Creator made man and woman; but “at the present time … humanity must cooperate in forming the image of God, so long as the world exists … for it is said, ‘Increase and multiply’ (Genesis 1:28).”25 Theophila chides those who reject marriage: “We must not be offended at the ordinance of the Creator from which, indeed, we ourselves have our existence.” When Theophila finishes, Thaelia replies: If Christians were meant to take Genesis literally, Paul would not have spoken of Adam’s union with Eve as a “great mystery” which signifies “Christ and the Church” (Ephesians 5:32). Without accusing Theophila directly, she charges that people who are undisciplined because of the uncontrolled impulses of sensuality in them dare to force the Scriptures beyond their true meaning, and so twist the sayings “Increase and multiply” [Genesis 1:28] and “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother” [Genesis 2:24] into a defense of their own incontinence.…

• From Introduction to the Hebrew Bible and Deutero-Canonical Books (2018)

  The long reign of Uzziah (Azariah) is treated briefly in 2 Kgs 15:1-7. He was afflicted with leprosy and had to cede the task of governing to his son Jotham. In 2 Chronicles he receives a whole chapter (chap. 26). According to the latter account, he prospered at first and enjoyed success against the Philistines and the Ammonites. He fortified Jerusalem and built up his army. But then he became proud and attempted to usurp the role of the priests in offering sacrifice. It was at this point that he became leprous. Here again the additional material in Chronicles serves a theological agenda and must be taken as the author’s invention. It is noteworthy that Chronicles insists on the priority of the priests over the king in cultic matters. Jotham receives a positive notice in both histories. Chronicles expands the account in 2 Kings, claiming that he received tribute from the Ammonites. His success, we are told, was due to the fact that he ordered his ways before the Lord. Jotham’s son Ahaz, however, receives a scathing report in both books. He is accused of deviant cultic practice, even human sacrifice. The most notable event in his reign was the Syro-Ephraimite war (2 Kings 16; cf. Isaiah 7). Ahaz took the controversial step of appealing, successfully, to Assyria for help. He subsequently brought a new altar from Damascus and made various changes in the temple furniture. Chronicles claims that before he turned to Assyria, Ahaz had been defeated by both Aram and Israel, and many people had been taken captive. (A prophet intervenes to free the captives in Samaria.) Chronicles claims that the appeal to Assyria was caused by incursions of Philistines and Edomites, and that Assyria oppressed him rather than helped him, as he had to pay tribute. Chronicles is unwilling to admit that a king of Judah could be helped at all by a foreign power. It further claims that Ahaz not only brought an altar from Damascus, but worshiped the gods of the king of Aram. Finally, the Chronicler contradicts the statement of 2 Kgs 16:20 that Ahaz was buried with his ancestors. Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 29–32)